In Sep. 2025, Prime Video announced that it was initiating the transformation of Square Enix’s episodic, choice-based video game franchise “Life is Strange (2015)” from console to TV screens, as a series on its platform.
The team assembled for this adaptation has also been announced. BAFTA Award winner Charlie Covell, writer of the comic to screen adaptation of The End of the F****ing World (2017) and Kaos (2024), will serve as the creator, executive producer, and showrunner. Moreover, Amazon MGM Studios has teamed up with independent production companies Story Kitchen and LuckyChap to bring the game to life.
Story Kitchen was launched in 2022 by “Sonic the Hedgehog” co-producer and dj2 Entertainment founder, Dmitri M. Johnson, former IAG agent and partner, Mike Goldberg, alongside senior executive Timothy I. Stevenson and creative executive Elena Sandoval. Together, the team has brought nostalgic games like “Tomb Raider” and “Sonic the Hedgehog” to the big screen.
In addition, LuckyChap Entertainment, founded in 2014 by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr, focuses on expanding the impact of female storytellers telling female stories in the film industry. They are behind “I, Tonya,” “Birds of Prey” and “Promising Young Women,” just to name a few.
So far, the storyline established by the first game, released in 2015, will be reflected in the live-action adaptation. We will follow Max, a photography student who discovers she can rewind time as she saves her childhood friend, Chloe’s life. As the two explore the magnitude of this new power, they investigate the disappearance of a fellow student and discover the dark side of their town which forces them to make a life changing, life-or death decision.
While news about the adaptation is still rolling out slowly, the two actors leading the production have been announced. Singer and actress, Maisy Stella will be playing Chloe– she is known mostly for her role in ABC music drama “Nashville” and playing opposite Aubrey Plaza in the critically acclaimed feature “My Old Ass (2024).” From this role, Stella earned the Independent Spirit Award and followed with a role in Maude Apatow’s feature directorial debut, “Poetic License.” Later this year, we’ll also be seeing Stella alongside Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in “Flowervale Street.”
Moreover, a fresh face will be illuminating our screens: Tatum Grace Hopkins has made a home on Broadway, but is now branching out to bring Max to life as her debut role in television. Hopkins has starred in Broadway productions like “The Queen of Versailles” and “For the Girls.” She also starred in the short film, “Meek” that premiered at the Montclair Film Festival in 2024.
The reveal was posted onto the Amazon MGM Studios TikTok, which showed a wall adorned with polaroids from the game and of the two actresses with their respective character’s name sharpied underneath the photos. In the comment section of the video, the public reaction was very mixed, yet most comments reflected excitement to see fresh faces bring these beloved characters to life. Moreover, one comment expressed the importance of staying true to the game’s 2010’s aesthetic and lingo, and to not “gen-z-ify it.”
The details are being revealed as the weeks go by, but now it’s up to the production team to give the audience what they want.
