Back in the Game: ‘Splinter Cell: Deathwatch’ Showrunner Derek Kolstad Opens the Netflix Series’ Dossier

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There has never been a time when the underworld of hired assassins and spies didn’t have a magnetic pull on film and TV audiences around the world. From classic James Bond films to the recent John Wick series, audiences fill seats to see these characters move through the shadows. This month, the adult animated series Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (Netflix) will join the ranks of these hits with its own unique take on the genre.

The series comes with a rarefied pedigree made up of a group of A-list collaborators. The show is an adaptation of the espionage video game franchise Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, created by Ubisoft. The first of the award-winning games was released in 2002, introducing its iconic spy character named Sam Fisher. A series of tie-in novels following Fisher on his missions as a black-ops agent were also published in the mid-2000s.

A Winning Team

The show is directed by Guillaume Dousse (Love, Death + Robots – Alternate Histories, Gobelins short Myosis) and co-directed by Félicien Colmet-Daage (The Summit of the Gods). Ubisoft’s Hélène Juguet, Hugo Revon and Gérard Guillemot are also executive producers on the show. The series was developed by Ubisoft Film & Television and animation studios Sun Creature and Fost. Around 240 people from the animation studios contributed to the first season of the series, which has eight episodes.

The show has a sleek and sparse look that focuses on the action of the characters and doesn’t stray from a subdued color scape. It’s a specific look that hints at the origins of its main characters. The faces of the characters are angular and often without much expression. Nearly all of them have a steely demeanor.

It seems only fitting that the head writer/executive producer is Derek Kolstad, who is known for creating the John Wick film franchise.

“Everything we did is a love letter to the things that came before us. [The crew] would talk about the animation greats that influenced them. And that’s where the two would coalesce. It was this joy that we shared in all these things that we loved.”

— Writer-executive producer Derek Kolstad

“The hardest thing is adapting anything, because it came from one medium where it worked very well,” says Kolstad. “And you have to realize that for it to work in another medium, it has to be changed. The way I describe it is that you have to pull out the spine and the brain and the heart and then really build around it to keep the soul intact. The easiest way for me to look at Sam Fisher in the world of Splinter Cell is to treat it as a natural extension of everything that came before. It is all history.”

He adds, “When we meet him, it’s very much like William Munny in Unforgiven; it’s our old man. It’s a guy who has long left the craft, and someone comes to his doorstep, asking for help. It was beginning with a very, very simple story and making sure that the complexity of the world he came from, and the worlds that we are going to hopefully visit in the future, are just layered in the background.”

Since Kolstad comes from the world of live-action cinema and hadn’t worked in animation before this project, he relied on film references like Unforgiven, Three Days of the Condor and The Long Kiss Goodnight when discussing with the animators what he hoped to see onscreen. He found camaraderie with the crew, who were movie lovers.

“That was one of the chief elements; I didn’t know how to talk, and so, in many respects, I would just comp the movies I’ve loved,” says Kolstad. “[The animators] did an excellent job, and what they brought to what I wrote made it better. It’s just that movie geekdom. It’s a love of all these films I’ve seen that meant something to me. Everything we did is a love letter to the things that came before us. [The crew] would talk about the animation greats that influenced them. And that’s where the two would coalesce. It was this joy that we shared in all these things that we loved.”

In addition to its powerhouse crew and collaborators, the show also boasts a notable voice cast. Liev Schreiber voices the main character, Sam Fisher. Also among the actors is Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman), who is simply credited as Kirby and stars as Zinnia McKenna. Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra) plays Anna Grimsdottir and Joel Oulette (Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender) portrays Thunder.

“What I love about the voice actors, which is a world I’ve been adjacent to because I’ve done some video game stuff, is that Liev and the whole voice cast bring their A-game to everything they do,” says Kolstad. “Liev and the whole cast gave their all. Liev brought to Sam Fisher not only the nuance but also the micro emotions and voice that you can bring to an animated character that give you pause. It’s so convincing, and the audience will feel this and the complexity. That’s why after listening to him and the voice cast, I feel blessed to have been working with them.”

For Kolstad, working with an episodic medium and with animation presented new challenges. There were also opportunities to explore a different kind of rhythm in the storytelling.

“In a movie, you have to convince the audience you’re more complex than you are, because you only get an hour and a half, two hours at max, to tell the story,” says Kolstad. “Especially with this genre in television, you can take a moment to breathe. You can take a moment to spend some time with the secondary and tertiary characters that a lot of the best series have. To me that’s the greatest thing about TV. You really get to unwrap the onion, layer by layer, and get into the character’s psyche. I love that you can expand the world through the character in TV and just allow them some space, which feels like a luxury.”

The Killing Game

The series, which was in development for around five years, with two years in active production, will premiere October 14. So far, one season has been finished. For Kolstad, Sam Fisher is a classic character who had an immediate appeal, and he hopes audiences will feel the same.

“When we meet Sam [Fisher], we see that here’s a guy that’s been working behind what was once called the Iron Curtain, even around the time [the Berlin Wall] fell,” says Kolstad. “He feels like he’s probably spent most of his life in this area and region. The idea of going back to the United States to get a farm somewhere, to settle down, even though that’s probably where he grew up, would be foreign to him now. And I think he retired where he’s most comfortable, in these places where he was an assassin. And he probably knows these areas like the back of his hand, professionally. Even though he is quote, unquote retired, he’s ready if he’s called upon to go back and to serve. And that’s how it is for people like this. If you talk to first responders or Special Forces guys, they have ‘go bags.’ They are all trained to be a certain way, and you can’t turn that off just because you retire. And that’s why I think he would be there waiting for someone to call upon him.”

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch premieres October 14 on Netflix.