Ark: Survival Evolved transports players to a mysterious island populated by prehistoric creatures, most notably dinosaurs, as well as various human factions and tribes. While engaging with its online sandbox survival crafting and other gameplay loops, fans can uncover truths about Ark's strange land and the secrets behind the purposes of it all. And though Ark: Survival Evolved and ​​​​​​Ascended (the updated and expanded version) contain many hints and clues about its overarching tale, the main focus in the games is not necessarily on this narrative.
Recently, Part 1 of Ark: The Animated Series premiered on Paramount Plus. The show explores in much greater detail Ark's lore, characters, and history via an adaptation of the games' core plot components. In an interview with Game Rant, series creator, director, and executive producer, Jeremy Stieglitz, breaks down the finer points of adapting Ark: Survival Evolved's existing framework and story elements into an episodic narrative format, along with other elements like writing and casting for the show. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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How Ark: Survival Evolved's Story Was Adapted for the Animated Series
Q: One of Ark: The Animated Series’ core themes is the exploration of morality, violence, and war through the characters' timelines, origins, and worldviews. Was that always a central idea, or did it evolve along the course?
Jeremy Stieglitz: It definitely was a central idea for the show. Admittedly, in relation to the games, they have a story that is roughly analogous in the big, kind of architectural plot sense to the show. But those themes themselves are not particularly relevant in the games because there it’s more plot-based, as in: This is the reason the Arks exist, and this is the backing lore behind them. But ethical/moral themes, or heavy emotional and character-driven aspects just don't really have a space to develop in the way the game's story is told, which is in sort of bullet point fashion through various notes.
Going into the show we asked, "What advantages do we have in the narrative medium that we don't in the interactive one?” Obviously, some games are heavily narrative based. Ark: Survival Evolved's narrative is more like background or context for why you're there taming dinosaurs and so forth. For the show, it was an opportunity to ask, “How can we create something that's emotionally engaging in a way that we couldn't with a video game?” The other thing is, making Helena [Walker] even more of the main protagonist than perhaps she was in the games. She’s certainly important in them and becomes critically so as the story develops. We knew early on that we wanted her to be our throughline character, seeing this world as she sees it right from the get-go.
Those themes of war, love, regret, guilt, trauma, etc. were very much part of the show's mix from the beginning. Part 1 delves into them, but they get even heavier in Part 2. I would add that, while we set out to hit on those themes, it really took the writers Marguerite [Bennett] and Kendall [Deacon] to actually bring them to life. Without the right words, it doesn't really mean much. And of course, the actors to voice them. Quite early on though, we knew we wanted to explore those themes in the show and approach it from those angles.
Q: Related, were there any other angles in that vein that came up in discussions but didn't end up making it into the final version?
Stieglitz: There were definitely themes related more to some of the heavier philosophical and sci-fi ones, and we get there to some extent here [in Part 1] and more so in Part 2. But we really want to go further down that road and continue the story in subsequent seasons. Ultimately, Ark: Survival Evolved is a sci-fi story, and for fans of the game, they know just how far it goes in that regard. And those themes directly address certain ideas of the theory of mind, the philosophy of what it means to be human - concepts more of that nature, which aren't fully brought into the foreground in Part 1. We get to the real crest of those at the end, but we don't dive headfirst into it yet.
Q: Were there any other difficulties in expanding and adapting Ark’s framework from the games as-is into an episodic structure?
Stieglitz: Yes. One of the things about Ark: Survival Evolved's story as told in the games through the Explorer Notes is there are many, many different factions, and they all have different goals, leaders, and interesting nuggets of what makes them unique. We had to boil it down to a few key factions in the show. We only had so much time and so many episodes, and wanted to make it very character-driven. Some of the tribes are name-checked variously, but we didn't really have a chance to heavily explore each of them in the way that the games’ Notes do.
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Casting and Writing for Ark: The Animated Series
Q: The cast is impressive: Gerard Butler, David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Jeffrey Wright, Vin Diesel, Madeleine Madden, Elliot Page, Karl Urban, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Tudyk, Russell Crowe, and more. How were some of these actors chosen? Were any fans of Ark beforehand?
Stieglitz: I’ll start with the second question, because it’s really funny. Not many had played Ark prior to joining the project, though they did subsequently. But one who was definitely a fan, bigger than me even, because he told us about bugs and issues with the game - some we were aware of, others that we had to look more into - was Vin Diesel. Vin reached out to us as game developers, and we flew out to meet him. And then all night he talked us under the table [laughs.] Some people say, “drink under the table,” we got talked under the table about Ark: Survival Evolved by Vin Diesel! So, we thought, 'OK, we have to do something with him.' Vin was already an immense fan, and was immediately keen on it because he knew the game so well, probably better than we did in some ways, and loved it.
The rest of the cast was a combination of wish-casting and getting lucky. Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. Because one of the reasons we got so many of those actors was due to the pandemic. People were stuck at home with nothing to do, including major Hollywood talent. And voice acting for this project seemed like a good way to help get through that. So that was definitely a factor.
We did cast in our heads in advance of writing, and that was dangerous for us, because if we didn’t get the person we wanted, we would’ve had to re-think the voice. We literally said, for example, "Let’s write Mei-Yin as if it’s Michelle Yeoh saying these lines." And thank goodness we got her because it would’ve sounded very different coming from anybody else. That was the case for pretty much all the characters. And again, lucky or unlucky, depending on your view, and certainly the pandemic wasn’t a fun time for anybody. But we were very thankful to get everybody we wanted down the line, and they all gave powerful performances.
Ark: The Animated Series Part 1 Fan Responses
Q: What’s the fan reaction been like? Have you gotten any specific feedback?
Stieglitz: It’s by and large been very positive. Most fans love seeing Ark: Survival Evolved's world brought to life and motion, feeling like it’s now one they can really picture. The story has come more into the foreground. Hearing the voices of these characters and feeling their emotions, it’s the first time you can say, “Ark isn’t just a video game that I’m playing, but a world I can believe in and immerse myself in its emotional aspects.” Also, more Gareth Coker music is always a plus! The guy’s a legend in the video game industry. Beyond just Ark, he’s one of the foremost video game composers of the age, so hearing three and a half hours, just for Part 1, of his original music is a present for all game fans.
However, there are some "controversies." They’re relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. But one is, and we knew this going into it, we changed Rockwell’s character significantly from how he was written in the game, at least early on. There, Rockwell begins mostly as an ally of Helena, and gradually becomes corrupted by or perhaps too obsessed with the capabilities and powers of the Ark, which leads to him becoming an uber-villain. We’ve shifted that narrative quite a bit. For the show’s dramatic arc, we had something more emotional in mind for him. When it opens, he’s already quite evil. And then we start doing some interesting things with his character that, I don’t want to spoil anything, but we have some big plans for him.
Starting and ending Rockwell in slightly different places was more useful dramatically for the show. The critical thing, though, is that, to get there, we still have to hit the big points and moments that the game goes to with his character, and that’s our intention. So there has been some fan consternation that he starts out pretty damn evil, and they’d like to see more depth in his character. And they’ll definitely get some of that in the episodes to come. But that’s one I heard a lot.
Another is that people are somewhat disappointed that it’s not a literal 1:1 of the Explorer Notes plot. We explicitly decided early on we were going to do an adaptation rather than a transliteration of the existing Notes. For some fans who may not have been expecting an adaptation, seeing things changed up a little bit can be off-putting, especially if they’re very familiar with the Notes in the game. But I think it allows for surprises, because they then don’t necessarily know exactly how everything’s going to play out in the show. It also works better as a fresh intro for anyone not familiar with Ark: Survival Evolved to have the story structured specifically for the show rather than a direct or rigid translation.