We recently had the chance to sit down and chat with Michael Jonathan Smith, the showrunner on the wonderfully bonkers series ‘Twisted Metal‘, out now in the UK on Paramount+.
‘Twisted Metal’ is a half-hour live-action TV series based on the classic PlayStation game series, a high-octane action comedy, based on an original take by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Zombieland) and written by Michael Jonathan Smith (Cobra Kai).
Talking about how he got involved, Smith commented: “I grew up with the games. I loved Twisted Metal Black. That was my first entry. I had heard that they were developing it, and the second I heard that they were talking about it, I was like, ‘I have to be involved! It feels like so my wheelhouse!’ I love comedy. I love dark comedy. I love action. I was working on Cobra Kai at the time, so I just saw an opportunity to be like, ‘My God, I would totally put my stamp on this!'”
The show follows John Doe (Anthony Mackie – MCU’s Falcon/Captain America), a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a badass axe-wielding car thief called “Quiet” (Stephanie Beatriz – Brooklyn Nine-Nine), he faces savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all-too-familiar ice cream truck.
Alongside Mackie and Beatriz, the series also stars AEW’s Joe Seanoa as the aforementioned “deranged clown”, Sweet Tooth, (voiced by Will Arnett – Arrested Development, Lego Movie), and Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Sideways) as Agent Stone.
Michael Jonathan Smith (Cobra Kai) serves as showrunner, writer and executive producer for the live-action comedy from Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. Kitao Sakurai (Dave, The Eric Andre Show) directs multiple episodes. Will Arnett and Marc Forman from Electric Avenue (Murderville), who secured the rights to the material and helped put the project together from the beginning, also executive produce, along with Mackie, Reese, Wernick, Jason Spire (Inspire Entertainment), Peter Principato (Artists First), Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan from PlayStation Productions and Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios.
The series premiered on Peacock in the USA last July and scored 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, which led to it landing a 2nd Season renewal in August 2023. “if you thought season one was great, season two is pretty bonkers,” commented Smith in the interview. “We’re upping the game!”
‘Twisted Metal‘ Season 1 is out now as a boxset on Paramount+ UK and on Peacock in the USA.
