Netflix is making an animated Splinter Cell series, but Michael Ironside won't be in it

The Splinter Cell remake that was promised three years ago has yet to materialize. However, Sam Fisher is making something of a comeback on Netflix in a new animation series called Deathwatch.

There's really not much to see. Sam Fisher, sporting a grandfatherly mustache, is sunk in the drink. He seems unfazed by the situation. The flashback of his old friend Doug Shetland's funeral suggests that he is subconsciously struggling with regret for reasons I won't spoil.

There is one small part of the trailer that I find objectionable:

Because no. No, he's not. Michael Ironside is Sam Fisher. Liev Schreiber seems like a great actor and a cool guy.

The gravel. The gravitas. Ironside's casting is all the more strange because Ironside is still perfect. This is not one of those cases where the actor who plays a videogame character does a lot of videogame work and wouldn't fit into an animated project. Ironside was an established Hollywood actor long before he became Sam Fisher. He played memorable roles in films such as Top Gun, Total Recall and Starship Troopers.

Michael Ironside, for the record is still alive and active. You may remember that he was forced to take a break from acting while battling cancer. This is why he wasn't able to return for Splinter Cell: Blacklist in 2013, but he did reprise his role for Ghost Recon Wildlands.

I'm left wondering why Ubisoft didn't bring him back to Deathwatch. I suppose Schreiber is more well-known to mainstream audiences but he's still not a household name. Ironside is also not a household brand, although a small part of me is tempted to say yes. But I feel that his presence would at the very least enthuse the Splinter Cell fans who have been suffering for so long.

It's possible that I'm being strange, but this also makes me worried that Ironside will be excluded from Splinter Cell, assuming the remake ever happens. This would be a far more serious transgression. For now, I'm calming my nerves by assuming Ironside didn’t do the Netflix show because he was too busy working on his next game. This makes sense, doesn't it?

Guillaume Dousse, Felicien Collmet-Daage and Gerard Guillemot are co-directing Splinter Cell Deathwatch. Derek Kolstad is the head writer and coexecutive producer. Helene Juguet and Hugo Revon also serve as co-executive producers. The release date is not yet known, but "coming soon" is the message.

I've contacted Netflix and Ubisoft about this egregious Ironside omission. I will update if and when I receive a response.