Duke Nukem is coming back, but not as a game

It sounds like Duke Nukem is making a comeback, but it won't be a new video game.

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Duke Nukem is a curious oddity of the 1990s, a lightning-in-a-bottle product of its times that couldn't really be properly captured or adapted for modern audiences. The series has been all but dead since Gearbox's disastrous Duke Nukem Forever sequel in 2011, and since then, Duke has been sitting on his porcelain throne polishing his golden desert eagles, waiting for his time to shine again.

That might change thanks to Adi Shankar, the spitfire showrunner that's successfully adapting major video game franchises into Netflix TV shows. Shankar is responsible for hit shows like Castlevania and the recent Devil May Cry series, which Capcom says helped spike game sales. The creator now says he's purchased the rights to Duke Nukem, and we could see a more raw and authentic new series based on Duke's post-apocalyptic exploits.

In a recent interview with Esquire, Adi Shankar pretty much sums up why he's the perfect choice to handle Duke Nukem:

Q: What do you have coming next?

Shankar: I got video games in production. Obviously more Devil May Cry. I'm being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me. I bought the rights to Duke Nukem. Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox.

Q: What's your vision for Duke Nukem?

Shankar: It's a middle finger to everybody. When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it's just a middle finger. Duke Nukem can't be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it's no longer Duke Nukem. I don't intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one.

A quick reminder that Gearbox owns the rights to Duke Nukem, both the game development and publishing rights as well as the rights to any transmedia adaptations like books, TV shows, and films. There currently is no new Duke Nukem product to associate with the incoming TV series, and the latest video game is a 20th anniversary re-release of Duke Nukem 3D that launched in 2016.

Elsewhere in the interview, Shankar expresses his raison d'etre:

"I'm making American animation fucking cool. That's what I'm doing."