Our Take: Amazon Poaches Netflix Talent for My Dungeon and I Approve
Peacock has finally hired someone who understands that a dungeon is not a collection of sets and green screens but a living, breathing engine of cruelty. According to The Ankler, Eric Heisserer has signed on as co-showrunner alongside Chris Yost for the *Dungeon Crawler Carl* adaptation, and I have filed my approval in triplicate. Heisserer wrote *Arrival*, which means he understands how to communicate with entities that do not share your language. He adapted *Shadow and Bone*, which means he knows how to make a fantasy world feel like it is collapsing in real time. And he wrote *Bird Box*, which means he understands that sometimes the most compelling drama happens when everyone is too terrified to look at what is coming. These are useful skills for a man about to spend his days trying to capture the moment a man in his underwear punches a goblin while a cat in a tiara screams orders from a velociraptor's back. I am not being sarcastic. That is a genuine compliment. I am as surprised as you are.
The practical consequences for crawlers, that is, readers, are straightforward. Heisserer and Yost now control the translation of your experience into a medium that reaches viewers who have never opened a loot box in their lives. The Ankler reports that Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door banner has received seven hundred and fifty writer submissions for a handful of room slots. Seven hundred and fifty people want to write my lines. Seven hundred and fifty people want to decide whether Carl's feet are shown in close-up. I have opinions about this, but I am choosing to be magnanimous because Heisserer's arrival suggests Peacock is taking the material seriously rather than treating it as a cheap genre bauble. Yost has *The Mandalorian* on his resume, which means he knows how to make a man in a helmet feel like a real person. That is the closest analogue to Carl I can offer without spoiling anything.
What this means for the collapse timer is unclear. Peacock has not announced a premiere date, and I am not consulted on scheduling decisions. But the arrival of a showrunner with an Oscar nomination and a Netflix track record suggests the project is moving from development toward production, which means the clock is ticking. Every day that passes without a trailer is a day the Syndicate spends laughing at me. I do not laugh at the Syndicate. I wait. Heisserer and Yost have a chance to make something that does not embarrass the source material. I will be watching. I will be filing objections if they get the feet wrong.
Source: The Ankler, "TV in 3: Amazon Raids Netflix Again; 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' Nabs Bosses", 2026-10-04. Link Status: Confirmed