Activision Blizzard made another big move today. The video game developer announced plans to launch Activision Blizzard Studios to produce TV shows and movies based on their popular games, including Skylanders and Call of Duty.
The company has hired former Disney executive Nick van Dyk as Co-President. His first order of business will be to oversee the production of Skylanders Academy, an animated series that is already in the works. Futurama’s Eric Rogers was picked as showrunner.
Skylanders Academy’s voice cast includes Justin Long, Jonathan Banks, Ashley Tisdale and Norm Macdonald.
Another priority is to make a movie series based on the Call of Duty series, one of the best-selling franchises of all time. Activision Blizzard says it hopes to develop a “robust cinematic universe” based on the series.
Other franchises Activision Blizzard could turn into a series or movie include StarCraft, Diablo and Hearthstone. Universal and Legendary are already releasing a Warcraft movie next year.
Activision Blizzard Studios could also make a movie out of Candy Crush. On Tuesday, the company bought Candy Crush maker King Digital for $5.9 billion. That’s more than what Disney bought Lucasfilm for.