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Peacock greenlights Season 3 — with a creative shake-up
Peacock has officially renewed Twisted Metal for a third season, but the renewal comes with a notable change behind the camera: Michael Jonathan Smith, a creator and showrunner on seasons one and two, is stepping away, and David Reed will take over as the new showrunner and executive producer under a deal with Sony Pictures Television.
The announcement, first reported by Variety, arrives after Season 2 debuted on Peacock in July 2025 and continued to build momentum. Starring Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Seanoa and Will Arnett, the series — adapted from the cult PlayStation combat-racing franchise — has become one of Peacock’s most-watched scripted originals. NBCUniversal reports Season 2 has racked up roughly 993 million minutes of viewing to date, making it the streaming service’s second most successful original scripted season so far.
What this change might mean for the show
Showrunner changes are always a pivot point for a series. Smith shepherded the show’s first two seasons and helped translate the chaotic, darkly comic world of Twisted Metal into a character-driven streaming drama. David Reed brings a different résumé: he’s worked on The Boys (Amazon) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+), and has writing credits on genre fare like The Magicians and Supernatural. Reed’s background suggests he knows how to blend serialized character work with heightened, fan-facing spectacle — a useful skillset for a TV adaptation of a beloved video game.
Fans and critics will be watching for tonal shifts. Will Season 3 lean further into violent, anarchic set pieces, or deepen the emotional beats around characters like John and Quiet? The show’s official Season 2 synopsis hinted at a darker turn: John and Quiet enter the deadly Twisted Metal tournament run by the mysterious Calypso, and John’s reunion with a lost sister complicates everything.
Where Twisted Metal sits in the video-game adaptation landscape
Twisted Metal arrives in an era when streaming platforms are more willing to invest in video game adaptations — from HBO’s The Last of Us to Netflix’s Castlevania and The Witcher. Compared to some adaptations that prioritized fidelity to source mechanics, Twisted Metal has embraced a hybrid approach: it keeps the game’s central premise and outrageous vehicle combat, while building serialized character drama for a wider audience.
A few behind-the-scenes notes: the series balances stunt-heavy practical effects with VFX to capture its vehicular mayhem, and the casting of Anthony Mackie has been widely praised for anchoring the show’s emotional core. Some fans initially worried about creative turnover, but many are optimistic that Reed’s genre experience will keep momentum going.
Overall, Season 3’s greenlight under a new showrunner is both a risk and an opportunity. If Reed can sustain the show’s mix of chaos and character, Twisted Metal could consolidate its place among the best contemporary video-game-to-TV adaptations.
Short concluding note: expect evolution rather than revolution — Twisted Metal is likely to push harder on spectacle while trying to keep the human stories that won its audience in the first place.
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