The creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks is turning Sega’s Golden Ax into an animated comedy

Sega’s arcade hack-and-slash beat-’em-up Golden axe is being adapted for television. In an unexpected twist, that TV series becomes an animated comedy. Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks, Solar opposites) and Joe Chandler (American father!) will co-write the first episode and serve as executive producer of the 10-episode series, Comedy Central announced Wednesday. The announcement came two days after Paramount unveiled season 5 Lower decks would be the last part of the series.

Golden axe heroes Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead will face off against the evil Death Adder in the animated comedy, and they’ll be joined by an all-new character: inexperienced adventurer Hampton Squib, voiced by Communityis Danny Pudi. Pudi is joined in the voice cast by Matthew Rhys (The Americans) as lightning-powered dwarf Gilius, Lisa Gilroy (Jury duty) as fiery swordsman Tyris, and Liam McIntyre (Spartacus) as the earth-shattering Ax – who does not fights with an axe, and is described as “a barbaric warrior with a strict code of honor and a sweet golden retriever demeanor.”

Comedy Centrals Golden axe will feature another deep character from the franchise: Chronos “Evil” Lait, voiced by Carl Tart (Star Trek: Lower Decks). Chronos is the hybrid black panther/human warrior from the Sega Genesis sequel Golden Ax 3, who was turned into a beastman by that game’s big bad boss, Damned Hellstrike. This is a game series with really good character names, folks.

Animation studio Titmouse, responsible for series such as Big mouth, Frog and Toad, The legend of Vox Machinaand much more, animates the Golden axe series.

Golden axe is one of many Sega adaptations in the works. The third Sonic the Hedgehog film will hit theaters later this year (with Keanu Reeves joining the franchise as Shadow), and a spinoff centered on Knuckles the Echidna will arrive on Paramount Plus in April. There’s also a Streets of Rage movie in the works, with John Wick franchise creator Derek Kolstad at the helm.

Sega has been trying to turn its video game properties into film and television projects for more than a decade. The company has previously announced game adaptations such as Shinobi And Rent-A-Hero, without much to see. But 2020 Sonic the hedgehog The film appears to have accelerated Sega’s plans, with more projects finally coming to fruition.

Golden axe is also being revived in video game form. At last year’s The Game Awards, Sega unveiled modern versions of its medieval fantasy beat-’em-up alongside new versions of Jetset radio, Crazy taxi, ShinobiAnd Streets of anger.