Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to Dungeon Crawler Carl. Chris Yost is on board as writer and executive producer on the live-action adaptation. Most headlines are calling him the Thor: Ragnarok guy. That’s fair, but barely scratches the surface.
Peacock greenlit the show, which comes from Universal Global Television and Seth MacFarlane‘s Fuzzy Door company. The series is based on Matt Dinniman‘s hugely popular book series of the same name. The series order caps a wild seven-year journey for Dungeon Crawler Carl. It originated in 2019 with vignettes Dinniman self-published on a digital platform.
Yost’s name is now tied to a massive streaming project. But his career in genre writing stretches back over two decades.
Yost’s Background
He’s best known for his work in Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe. His credits include Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. He also worked on The Mandalorian for Lucasfilm and Disney+. That’s three major franchise productions spanning two studios. Not bad for someone who broke in writing spec scripts.
Yost earned an MFA in film from USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program. His spec scripts eventually caught the attention of Marvel executives. They hired him to write episodes of X-Men: Evolution. From there, the credits kept stacking.
He built out his own Marvel animated universe, including Wolverine and the X-Men, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Thor: Tales of Asgard, and Hulk Vs.
On the comics side, he and Craig Kyle are also credited with the creation of X-23. Her appearance in X-Men: Evolution proved so popular that she was adapted into the broader Marvel Comics universe.
Beyond Marvel, Yost has written for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and the live-action Cowboy Bebop. He also wrote for animation projects, including Seth Rogen‘s Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His comic book credits include runs on Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman, and Avengers.
For his work on Thor: Ragnarok alone, Yost received both a Dragon Award and a Hugo Award nomination. The nomination was for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Now he takes all of that experience into Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
The series takes place after an alien invasion wipes out most of humanity. This leaves survivors to fight for their lives on an intergalactic game show. Coast Guard veteran Carl is stuck alongside his ex-girlfriend’s award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk.
Between The Orville and Ted, Fuzzy Door has developed a strong track record. They make CGI-heavy TV at a relative bargain. With Yost writing, the project has a serious pedigree behind it.
As of last December, the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series had sold 6 million copies. It has been translated into some 20 languages. Yost is not walking into a small assignment. Good thing his résumé is anything but small.
