Twisted Metal director says ‘I’d be very hurt’ if a revival rumour is true

Twisted Metal director David Jaffe has played down suggestion that PlayStation could be preparing to revive the classic car combat series.

On Friday, credible Battlefield and Call of Duty leaker Tom Henderson suggested on social media that a new Twisted Metal project was in the works, for release in 2023.

If true, the game would coincide with the Twisted Metal television project Sony has already officially announced, which is in the works at its PlayStation Productions movie and TV studio.

A revival for the vehicular combat series would represent its first entry in nearly ten years. However, David Jaffe – who worked on nearly every Twisted Metal game, but is now an active YouTuber – said on Friday (paywalled video) that he did not believe the rumour was true.

While the God of War creator could not definitively debunk the claim, he said he was doubtful a new game was in the works and said he’d be “very, very hurt” if it was, as Sony has not reached out to him.

“I don’t think I’m Sony’s favourite person right now, just because of this stream and everything,” he said, “[but] if it’s true I would be very, very hurt that PlayStation didn’t ask for my input at best, or at worst, at least let me know it was happening.

“These are the guys who reached out to me and hooked me up with the guys making the TV show… I don’t imagine they would cut me out of it. At least, at a pure PR level, so they could say [I was] involved.

UPDATE: Jaffe has published a short reaction video, available publicly:

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: He added: “I haven’t heard a thing… from official Sony words or behind the scenes stuff, and I hear a lot of behind the scenes stuff that I’m not supposed to know. You would’ve thought I would’ve heard this one.”

Jaffe pointed to the poor reception to Sony-published car combat game Destruction AllStars earlier this year as one reason he doesn’t believe it would pursue a Twisted Metal revival right now.

“I think Sony got a bloody nose financially from [Destruction AllStars], so I don’t think they’re sat around saying, ‘let’s try another car combat title… and let’s try one that historically has only done well in one territory’. I don’t see that,” he said.

“I know a lot about the TV series. If you were to ask me questions about rumours around the Twisted Metal TV series, I could say ‘I really can’t talk about that’. But you’d know I knew about them. He added: “But in [the game’s] case, they might be making it, but I don’t know anything about it.”

The first details on Sony’s upcoming Twisted Metal TV series emerged earlier this year.

According to Variety, the live-action adaptation of PlayStation’s vehicular combat series will be an action comedy penned by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of the Deadpool films and Zombieland.

It will focus on an outsider tasked with delivering a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland roamed by bandits in deadly vehicles, including the series’ trademark character, Sweet Tooth, a psychotic clown who drives a modified ice cream truck.