Crash Bandicoot Return Officially Announced, Our Boy is Back

Crash Bandicoot is once again set to return to our screens in a brand new adventure, just not in the medium you’d expect.

It’s tough out there for Crash Bandicoot fans at the moment. It’s been a hot minute since we received a new mainline title in the franchise, with the last being all the way back in 2020 with the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.

There have been a few spin-offs in between then, but I’m not sure fans are particularly thrilled with the random mobile game and whatever the hell Crash Team Rumble (that weird live-service “strategic platformer” that dropped in 2023) was.

If you were hoping for the announcement of Crash Bandicoot 5, then I have some bad news for you. The next mainline Crash Bandicoot title was reportedly cancelled - so Activision could force developer Toys For Bob to focus on more live-service rubbish instead. Good stuff. Great decisions all round.

Crash Bandicoot 4 Its About Time official promo image, via Activision

Nope, instead, Activision and Microsoft have apparently lent the rights out to Netflix, so that they can produce a new Crash Bandicoot animated series. Hey, silver lining: at least it’s not live-action.

This news comes via What’s On Netflix’s Kasey Moore, who revealed that WildBrain Studios, which also produced the Sonic Prime animated series at Netflix, will be helming the upcoming series. We don't know much else about the project beyond that, including its release date.

Funnily enough, this news follows a recent report in which CEO of Sega of America Shuji Utsumi stated that he attempted (but ultimately failed) to get a Crash Bandicoot film off the ground back when he worked for Sony. The film never ended up making it to the pre-production phase, because movie execs “didn't really take it seriously”.

Oh, how the tables have turned. Now that video game adaptations like Minecraft and Sonic the Hedgehog are doing numbers at the box office, the rights for Crash Bandicoot have suddenly found themselves in the hands of Activision.

I would bet good money that Sony would be pushing for a live-action Crash Bandicoot movie if they still held the rights, so maybe that’s a good thing.

On the plus side, if the Crash Bandicoot series at Netflix does perform decently, the chances of Microsoft and Activision actually making Crash Bandicoot 5 will increase… ah, but who am I kidding? If it does well, they’ll probably just opt to make some more live-service slop instead.