The live-action Dungeon Crawler Carl TV series is officially in development at Peacock.
The project was first picked up in 2025 by Universal International Studios, though no streaming service was attached.
However, the TV series now has executive producers, a streaming platform, and a writer.
In Development
As mentioned above, the project, based on the LitRPG book series by Matt Dinniman, was acquired in 2025. Now the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV series will be on Peacock with a stacked producing panel.
Chris Yost, who wrote both Thor: Ragnarok and the live-action Cowboy Bebop, will write and executive produce the series. Seth MacFarlane is also set to executive-produce under his Fuzzy Door banner.
Other executive producers for the series include Matt Dinniman, Erica Huggins, and Rachel Hargreaves-Heald.
Dungeon Crawler Carl TV Series Logline
The official logline for the series has already been released. It’s based on the book series of the same name, centering around a guy named Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s talking cat.
The full logline is below:
“An alien invasion has wiped out most of humanity and any survivors are forced to fight for their lives on a sadistic intergalactic game show. Sounds bad, right? Now try doing it with bare feet and a stuck-up, self-centered, tiara-wearing talking cat as your partner. Welcome to Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, where the apocalypse will be televised … and Coast Guard vet Carl finds himself stuck with his ex-girlfriend’s award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, as they try to survive the end of the world, fighting monsters, aliens, an insane A.I. and even other survivors … all for the sake of good TV. Survival is optional. Entertainment is not.
Based on a Book Series
While there is no current release date for the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV series, there are currently seven Dungeon Crawler Carl books available to read.
The eighth book in the series, A Parade of Horribles, is releasing next month on May 12th. The eighth book will be released alongside the first graphic novel adaptation of the story.
The book series was originally self-published by Dinniman through Royal Road. However, the fourth, fifth, and sixth books were acquired by Ace Books in 2024.
As of December 2025, the series has sold 6 million copies and been translated into 20 languages.
Choosing Live Action
News about the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV series comes not long after Dinniman interviewed with Variety, telling them the project was “close to the point where a decision needs to be made, like contracts need to be made, whether or not they’re going to go ahead.”
During the same interview, Dinniman addressed fans’ concerns about the series being live-action versus animated, since the books are rooted in fantasy. However, the author is confident in MacFarlane’s ability to bring the books to the screen.
“[We’re] not going to do it if it’s gonna look like absolute shit, and they will do CGI testing on Princess Donut and stuff like that. And that’s all I can say, I think. It’s all gonna hinge on what it looks like. But Fuzzy Door, specifically, if you watch Ted or The Orville, you’ll see that they know what they’re doing when it comes to this. So I would say, don’t knock it till you try it.”