Mike McMahan was working as a script doctor on the Sonic the Hedgehog movies when he received an incredible offer: A Sega executive approached him and asked if there were any other properties the storied game studio owned that he’d want to adapt into a series.
Sega has been making video games since 1973 and owns the rights to everything from modern hit franchises like Yakuza and Persona to arcade mainstays like Crazy Taxi and Streets of Rage. The possibilities were endless. McMahan didn’t hesitate. He chose Golden Axe.
“I’m very old,” McMahan tells Polygon by way of explaining his somewhat surprising choice. “When the NES came out, that was amazing for me, and before then, I played an insane amount of Golden Axe.”
For the unfamiliar, Golden Axe is a series of beat-’em-up fantasy video games released by Sega. The first one debuted in 1989 as an arcade cabinet. Seven sequels and spinoffs followed, with the last being 1995’s Golden Axe: The Duel, though a new game was announced by Sega at the 2023 Game Awards and is seemingly still in development.
In other words, Golden Axe is not exactly a hot commodity, but that didn’t stop McMahan, whose memory of the game dates back to his time at a Chicago summer camp where Golden Axe and a few other arcade cabinets were rigged up so you could play them for free.
“When you’re a kid, everything gets magnified,” he says. “For a lot of people, Golden Axe isn’t a big deal, but for this motherfucker, it was a huge deal.”
Series co-creator Joe Chandler, who also serves as showrunner, sees another advantage to adapting a property like Golden Axe. While the game’s “swords and sorcery” world may seem like yet another generic high fantasy, it’s also full of bizarre, half-defined characters and settings that give the writers plenty of room to explore.
“You have all this weird stuff,” Chandler says, “like the guy you kick for potions.” (More on that later.)
“There are these big visual signposts — a village on the back of a turtle or an eagle — that makes it really fun to adapt. You get to explore what those things are without the game having it be super dictated beat by beat. In a modern game, Eagle Village would be really well explained. In this game, it’s just a thing. That allows for some creative freedom.”
All 10 episodes of Golden Axe season 1 are streaming now on Paramount Plus. Ahead of the show’s release, Polygon spoke to McMahan and Chandler about how they adapted a 37-year-old game into a modern animated comedy and their potential Sega crossover plans for season 2.
“Obviously, we have to address this issue”
The premise of the original Golden Axe game is simple. The evil Death Adder has captured the King of Yuria and taken control of the magical Golden Axe in an attempt to install himself as ruler of this Tolkien-esque world. You play as one of three warriors: the sword-wielding barbarian, Ax Battler; the Amazonian, Tyris Flare; or the dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead.
“You have this big buff Conan guy, this Amazon warrior, and this little green dwarf,” Chandler says. “We both just always picked the dwarf.”
The games never give much thought to the disparity between those three heroes, but it’s something the series immediately leans into.
“Gilius is the third greatest warrior in the world, but he’s with the two others, so he never feels appreciated,” Chandler says. This gave the show a natural starting point as those feelings of resentment finally bubble up and Gilius (Matthew Rhys) sets out on his own adventure. “It was a way in that felt really honest. It feels like a real story to tell in this world.”
As for Ax Battler (Liam McIntyre), the writers had one clear objective: point out the absurdity of a guy with “ax” in his name who spends most of his time fighting with a giant sword.
“It’s crazy,” McMahan exclaims.
“That was on the list of like 10 things we had to do when we started the writers’ room,” Chandler adds. “Obviously, we have to address this issue.”
For McMahan, Ax Battler’s absurd misnaming speaks to a delightfully weird streak that’s running through the entire Golden Axe franchise, especially when it comes to the Americanized versions of the games.
“There’s almost an art appreciation of reading through the manuals and starting to realize what the translators did,” he says.
For example, the boss battles in the localized U.S. version of Golden Axe are named after a brand of beer (Bud Brothers, Lt. Heineken, etc). It’s the kind of thing a modern, big-budget video game could never get away with.
“It used to be that everything wasn’t so corporate,” McMahan says. “Now, everything is so figured out.”
“They’re enjoying getting their little butts kicked”
Of the core trio, Tyris Flare (Lisa Gilroy) probably gets the least character development. In an early episode she comments that her “battle bikini” covers way too much skin, but that’s about the extent of her self-awareness. Instead, the series makes more time for audience stand-in Hampton Squib (Danny Pudi), an inexperienced adventurer who tags along with Gilius when the original group splits up.
However, one character from the original video game who gets a surprisingly deep backstory here is the Thief (or Thieves). These gnome-like critters serve a specific function in the games: attacking the little guys causes them to drop magic pots that refuel your character’s special abilities.
“If you’ve played the game even once, you reference those little guys,” McMahan says. “They’re really memorable, and it’s a great mechanic.”
The series takes this simple premise about 10 steps further, imagining a legion of Thieves that literally get off on being kicked in the butt by the heroes.
Once again, it’s an example of the show’s creators taking something bizarre and under-explained from the game and following it to its (mostly) logical conclusion.
“The sprite has this little grin on his face,” Chandler says of the arcade game character. “He looks like he’s enjoying it. What is happening here?”
The series offers a hilarious answer: because it’s their kink.
“They’re enjoying getting their little butts kicked,” McMahan says.
However, a later episode of Golden Axe goes far deeper when we follow one Thief home and learn he’s been living a lie to hide his shame from his tiny family. This unexpected sidequest leads to a conclusion that’s both hilarious and heartbreaking — just like many of the show’s best moments.
“There’s comedy to it, but instead of them just being a detail or a wallpaper, they’re also a thing that we want to give motivation to,” McMahan says. “Those little guys have a point of view in this world.”
“Death Adder always comes back”
Without getting into any spoilers, Golden Axe ends in triumph for its heroes, while also leaving the door open for season 2 and beyond. Based on the games, the path forward is pretty obvious: bring back the show’s defeated big bad for another round.
“Death Adder always comes back in the games,” Chandler says. “There’s always a new adventure for these heroes. And we’ve talked a lot about what those would be. Of course, we’d love to do more.”
There’s other Sega properties that kind of touch on and cross paths with this game that we’d want to expand into that as well.
With eight existing games in the series, there’s also plenty of source material to riff on if Golden Axe gets another shot.
“There’s other interesting things to pull from all the other games,” McMahan says, before adding that he’s also open to the idea of a brand-friendly crossover. “There’s other Sega properties that kind of touch on and cross paths with this game that we’d want to expand into that as well.”
But for now, there’s still plenty more stories to tell in the fantasy land of Yuria without crossing over into other properties. So don’t expect to see Sonic or Crazy Taxi show up in Golden Axe season 2.
McMahan adds: “Right now, we’re so proud of this first season that we’d want to spend more time with these characters and see where we could expand the show in a place that still feels like the games.”