Netflix has hit the start button on multiple adaptations of Sega hit gaming franchises. The first project under the companies’ new multititle deal is a feature-film adaptation of “Crazy Taxi,” Sega’s long-running racing game. The movie will be written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand — the writing duo behind the 2025 reboot of “The Naked Gun” — with Original Film’s Neal H.
Moritz and Toby Ascher and Sega’s Toru Nakahara, the producers behind the Sonic franchises, on board to produce. Netflix and Sega also announced two other adaptations in development: a new animated “Sonic the Hedgehog” kids’ series and a movie based on action-adventure game “Stranger Than Heaven.” “Great games already have what every adaptation is chasing — characters people love, worlds they know by heart, and fandoms that show up,” said Brandon Riegg, VP of nonfiction and transmedia at Netflix, in a statement. The whole team is absolutely thrilled!” In “Crazy Taxi,” which made its arcade debut in 1999, players sit in the driver’s seat as a “fearless cabbie racing the clock through chaotic city streets — flying off ramps, dodging traffic and chasing tips with punk-rock energy that became the series’ signature,” per Sega.
The latest title in the franchise, “Crazy Taxi: World Tour,” is scheduled for release in 2027. The show will present Sonic and his friends as heroes for an upper pre-school audience, touted as a “high-voltage, comedic, yet emotionally grounded series built for kids who want to feel a little edge, a little attitude, and a lot of ‘that’s my crew’ wish fulfillment,” per Sega. Three seasons of Netflix’s “Sonic Prime” 3D animated series are currently available to stream only on Netflix.
The game, set to be released in January 2027, is set in early 20th century Japan, following a foreigner who claws his way from destitute stranger to feared yakuza to entertainment tycoon. Toru Nakahara is set as producer on the film. This is just the start of what these titles can become.” The new Sega titles will join Netflix’s growing slate of video game adaptations.
Those include a live-action “Assassin’s Creed” series; a live-action “Gears of War” film; animated series adaptations based on “Minecraft,” “Magic: The Gathering” and “Clash of Clans”; the “Overcooked” competition series; second seasons of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” and “Splinter Cell: Deathwatch”; and the third and final season of “Devil May Cry.”
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