The television adaptation of Dungeon Crawler Carl is officially in development at Peacock. News that Dinniman's popular book series might be adapted for TV dates back to August 2024. By early 2025, Universal International Studios had picked up the project, though no network or streamer was attached at that time.
Variety has now confirmed that the highly anticipated series is moving forward at Peacock. Chris Yost is on board as writer and executive producer, with Seth MacFarlane also executive producing through his Fuzzy Door banner. Matt Dinniman will serve as an executive producer alongside Fuzzy Door’s Erica Huggins. Rachel Hargreaves-Heald will be the executive in charge of production for Fuzzy Door.
The Dungeon Crawler Carl series is considered a LitRPG, blending sci-fi storytelling with video game elements. It combines role-playing features such as levels, loot, and stats with reality TV-style satire in a darkly comedic survival story that follows a sardonic man and his witty cat as they navigate a deadly, video game-like world full of monsters, treasure, and absurd survival challenges. The series blends dark comedy with RPG-style action, which I imagine will be reflected in the adaptation.
The official logline reads:
“An alien invasion has wiped out most of humanity and any survivors are forced to fight for their lives on a sadistic intergalactic game show. Sounds bad, right? Now try doing it with bare feet and a stuck-up, self-centered, tiara-wearing talking cat as your partner. Welcome to Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, where the apocalypse will be televised … and Coast Guard vet Carl finds himself stuck with his ex-girlfriend’s award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, as they try to survive the end of the world, fighting monsters, aliens, an insane A.I. and even other survivors … all for the sake of good TV. Survival is optional. Entertainment is not.”
Dungeon Crawler Carl is currently one of the most popular series in the LitRPG genre. The franchise includes seven published books, with the eighth, A Parade of Horribles, set to release on May 12.
Peacock's series will be a live-action adaptation of the books, which has raised questions among fans about how some of the series’ sci-fi and fantasy elements will translate to the screen. Despite the concern, Dinniman, who serves as an executive producer, has expressed confidence in Seth MacFarlane’s ability to bring the books to life.
“[We’re] not going to do it if it’s gonna look like absolute sh*t,” Dinniman said previously. “And they will do CGI testing on Princess Donut and stuff like that. And that’s all I can say, I think. It’s all gonna hinge on what it looks like. But Fuzzy Door, specifically, if you watch ‘Ted’ or ‘The Orville,’ you’ll see that they know what they’re doing when it comes to this.”
There's no estimated release window for Peacock's adaptation; however, the book series is published in print and ebook format. There's also audiobook versions for each, which are narrated by Jeff Hays through Soundbooth Theater.