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NEWS: Variety: Netflix Developing Live-Action Persona Series


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malvarez1



Joined: 17 Nov 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 7:06 pm Reply with quote
Oh my gosh, no!

This has potential to be so bad it’s good, though…
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Lizuka



Joined: 27 Jul 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Whoever they cast for this better be in the house like carpet.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 7:16 pm Reply with quote
Sega made it clear they wanted this a while ago, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before it was made official.

The question is - Adapt a previous game or go in an original direction?
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EmeraldSaucer



Joined: 31 Jan 2025
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 7:37 pm Reply with quote
Complainers might finally be getting their Persona in college, I'm sure it'll turn out great
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FanGamer24



Joined: 10 Apr 2024
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 7:37 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
Sega made it clear they wanted this a while ago, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before it was made official.

The question is - Adapt a previous game or go in an original direction?


I really hope it’s original, the anime already struggles to properly adapt these games I can’t imagine how bad it would go in a typical 8-12 episode Netflix season.
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 7:59 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
Sega made it clear they wanted this a while ago, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before it was made official.

The question is - Adapt a previous game or go in an original direction?

Well, the Sonic live-action movies have been successful and well liked by general audiences, don't know how well received was the recent Yakuza adaptation on Prime Video, and I've heard has plans to adapt games like Altered Beast, Crazy Taxi and even things like OutRun. I guess we're living in the Golden Age of video game adaptations, some are better received than others.
In regards to Persona, I've only played a bit from P3 and P4, I don't know that much about its lore, let alone the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei series, so I don't know how are they going to adapt the series, though I've heard there was a Shin Megami Tensei live-action series in Japan made in the late '90s. Honestly, an original story could be interesting, like, all Persona games take place in Japan, right? But you could theoretically set an original story anywhere in the world, but part of me thinks SEGA/Atlus sees this an opportunity to advertise the game series, so it would make sense to adapt P5, which is the most popular game in the series, but do they plan to change the game's setting from Japan to the U.S.? Because that sounds like a recipe for disaster and backlash.
In relation with what I've said before about SEGA seeing this as publicity, I do find some conflicting viewpoints, don't know if Persona does need more exposure, the series exploded in popularity since the release of P5, it feels like everyone is aware of the series, but I do have to admit that sometimes I do think that Persona is popular, but only among a certain crowd of gamers (and anime fans), like, it's very popular, but I don't know if I should call it super mainstream, I've been seeing posts claiming Persona is the most popular JRPG series of all time (excluding Pokémon, and Dragon Quest in Japan), surpassing Final Fantasy, and I have to shook my head in disbelief. I'm thinking that maybe SEGA/Atlus wants to make Persona more well-known among the non-gaming public.
In regards to the show itself, imagining it's an adaptation of the either, P3, 4 or 5, would they aim for a series similar to Netflix's One Piece, or something more akin to a tokustatsu serie like Kamen Rider?
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Lizuka



Joined: 27 Jul 2018
Posts: 435
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 8:07 pm Reply with quote
Silver Kirin wrote:
I've been seeing posts claiming Persona is the most popular JRPG series of all time (excluding Pokémon, and Dragon Quest in Japan), surpassing Final Fantasy, and I have to shook my head in disbelief.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't say it's that. It's probably true that Persona 5 and Royal together have likely outsold every Final Fantasy except 7 and are at least within spitting distance of it (though exact numbers can be fuzzy on stuff like this), but that's very much just a Persona 5 thing. Reload didn't do anywhere near those kind of numbers and most of the P5 spinoffs have just flat out flopped.

The potential is certainly there if they stick the landing with 6 and it has similar sales longevity to 5 for the series to pass Final Fantasy in modern times, but it's definitely not cemented at that level yet.
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Zoltan Kakler



Joined: 05 Feb 2023
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 8:15 pm Reply with quote
How I imagine the cast will look.

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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 8:35 pm Reply with quote
Lizuka wrote:
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't say it's that. It's probably true that Persona 5 and Royal together have likely outsold every Final Fantasy except 7 and are at least within spitting distance of it (though exact numbers can be fuzzy on stuff like this), but that's very much just a Persona 5 thing. Reload didn't do anywhere near those kind of numbers and most of the P5 spinoffs have just flat out flopped.

The potential is certainly there if they stick the landing with 6 and it has similar sales longevity to 5 for the series to pass Final Fantasy in modern times, but it's definitely not cemented at that level yet.

Well, according to some info I found, the combined sales of P5 and P5 Royal amount to 10.45 million copies, while the the best-selling FF game is still the original FFVII, which sold almost 10 million copies on the PSOne, plus some additional 5 million copies digitally on newer hardware.
I do agree that the Persona series has potential to grow even more, but I'm worried that perhaps P5 kind of overshadowed the rest of the series, as well as the SMT series, like, Persona 3 Reloaded (and Metaphor) sold quite well in launch, but according to SEGA's latest fiscal report, it seems the sales for those titles kind of froze after a few months, and the not so great P3R Switch 2 late port didn't move that many units. Like, Persona 5 for many people was their introduction to the series, like how FFVII was for many people, and they were not interested in the rest of the series, which makes me wonder if Atlus had considered in making a direct sequel to P5, but I know that P4 was also very popular, though in a smaller scale, so I'll wait until the release of P4 Revival.
That's why this Persona live-action series announcement intrigues me. If they're aiming for an audience that doesn't know a lot about Persona, but at the same time want to serve as a marketing tool for the game, it has to be directly based on a mainline game, most of the recent video game adaptations like Sonic, The Last of Us, Devil May Cry, Super Mario, Fallout, Castlevania, Minecraft, etc. are more or less direct adaptations, or amalgamations of the source material's most popular games, but still having tons of recognizable visual and narrative elements, only the newly announced Resident Evil movie will have a completely original story featuring none of the original characters, though apparently taking place in the same universe. Can't imagine Persona fans being excited about an original story, and non-fans would be kind of confused seeing that the games don't feature any of the characters of the show, only the Personae and maybe characters like Igor.
I honesly I don't want this to end up like Death Note '17 or the Kakegurui American adaptation.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 9:38 pm Reply with quote
I can't see any way this could go wrong.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
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Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 9:41 pm Reply with quote
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
Complainers might finally be getting their Persona in college, I'm sure it'll turn out great


Talk about a monkey’s paw. Still might be preferable to casting a Chie.
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The_Outsider



Joined: 09 Sep 2021
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 10:20 pm Reply with quote
Not a Persona fan, but I feel bad for y'all, this is gonna be a disaster.
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ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 757
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 10:21 pm Reply with quote
They'll never touch my Real Shin Megami Tensei games™. *knocks on wood*
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Dancing Green



Joined: 31 May 2025
Posts: 75
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 10:23 pm Reply with quote
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
Complainers might finally be getting their Persona in college, I'm sure it'll turn out great


If it's anything like One Piece and Cowboy Bebop then it probably will be. No fanservice. Super diverse cast. Everyone's older and middle aged. Contempt for the source material. Remove all that nasty 'Japanese humor'. Sounds like the exact Persona game the haters have always wanted Laughing
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GATS2



Joined: 28 May 2026
Posts: 29
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 10:26 pm Reply with quote
Kirin: The Crazy Taxi movie has been in development hell since the first House of the Dead movie.
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