

Per Deadline, fans of the Splinter Cell franchise were excited to be shown a set of clips from Ubisoft’s upcoming Netflix animated series, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. The reveal took place at the annual Annecy Animated Film Festival at the Salle Pierre Lamy performing arts theatre in Annecy, France.
Deadline confirms that the clips shown include the first appearance of the lead character, Sam Fisher, who will be voiced by Liev Schreiber (Spotlight, Everything Is Illuminated), a legendary fight scene, and a dramatic car chase.
Deadline reports that the series was first announced in 2020. Last year, Netflix dropped a first look trailer which featured some eerie art and Fisher claiming, “Once you get used to the shadows, you see bad people for who they are, and they will never see you coming for them.” The franchise follows Fisher, who is a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops subdivision within the NSA known as the “Third Echelon.” The new animated series will be released later this year on Netflix.
Deadline claims that director Guillaume Dousse (Love, Death, & Robots, Flee) stated, “We took huge inspiration from live action.” He states, “There is this element of melancholy to the mise en scène. We wanted it to be full of contrasts.”
Deadline also reports that Dousse wanted to break away from the status quo of super-fast-paced narratives in action animation. He wanted to incorporate long fixed shots similar to Steve McQueen’s (The Great Escape, Papillon) Hunger. He also revealed that the soundtrack was a major focus area. They drew inspiration from other shows such as Ozark and Tokyo Vice.
Deadline goes on to cover the fact that producer Hugo Revon (The Love Punch, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix) also drew inspiration from Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Minority Report) in Mission: Impossible. He says that, “It was interesting to have this ageing character, not totally like the Tom Cruise version but more realistic, and more weathered by life.”
According to Deadline, Ubisoft development manager Carl Tamakloe described the show as a bit of a grand tour around Europe. He also stated that, “We were interested in hybrid warfare, fake news can destabilize a state. We wanted to be rooted in the idea that in 2025, you don’t fight like you did in 2000.” He also gave hints that the show would include a fictional climate conference, building off themes of energy and power.