Listen up all you long-suffering Splinter Cell fans, because I've got a shred of good news for you. No, it's not an update on the Splinter Cell remake Ubisoft announced way back in 2021, and it's not the revival of the Splinter Cell VR game that was canceled in 2022, and it's also not the rebirth of the Splinter Cell live-action movie starring Tom Hardy that was shut down in 2024.
It's news from the one Splinter Cell project that is somehow still on track: the animated series. Netflix's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (doesn't really roll off the tongue, does it) now has a teaser and a release date: October 14.
It being a teaser, we don't see a whole lot of Netflix's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (I stubbornly insist on using the full name of the show from now on), but it features an older Sam Fisher who I'm guessing is reluctantly pulled out of retirement after a buncha guys in tactical gear try to ice him. There's a knife to the head, there's a knife in the guts, and someone gets garroted. Note to assassins: if you're going after Sam Fisher, there's no point in doing it at night. He's got goggles for that. They're pretty iconic.
Liev Schreiber (who played Ray Donovan in Showtime's Ray Donovan, and played Ray Donovan in Showtime's Ray Donovan: The Movie, and also played Ray Donovan Sabertooth in that one pretty bad Wolverine movie) is voicing Sam Fisher in the new series, but as you can probably guess there are far more comments on the teaser mentioning another actor: Michael Ironside, after his work as Fisher in five Splinter Cell games plus a few crossovers in other games like Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, has left a big larynx to fill.
I know it's hard to adjust to a new actor playing an iconic role, but hopefully fans will give Schreiber a shot. As Stephen Stills said, if you can't be with the Sam Fisher you love, honey, love the Sam Fisher you're with. Along with Schreiber, the series also stars Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Barry, The Good Place), Janet Varney (The Legend of Korra, Stan Against Evil), and Kari Wahlgren (Mortal Kombat 1).
As for the Splinter Cell remake, we're still waiting to hear something, anything, from Ubisoft. It's been over a decade since the last Splinter Cell game, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (which also didn't star Michael Ironside). Maybe Ubisoft will use the animated series launch in October as a springboard to give Fisher fans some genuine hope about a new game.
