Back in the day, Roland Emmerich was one of the most reliable hit-makers in Hollywood, but it’s been a long time since the “Master of Disaster” delivered anything that even remotely resembled a hit.
In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to 2009’s 2012 for Emmerich’s last hit, with the former titan of blockbuster cinema having fallen on hard time since then, regardless of what genre he’s dipping his toes into. However, he’s orchestrating a brand new shared universe regardless, and Space Nation is by far his most ambitious yet.
The project is being developed alongside the team behind World of Warcraft, and will launch as an MMORPG, with players taking on the role of ship captains to unravel an intergalactic mystery. From there, plans are afoot for a TV series, animated shorts, and spin-off games, which sounds intriguing if it fires on all cylinders.
Of course, the major positive is that Emmerich won’t be helming a live-action blockbuster, which would have no doubt ended in disaster after White House Down, Independence Day: Resurgence, Midway, and Moonfall combined to run up losses that went into the hundreds of millions, while even his smaller projects like Stonewall and Anonymous tanked, too.
Multimedia universes are notoriously hard to get right, though, and plenty have touted their own ambitions in the past and been left with nothing to show for it. Space Nation also has the disadvantage of being a brand new IP, too, but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for the time being.