{"id":1831261,"date":"2026-03-17T14:18:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1831261"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:18:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:18:46","slug":"the-hitman-tv-series-everyone-had-forgotten-about-is-dead-in-the-water-says-john-wick-creator-derek-kolstad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1831261","title":{"rendered":"The Hitman TV series everyone had forgotten about is &#8220;dead in the water&#8221;, says John Wick creator Derek Kolstad"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/hitman-world-of-assassination\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Hitman World of Assassination<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">The Hitman TV series everyone had forgotten about is &#8220;dead in the water&#8221;, says John Wick creator Derek Kolstad<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Imperfect kill.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Hitman-WoA_bike.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Hitman: World of Assassination - Agent 47 and a motorbike\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Hitman-WoA_bike.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>IO Interactive<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/fran-j-ruiz-author.png?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"fran-j-ruiz-author.png\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/fran-ruiz\">Fran Ruiz<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-03-17T14:18:46+00:00\">March 17, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/hitman-tv-series-cancelled-confirms-writer?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          5 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"13d03259-9e4d-4594-9080-77eac5e15d00\" data-name=\"Hitman World of Assassination\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Hitman World of Assassination\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Hitman World of Assassination\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Hitman World of Assassination\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Hitman World of Assassination\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Hitman World of Assassination\" title=\"Follow Hitman World of Assassination\"><br \/>\n  Follow Hitman World of Assassination<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>After two dreadful big-screen attempts, a live-action <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/hitman-3-world-of-assassination-all-time-classic\">Hitman<\/a> show penned by the creator of the John Wick movie series and other hard-hitting action hits seemed like a no-brainer, but Agent 47&#8217;s return wasn&#8217;t meant to happen&#8230; yet.<\/p>\n<p>Derek Kolstad himself shared the news while at the premiere of his latest actioner, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/movies\/normal\">Normal<\/a>, at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/thedirect.com\/article\/hitman-tv-series-dead\">The Direct<\/a> who asked the scribe directly, and he was transparent about what happened over time: &#8220;It&#8217;s a little bit of a dagger in the chest. Who knows nowadays, but it&#8217;s dead in the water. But, man, I love that thing, because I love that game and I love that character.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s safe to say both longtime fans and casual TV enjoyers familiar with Kolstad&#8217;s work would have shown interest in a Hitman series with the right directing talent and leads attached, but it appears that, even during the age of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/split-fiction-film-now-has-a-script-and-sydney-sweeney-is-hyped-about-the-adaptation\">Hollywood grabbing every video game IP it can find<\/a>, the buzz around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/companies\/io-interactive\">IO Interactive<\/a>&#8216;s assassin franchise simply isn&#8217;t there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can write a screenplay, but no one&#8217;s going to go out and buy the screenplay. You&#8217;ve got to make the movie, you&#8217;ve got to make the show. But nothing&#8217;s happening with that,&#8221; the writer added, putting the old project and chatter to rest. Kolstad himself probably doesn&#8217;t mind too much, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm4401003\/\">he&#8217;s one of the busiest guys in Hollywood right now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Fox 21 and Hulu, now owned by Disney, were originally set to produce the show, <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2017\/11\/hitman-television-series-derek-kolstad-john-wick-creator-hulu-fox-21-pilot-script-1202206934\/\">which was announced by the trades back in 2017<\/a>. Almost a decade later, it&#8217;s now buried, though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/of-course-there-will-be-more-hitman-after-007-first-light-io-interactive-assures\">with a new Hitman game on the distant horizon<\/a>, a comeback of some sort wouldn&#8217;t shock us.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, John Wick is currently making the opposite trip <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/when-you-watch-the-movies-theyre-kind-of-like-video-games-john-wick-game-dev-teases-a-younger-keanu-reeves\">with a big-budget game developed by Saber Interactive<\/a> which could take a few cues from IO Interactive&#8217;s recent Hitman games.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>After two dreadful big-screen attempts, a live-action <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/hitman-3-world-of-assassination-all-time-classic\">Hitman<\/a> show penned by the creator of the John Wick movie series and other hard-hitting action hits seemed like a no-brainer, but Agent 47&#8217;s return wasn&#8217;t meant to happen&#8230; yet.<\/p>\n<p>Derek Kolstad himself shared the news while at the premiere of his latest actioner, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/movies\/normal\">Normal<\/a>, at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/thedirect.com\/article\/hitman-tv-series-dead\">The Direct<\/a> who asked the scribe directly, and he was transparent about what happened over time: &#8220;It&#8217;s a little bit of a dagger in the chest. Who knows nowadays, but it&#8217;s dead in the water. But, man, I love that thing, because I love that game and I love that character.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s safe to say both longtime fans and casual TV enjoyers familiar with Kolstad&#8217;s work would have shown interest in a Hitman series with the right directing talent and leads attached, but it appears that, even during the age of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/split-fiction-film-now-has-a-script-and-sydney-sweeney-is-hyped-about-the-adaptation\">Hollywood grabbing every video game IP it can find<\/a>, the buzz around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/companies\/io-interactive\">IO Interactive<\/a>&#8216;s assassin franchise simply isn&#8217;t there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can write a screenplay, but no one&#8217;s going to go out and buy the screenplay. You&#8217;ve got to make the movie, you&#8217;ve got to make the show. But nothing&#8217;s happening with that,&#8221; the writer added, putting the old project and chatter to rest. Kolstad himself probably doesn&#8217;t mind too much, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm4401003\/\">he&#8217;s one of the busiest guys in Hollywood right now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Fox 21 and Hulu, now owned by Disney, were originally set to produce the show, <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2017\/11\/hitman-television-series-derek-kolstad-john-wick-creator-hulu-fox-21-pilot-script-1202206934\/\">which was announced by the trades back in 2017<\/a>. Almost a decade later, it&#8217;s now buried, though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/of-course-there-will-be-more-hitman-after-007-first-light-io-interactive-assures\">with a new Hitman game on the distant horizon<\/a>, a comeback of some sort wouldn&#8217;t shock us.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, John Wick is currently making the opposite trip <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/when-you-watch-the-movies-theyre-kind-of-like-video-games-john-wick-game-dev-teases-a-younger-keanu-reeves\">with a big-budget game developed by Saber Interactive<\/a> which could take a few cues from IO Interactive&#8217;s recent Hitman games.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Hitman World of Assassination The Hitman TV series everyone had forgotten about is &#8220;dead in the water&#8221;, says John Wick creator Derek Kolstad Imperfect kill. Image credit: IO Interactive News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on March 17, 2026 5 comments Follow Hitman World of Assassination After two dreadful big-screen attempts, a live-action [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1831261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1831261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1831261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1831261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1831261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}