You Don’t Have To Like Golden Axe To Enjoy The New Animated Series’ Trailer

Sega’s cult-classic Golden Axe games haven’t been relevant since 2008–thanks, Golden Axe: Beast Rider–but a new animated series is looking to bring the retro beat-’em-up back into the spotlight. The first trailer for the series has gone live, and just like the video gams, there’s plenty of adventuring, blood, and a potion-hoarding thief getting the stuffing knocked out of it. This is one of Sega’s oldest franchises, and even if you never grew up with it, the trailer does a good job at highlighting how the franchise has been resurrected for TV.

Featuring the voices of Lisa Gilroy, Liam McIntyre, and Matthew Rhys as the original trio of Golden Axe heroes, the show follows the gang on their quest to defeat Death Adder–yet again–and save the land of Yuria from the evil forces threatening it. This time, an inexperienced and wildly underprepared adventurer by the name of Hampton Squib joins them to take down the evil wielder of the titular golden axe, but his dreams wildly exceed his abilities.

Based on the original Sega arcade game, the Golden Axe series is the brainchild of Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks) and Joe Chandler (American Dad). As you’d expect–based on the duo’s previous work–the show will remain faithful to the source material while also injecting some meta-commentary into the mix. The first trailer hints at this: between excessive violence and other fantasy tropes, Gilroy’s character, Tyris Flare, comments on how the gang will make their way through “a series of progressively harder enemies” before they finally face off against Death Adder.

Sega has made a big push to bring its various game properties to the big and small screens over the last couple of years. There’s a whole trilogy of Sonic the Hedgehog movies to enjoy–with a fourth on the way–and a live-action series based on the Yakuza games debuted in 2024. Other upcoming projects include adaptations of games like Streets of Rage, House of the Dead, and bizarrely, an OutRun movie directed by Michael Bay.