TWISTED METAL Trailer Dives Deep Into the Plot of This Game Adaptation

Some video game adaptations take us into very serious worlds. Just look at the dark, intense world of The Last of Us. But Peacock’s upcoming Twisted Metal series, which adapts the classic PlayStation game series into a half-hour live-action TV, will bring us something a little different. Our first teases of the show offered us only small glimpses into the world, but Twisted Metal‘s official trailer finally brings us something to sink our teeth into. Get your tunes in, load up your gun, start your engines, and let’s go.

Twisted Metal Trailer and Clip

The world is in chaos, there’s no good toilet paper left, and we’re about to go on one unusual road trip. Anthony Mackie’s John Doe lives in a world of cars and guns. It’s a chaotic existence, but that doesn’t stop him from making his deliveries. And we have a feeling we’re about to join him on his wildest one yet.

Here’s the synopsis for the series:

Twisted Metal, a half-hour live-action TV series based on the classic PlayStation game series, is a high-octane action comedy, based on an original take by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and written by Michael Jonathan Smith, about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a badass axe-wielding car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.

Twisted Metal certainly has our attention, and we feel both entertained and ready for more action.

In addition to the trailer, a first-look clip of the series gives us a great look at Twisted Metal‘s dark but humorous energy. And we also get a very interesting rendition of the “Thong Song” in between a fight to the death between John Doe and Sweet Tooth, a dastardly clown. Twisted Metal is about to be one fascinating show.

More About The Series

peacock show twisted metal title card from teaser trailer
Peacock

Creator Michael Jonathan Smith gives us even more insight on what we can expect from this game adaptation:

Yes, Twisted Metal has the cars, it has the weapons, and it has the battles. But what it also has are people. I know you will fall in love with these characters and what drives them, no pun intended (okay, maybe a little intended). You will cheer for our charismatic hero John Doe, played by Anthony Mackie, as he drives across the Divided States of America in search of a place to belong. You’ll laugh as an enigmatic woman named Quiet, played by Stephanie Beatriz, throws John’s world for a loop after a chance encounter, forcing the two together and changing both their lives for the better. You will root for our heroes to take down psychotic highway patrolman Agent Stone, played by Thomas Haden Church, who sees the world in black and blue. And you’ll discover a surprising soulfulness to our deranged, murderous clown Sweet Tooth, voiced by Will Arnett and performed by Joe Seanoa aka wrestler Samoa Joe. 

This is a bonkers show about insiders and outsiders, and how our own special apocalypse has divided and isolated us more than ever. But there’s hope. You can find your people and your community. You may just have to get past a terrifying clown driving a well-armed ice cream truck to find them. 

Sounds like one fun road trip to us. The series stars Anthony Mackie after all, and we know he can carry a comedic beat. Plus, deranged clowns, a post-apocalyptic landscape, and found family? We couldn’t ask for any more than that. Twisted Metal releases on July 27.

Originally published on April 23, 2023.