Prime Video has greenlit a live-action adaptation of Life Is Strange, the choice-driven video game series known for its time-rewind hook and bruising coming-of-age story.
Charlie Covell (The End of the F**ing World*, KAOS) will create and showrun, with Amazon MGM Studios producing in partnership with Square Enix, Story Kitchen, and LuckyChap.
What’s the story?
Like the game, the show follows Max, a photography student who discovers she can rewind time after saving her best friend, Chloe. That power pulls the pair into a missing-person mystery and the murkier corners of their seaside town — right up to a life-or-death choice you can’t rewind your way out of.
More on Screen Realm:
Who’s behind it?
Story Kitchen has been pushing for this for years. As Dmitri M. Johnson and Mike Goldberg put it in a statement: “Story Kitchen has always believed that Life is Strange deserved to be more than just a game—it’s a cultural touchstone.”
Covell sounds like the right fit for the series’ messy, human stakes: “It’s a huge honor to be adapting Life Is Strange for Amazon MGM Studios,” said the showrunner. LuckyChap’s take is equally bullish on the pairing: “We’ve been huge fans of the visionary Charlie Covell for years, so partnering with them on the adaptation of Life is Strange is truly a dream come true.”
Square Enix, meanwhile, knows exactly what fans have been asking for: “For years we’ve had so many people asking us to create a Life is Strange TV show and we’re so pleased to finally partner with Amazon MGM Studios who we trust will do an incredible job bringing our universe to life,” said Studio Heads Jon Brooke and Lee Singleton. And from Amazon’s side, Nick Pepper is setting the tone: “We’re so excited for our global Prime Video customers to experience the dynamic world of Life Is Strange.”
The game franchise
Created by Dontnod Entertainment, Life Is Strange launched in five episodes across 2015 and spun out a small universe: prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (developed by Deck Nine, 2017, plus a 2018 DLC), sequel Life Is Strange 2 and its spin-off The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (developed by Dontnod, 2018–2019), and Life Is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine, released in full on September 10, 2021). Life Is Strange: Double Exposure followed on October 29, 2024 (Deck Nine).
There’s also a remastered collection (February 2022), along with comics set after one of the first game’s endings and after True Colors, plus an in-universe book.
Fingers crossed
The adaptation lives or dies on two things: thorny choices and a friendship that feels lived-in. Covell’s track record suggests neither will be sanded down. Keep the time-tinkering tension, let Max and Chloe sit front and centre, and this has every chance of being one of the good ones.
Here’s a look back at Life Is Strange’s launch trailer:
