Amazon MGM Studios & Margot Robbie's LuckyChap To Develop Pro-LGBTQ+ 'Life Is Strange' TV Adaptation With So-Called Non-Binary Showrunner
Amazon MGM Studios and Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap production company are developing an adaptation of Square Enix’s Life Is Strange for television.
Variety reports that the show is being written and showrun by Charlie Covell, a woman who pretends to be non-binary. Covell’s previous work includes The End of the F***ing World, Truelove, and Kaos. Alongside Covell it is also being executive produced by Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg, and Timothy I. Stevenson through their Story Kitchen company.
The show’s official logline notes that the story follows Max, “a photography student, who discovers she can rewind time while saving the life of her childhood best friend, Chloe. As she struggles to understand this new skill, the pair investigate the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student, uncovering a dark side to their town that will ultimately force them to make an impossible life or death choice that will impact them forever.”
As part of the announcement, Covell said, “It’s a huge honor to be adapting ‘Life Is Strange’ for Amazon MGM Studios. I am a massive fan of the game, and I’m thrilled to be working with the incredible teams at Square Enix, Story Kitchen and LuckyChap. I can’t wait to share Max and Chloe’s story with fellow players and new audiences alike.”
Johnson and Golberg added, “Story Kitchen has always believed that Life is Strange deserved to be more than just a game—it’s a cultural touchstone. After a decade-long journey, we’re honored to be bringing this beloved story to Amazon MGM alongside our incredible partners at Square Enix, our brilliant showrunner/writer Charlie Covell, and the amazing team at LuckyChap. Together, this thoughtfully assembled dream team is ready to share Life is Strange with the world in an entirely new way!”
Back in 2018, the game’s lead writer Zak Garriss confirmed the game is being used to normalize disordered lifestyles and sinful behavior such as sodomy. He told GameInformer, “We chose not to tell a coming out story, and we did that for a lot of reasons. One of the most consistent pieces of feedback I got about this was people really wanted to see gay characters, queer characters, whose queerness was the least interesting thing about them. There's a story we could have told about that, absolutely, and that could be a really fruitful story but that's not the story we were going to tell. We were going to treat queerness as incidental, as matter-of-fact. Not casually and not disregarding the intricacies, but we let that not be the most important thing going on. When they kiss, it's just going to be a romantic kiss. And we set it up to be as lovely and as crazy and awesome as it could be and just not care about the fact that it's two girls.”
“We wanted to tell a story, we wanted to find the boundaries of where games are intersecting with these communities and really push them. And anytime you do that, there's a risk of insensitivity, there's a risk of a mistake, there are all sorts of risks. And I think that's okay – we should take these risks,” he added.
As Mother Angelica famously said, “To be actively gay is to commit grave sin. It is to go against the law of God.”
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It’s odd to me how they have to talk about a lesbian kiss and make it a big deal. Tells you even they know something is weird in a way since they have to worry about being sensitive and respectful or what have you. Nobody says that kind of thing about a guy and girl kissing.
I enjoyed the game when I played through it several years ago, but never saw any point in going again or picking up the sequels. And, of course, the obsessively-vocal online perv platoon spoiled any potential discussion, as they do everything. To them ,everything is about their fetishes, not about any actually interesting moral or philosophical questions.