Final Fantasy Live Action Movie - Final Fantasy
In 2017, the first Live Action TV drama for the Final Fantasy series was released in Japan titled ‘Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light’ It was an eight-episode mini drama series with a story that focused on a father and son rekindling their relationship through the game of the online MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. The drama series cut between live action (the real world) and gameplay (of the father and son playing) and in a way was more of a tribute to the Final Fantasy franchise. In 2019, this emotional TV drama was turned into a movie of the same name. Furthermore, also in 2019, Sony Pictures Television and production company Hivemind Entertainment announced they will be partnering up with Square Enix to create and produce a new live action TV series with rumors that it will be more focused on the character and gameplay of the franchise.
Final Fantasy XIV Dad of Light Live Action TV Drama Series
The story of Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light was inspired by a series of blog posts entitled Hikari no Otousan by a Final Fantasy XIV player "Ichigeki Kakusatsu SS Nikki". In his blog of more than 60 posts, it details how the father and son pair used the game to rekindle their father and son relationship. The TV drama was produced by Square Enix and directed by Teruo Noguchi and Kiyoshi Yamamoto. During the course of the series, clips, cutscenes and action of the Akio and Hirotaro playing as characters in the Final Fantasy XIV are shown.
The story starts focused on the main character Akio Inaba, who is a young salaryman office worker in his 20s. Despite living in the same house together since childhood, Akio and his father had very little communication while Akio was growing up, to the point where their conversations would not go over a few words.
One day, out of the blue, Akio’s father, Hirotaro quit his full-time job and suddenly became forcefully retired. For someone to be so dedicated to their work and then suddenly quit baffled both Akio and his mother. Finding it difficult to talk to his father to find out the reason for his early retirement Akio remembers one of the few bonding moments in his childhood with his father was playing Final Fantasy III together when he was little. In hopes of reigniting his passion for Final Fantasy and finding a means to reconnect with his father, Akio buys Hirotaro a Final Fantasy XIV game and constructs a plan to secretly befriend his father in the game and unknowingly join his guild on the MMORPG video game Final Fantasy XIV. Through the game Akio learns and discovers a painful secret about his father and the reason why he quit his job.
Brave Father Online: Our Story of Final Fantasy XIV Live Action Movie
Brave Father Online: Our Story of Final Fantasy XIV is a live action movie recreated from the original TV drama series Final Fantasy XIV Dad of Light and released in 2019. The actors and actresses changed from the original TV series due to the unfortunate death of the original actor, Ren Osugi, who played the father Hirotaro Inaba in the original TV drama series. Osugi died from a heart attack the following year the TV drama was released.
The new actors were Kentaro Sakaguchi who played the son, Akio Inaba, and Kotaro Yoshida who played the father. A new edition to the movie in comparison to the TV drama is the appearance of Akio’s sister, Miki Inaba who is played by Maika Yamamoto.
In both the movie and TV drama the Final Fantasy XIV game is set in the world of Eorzea. In the game, players can create their own character from ten different character creation classes along with six races and three areas within the Eorzea world you can begin your journey. The Final Fantasy XIV characters stayed the same in both the TV drama series and movie. Akio created his female character, Maidy, as the cute Elezen with blonde hair and bright orange colored eyes. Akio’s father chose a male Hyur character named him, Indy, with brown spiky hair and brown eyes.
New Live Action TV Drama Series
In 2019, Sony Pictures Television and production company Hivemind Entertainment announced they will be partnering up with Square Enix to create and produce a new live action TV series based on Final Fantasy XIV with rumors that it will be more focused on the character and gameplay of the franchise.
At New York Comic-Con, founder of Hivemind Entertainment, Dinesh Shamdasani was interviewed by IGN learning more about the future plans. Shamdasani can be found quoted explaining the reason behind the choice of Final Fantasy XIV again.
Our hope is that we build something cool that goes for a long time. Final Fantasy XIV is, by virtue of its format, able to continue to expand itself, add itself in there. Hopefully it can be some cross-pollination where they can say, 'This is a new expansion,' and we say, 'Great, we're going to lean into that in the new season' or 'we're going to lead to this [in the] new season,' and they say, 'Great, we're going to do an expansion that includes those elements,' and it can feel more [of] a piece, which is rare.
The series is said to still not be in production yet and Final Fantasy fans will have to eagerly wait for more information.
Links
Dad of Light Official Website
Dad of Light Movie Official Website