Seth MacFarlane’s Dungeon Crawler Carl Series Gets Official Casting & Filming Updates

Published Oct 10, 2026, 2:03 PM EDT

Matt Dinniman brought the LitRPG (literary role-playing game) book and audio series titled Dungeon Crawler Carl to life in 2019. What began as a niche self-published web series has since expanded into a huge franchise with over 800,000 copies sold by early 2024, which then grew to 10 million copies. Now, the beloved franchise is expanding even further as Peacock has ordered a live-action adaptation of Dungeon Crawler Carl.

From the Universal Execs’ TV Adaptations panel at New York Comic Con, where ScreenRant's Jordan Williams was in attendance, updates were provided on Seth MacFarlane's adaptation of the Dungeon Crawler Carl novels. Author Dinniman confirms they haven’t cast anyone after Jeff for Dungeon Crawler Carl. Dinniman also stated the writers' room is working heavily on the Dungeon Crawler Carl series right now and that they are currently in week 4 of 20 in the process of getting the adaptation's script completed.

An alien invasion has wiped out most of humanity, and any survivors are forced to fight for their lives on a sadistic intergalactic game show. Sounds bad, right? Now try doing it with bare feet and a stuck-up, self-centered, tiara-wearing talking cat as your partner. Welcome to Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, where the apocalypse will be televised … and Coast Guard vet Carl finds himself stuck with his ex-girlfriend’s award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, as they try to survive the end of the world, fighting monsters, aliens, an insane A.I. and even other survivors … all for the sake of good TV. Survival is optional. Entertainment is not.

Kelsey Balance, EVP, Scripted Series, Universal Global Television, says they couldn’t imagine anyone else but Jeff Hays being cast for Princess Donut. Hays is known for being the audiobook narrator for the literary role-playing game Dungeon Crawler Carl, which has accumulated over 140 million listening hours on Audible. The author shared that:

"Carl has not been cast. We don’t have a specific answer. I don’t even think auditions have begun yet. I want Carl to be played by someone who embodies the role and can be both goofy and give off that really scary vibe. When Carl’s upset, he’s a very scary person. I don’t have a specific person yet, but we’ll see."

Balance shared: "We are starting to see drafts and outlines. We’ve gotten the whole series pitch, which is really exciting, but it’s continued to evolve. While that’s happening, we are building the ship, or building the plane, as we fly. So that’s happening and that drives everything. At the same time, we’re into soft prep. So we’re hiring HODs. We’re finding great line producers, production designers, directors, casting. All of it is kind of happening right now, which is fun."

The team revealed that they are currently in prep mode and hiring production designers, directors, etc. for the upcoming adaptation. While there is no specific release date, Balance confirmed they will begin shooting Peacock's Dungeon Crawler Carl next year by stating, "We don’t have an official launch date yet, but we’re working as quickly as possible." While not too much was revealed, it was heavily teased that in the next few weeks more details will be shared.

While the Dungeon Crawler Carl series may not have a release date yet, it appears more exciting announcements will take place over the next few weeks.

Network Peacock

Writers Chris Yost