Ark: Survival Evolved launched on Steam in 2015. It’s an open world survival game where you’re trapped on an island and must scrounge, scrape, hunt, build and create to stand a chance…because there are dinosaurs here, and not just the plant-eaters. It became a huge success, one of the biggest on Steam, and five years later we’re getting a sequel…and an animated series.
Ark has no central character or mascot…you make up your own. So translating it into TV show form requires the invention of a central character. Meet Helena Walker, 21st-century Australian paleontologist who, for reasons she’s foggy on, wakes up one morning on the Ark island (that must’ve been some party last night). There’s no time to ask questions when dinos are after her flesh. She must adapt or die — quickly!
Jay Oliva is serving as executive producer and co-showrunner of Ark: The Animated Series; his previous projects include several animated DC superhero features like The Dark Knight Returns. Marguerite Bennett and Kendall Deacon Davis are writing the scripts, Lex + Otis is the studio covering the animation, and Gareth Coker (who scored Ori and the Will of the Wisps) is doing the music.
The show will boast quite a lineup of celebrity voices including Madeleine Madden, Michelle Yeoh, Gerard Butler, Jeffrey Wright, David Tennant, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, Ragga Ragnars, Elliot Page, Karl Urban, Malcolm McDowell, Deborah Mailman and Russell Crowe. But all this is going to take a while to throw together — Ark: The Animated Series isn’t due out until 2022 (it doesn’t have a streaming home yet either).
As for the Ark 2 video game, it will also launch in 2022 and feature the on-screen polygonal visage of Vin Diesel, a massive Ark fan. Diesel has also landed a role in the Ark cartoon (though we have no idea at this time if it’s the same character).
