The creator of the new video game adaptation Among Us, which just shadow-dropped at Summer Games Fest, says he took on the animated series because of his love of the sci-fi genre, as the game reminded him of John Carpenter's The Thing.
"I like murder mysteries. Love them. Every time you play the game, it's a murder mystery, and so I like murder mysteries," says Owen Dennis in an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+. "I like The Thing, I like Alien. Like, it's basically everything that I like wrapped up into a game, so like I'm into it."
When you break the video game down, it really does mimic Carpenter's 1982 classic. Just swap out the isolated research centre for a space setting like Ridley Scott's Alien. Set on a ship travelling through the galaxy, Among Us follows a group of little astronauts delivering ore to a neighbouring planet. Before players enter the game, they are given the role of either crewmate or imposter. Crewmates must complete tasks to keep the ship running, while the Impostors try to kill all crewmates.
Much like The Thing, Among Us forces players to question one another. It is easy to forget what you are playing the game, but the Imposter isn't just a frantic serial killer; it has been possessed by a man-eating shape-shifting alien. The TV show follows a similar premise to the game, seeing a bunch of paranoid crewmates being picked off one by one. However, the show leans further into the alien theme, delivering a more exaggerated creature and a whole stack of gruesome deaths. Dennis says this is his way of "furthering the genre in some way."
Dennis' love for sci-fi also helped him translate the mini-game to screen, as unlike many other video game adaptations like The Last of Us, Until Dawn, and Fallout, Among Us doesn't really have a clear storyline. "So you take inspiration from what the game was taking inspiration from, like Alien and The Thing and Star Trek," explains Dennis, "And you start going 'Oh, where are some of the things that are similar across those?' Like every ship has a captain, every ship has a security person… and you sort of start building around that, and that's where we started."
Among Us has a stacked crew, led by Captain Red (Randall Park), alongside HR manager Orange (Yvette Nicole Brown), eccentric researcher Cyan (Kimiko Glenn), geologist Black (Liv Hewson), head of security Purple (Ashley Johnson), maintenance guy Lime (Wayne Knight), cooks Brown and Yellow (Phil LaMarr ad Debra Wilson), onboard doctor Blue (Dan Stevens) and interns Green and White (Elijah Wood and Patton Oswalt).
Among Us is out now on Paramount Plus. See our Among Us review for our verdict. For more, check out our guide to the best shows on Paramount Plus, and keep up with upcoming video game movies.
