One week from today, the second season of Twisted Metal begins streaming on Peacock! The first three episodes drop on July 31st, followed by weekly episodes throughout August. The series adapts one of Playstation's original iconic gaming franchises, Twisted Metal, into a post-apocalyptic action show that's equal parts silly and gruesome (the writers of the Deadpool movies developed the show, for a sense of the kind of tone and explicit content you can expect). The cast is enormous and brings an impressive number of characters from throughout the game's 30 year history to the screen, so expect to see many familiar faces in addition to leads Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, and Will Arnett voicing Sweet Tooth (with wrestler Samoa Joe portraying Sweet Tooth physically).
I'm a super fan of the Twisted Metal games so I was very invested in the first season back in 2023, but also primed to be very critical of it. Overall, I think it's a great watch! There's a lot to love and some excellent filmmaking doing justice to the game's challenging premise of mindless non-stop vehicular violence. In the second season, they're actually going to hold the tournament in which everyone has to blow up each other's cars to win one wish, which is the one thing you do in the games and was sorely missed in the first season. I fully expect plenty of the impressive and unique kind of action that they've presented so well already, but I'm curious as to how well they'll pull off emotional investment in characters and story with so much of both going on. My hopes are high, they did a good job the first time and they seem to have an even more clear sense of direction now that the have the setting established. Best of all, they're including the kind of nu-metal and industrial music the soundtrack always called for (instead of the wildly inappropriate choices of Mmmbop, Barbie Girl and The Thong Song). I'd love to see the show take off and maybe even continue beyond what we're getting next month!
