What Happened to the ‘Horizon: Zero Dawn’ Netflix Series As New Movie Gets Announced!

Netflix has been venturing big into video games for several years now. One of their major upcoming TV projects was set to be based on a well-known PlayStation IP in the form of Horizon Zero Dawn, which was meant to be a live-action adaptation of the Horizon game series that follows Aloy in her quest across the post-apocalyptic USA-populated by deadly mechanical creatures. As we enter 2025 and a new movie has just been announced, what’s the status of the Netflix series? It’s not looking good. 

Let’s rewind. Netflix first announced it would be adapting Horizon Zero Dawn back in May 2022, and a few months later, Steve Blackman, the showrunner of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, was attached to be the showrunner. Blackman notably worked with Netflix under an overall deal via his Borderline Entertainment banner in February 2020. It was one of several projects the creator had at Netflix post-The Umbrella Academy, with another being a now-canceled spin-off to TUA and a series called Orbital.

No directors or cast members have been known to be connected to the project, but Carter Swan, Matthew Ball, Roy Lee, Ben McCaw, Abbey Morris, Jan Bart Van Beek, and Asad Qizilbash served as executive producers.

In an interview on Netflix’s Tudum in August 2022, showrunner Steve Blackman answered a few questions about the upcoming show:

Question: You have two exciting new series in development. Do they share any DNA with The Umbrella Academy? What did you want to do differently this time around?

Horizon Zero Dawn and Orbital are on the surface very different shows from each other and from The Umbrella Academy. One takes place a thousand years in the future, in a world completely remade by massive machines. The other is set near present-day on a space station.

From a character- and world-building perspective, there’s a clear throughline: I gravitate to characters who are grounded and relatable but exist on the fringe. Outliers who struggle to find their place in a world of conformity and structure. All my stories strive to subvert expectation and find a new way of looking into the worlds we think we know.

If these series gain the success of The Umbrella Academy, I’ll be very happy. But we hope to push the envelope even more, especially when it comes to production where we’ll be using the newest technologies available to bring these projects to screen. It’s an enormous challenge but one that I’m truly excited about.

Question: Why did you want to adapt a game like Horizon Zero Dawn and what are you most excited to tell from the game’s story? And will Aloy be the main character in this series?

Horizon Zero Dawn is an exceptionally well-crafted game with wonderful characters not often seen in the rank-and-file of the gaming world. Guerrilla Games has created an incredibly lush and vivid world of man and machine who find themselves on a collision course to oblivion. Their salvation comes in the form of a young female warrior named Aloy, who has no idea she’s the key to saving the world. Suffice it to say, yes, Aloy will be a main character in our story. My writing partner on this, Michelle Lovretta, and I are thrilled to be able to expand this remarkable IP into a series for all types of viewers.”

---

What is Horizon Zero Dawn?

Horizon is the video game series from Dutch developer Guerrilla Games, also best known for the Killzone franchise. The story of the original game, Horizon Zero Dawn, is set in the post-apocalyptic United States in the 31st century.

Humans live in scattered, primitive tribes with varying levels of technological development. Their technologically advanced predecessors are remembered as the “Old Ones.” Large robotic creatures, known as “machines”, dominate the Earth. Mostly, they peacefully coexist with humans, who occasionally hunt them for parts.

In the main game, we follow Aloy, who grew up without parents and isolated from the four tribes. As she grows up, she eventually has to investigate a phenomenon known as “Derangement,” which has caused machines to become more aggressive toward humans. Larger and deadlier machines have begun to appear.

Here’s a rundown of the four tribes, the Nora, the Banuk, the Carja, and the Oseram:

“The Nora are fierce hunter-gatherers who live in the mountains and worship nature as the “All-Mother”.

The Carja are desert-dwelling city builders who worship the Sun.

The Banuk consists of wandering clans made up of hunters and shamans who live in snowy mountains and worship the machines and their “songs”.

The Oseram are tinkerers and salvagers known for their metalworking, brewing, and talent as warriors.”

Here’s the trailer for the first game, which was released in 2017. The second game, Horizon Forbidden West, was released in 2022.

---

What happened to the Horizon Zero Dawn series on Netflix?

When the series was first announced, it was done so at a very early point in development, and although Netflix confirmed it themselves (often a good sign it’ll move forward), that doesn’t always guarantee that things will ever come to fruition.

In June 2024, ahead of the release of the third and final season of The Umbrella Academy, Rolling Stone wrote a major expose on Blackman. The journalist claimed he created an atmosphere of toxicity and was known for “Toxic, Bullying, Manipulative, and Retaliatory Behavior.” The journalist spoke to over a dozen people who backed up those claims, although Blackman denied any wrongdoing. 

As it pertains to Horizon Zero Dawn, here’s what they wrote:

“Rolling Stone has learned that the two projects are no longer moving forward. (A representative for Blackman noted that the showrunner “has a long, ongoing, and close working relationship with Netflix” and “continues to work on new projects.” They added that Blackman “signed a new multi-year deal earlier this year.” A rep for Netflix declined to comment.)”

What’s on Netflix also reached out to Netflix for comment at the time, who declined to comment.

---

Sony Developing New Horizon Zero Dawn Movie

In January 2025, at the Sony CES 2025 presentation, we got a further indication that plans to develop the IP into a series had been put on ice.

That’s because, in the presentation, it was announced that PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures were in the early stages of developing a film adaptation of the game. The adaptation plans aim to capture Aloy’s beloved origin story, set in a vibrant, far-future world filled with giant machines, bringing it to life on the big screen for the first time.

---

Although it looks like Horizon Zero Dawn is no longer in the works at Netflix, there are a lot more upcoming video game adaptations at Netflix. Check out our preview here.

Are you disappointed it looks like Netflix is no longer moving forward with its Horizon Zero Dawn series? Let us know in the comments down below.

Read More:Captain America and Bucky’s chemistry has us excited ahead of Captain America: Brave New World!