Blumhouse has turned Five Nights at Freddy's into a box office franchise, and it appears to have had its eye on another game series for years. A record in the US Copyright Office's public database shows that Blumhouse TV holds a short form option on Danganronpa, the murder mystery franchise from Japanese publisher Spike Chunsoft.
The filing was found by a fan on Reddit and is publicly searchable through the Copyright Office.
Inside The Filing
The document, recordation number V15025D622, is a two-page assignment marked as a "Short Form Option" between Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and Blumhouse TV LLC. It covers "Danganronpa; video games / From video games Danganronpa." The agreement was signed in December 2022 and recorded in June 2024.
The series started with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on PSP in Japan in 2010.
Option deals are one of the earliest steps in the adaptation process. They give a studio exclusive rights for a set period to develop a project, which usually means hiring writers and shopping it to networks or streamers. Many optioned properties never get made, and neither company has said anything publicly about this one.
A Natural Fit For Television
The fact that Blumhouse TV holds the option, instead of the film side of the company, points toward a series. That makes sense for Danganronpa. Each game is built around a group of students locked inside a school by Monokuma, a two-toned bear who tells them the only way out is to kill a classmate without getting caught. Every murder leads to an investigation and a Class Trial, and every trial ends with an execution.
That structure already plays like a season of TV, with a new mystery every few episodes and a bigger conspiracy building in the background. It has the same appeal that made shows like Squid Game and Alice in Borderland hits, with a cast of strangers forced into deadly games and twists that reshape who the audience can trust.
The source material has already proven it can work outside of games. Studio Lerche produced a 13-episode anime in 2013, and the series has been adapted into stage plays in Japan.
Blumhouse And Video Games
Blumhouse has leaned into game adaptations in recent years. The Five Nights at Freddy's films brought Scott Cawthon's animatronic horror to theaters, and the studio is also developing a Phasmophobia movie with Atomic Monster. Blumhouse TV's past work includes HBO's Sharp Objects and The Purge TV series, both of which show the company is comfortable with dark, violent material on the small screen.
Danganronpa is less of a pure horror story than FNaF. It mixes gruesome deaths with bright colors, pink blood and plenty of comedy, which would make it one of the more tonally ambitious projects on Blumhouse's slate.
A series would also have plenty of material to draw from. The franchise includes three mainline games, Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, each with its own cast and setting, from an elite academy to a tropical island. That anthology-style setup would let a show refresh its cast every season, much like The Purge TV series and other horror anthologies have done.
The Games Keep Coming
Spike Chunsoft says the series has shipped more than 10 million copies worldwide since Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc launched in Japan in 2010. The next entry, Danganronpa 2x2, reimagines Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair with an Original mode and a new Slayhem mode that tells a different story. It launches January 14, 2027, on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
With the agreement signed almost four years ago, the big question is whether Blumhouse is still developing the project or whether the option has quietly lapsed.
Do you think Danganronpa could be Blumhouse's next Five Nights at Freddy's, or is it too strange and stylized to work in live action?
Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below.