Dungeon Crawler Carl TV show gets straight-to-series order from Peacock

Last April, Variety reported that the LitRPG series Dungeon Crawler Carl, created by Matt Dinniman, was being picked up by Peacock for a TV show produced by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) and written by Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok). According to Deadline, Peacock has now given a straight-to-series order for the show, meaning that a pilot won’t be shot and the series will go straight into production.

Straight-to-series orders are not very common, and they testify that a network has the utmost faith in a product. Past examples include House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black for Netflix, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for Prime Video, and House of the Dragon for HBO.

This is a testimony that the franchise created by Dilliman looks like the next big thing in the entertainment world. What started as a self-publishing endeavor has grown into an eight-book series and a media empire that includes a line of toys, a TTRPG, a card game, and graphic novels. The series draws on well-established tropes from tabletop role-playing games and dungeon-crawler video games to portray the adventures of Carl, a Coast Guard veteran who enters a deadly survival game along with his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, to entertain alien viewers.

Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door will be producing the show. Yost will also executive produce, along with MacFarlane, Erica Huggins and Rachel Hargreaves-Heald. In an Instagram post, Dinniman teased that new details will be revealed soon, and asked fans to keep their eyes open for San Diego Comic-Con, where he and MacFarlane will be hosting a panel.