The first episodes of the animated video game anthology series Secret Level have been released on Prime Video, and one of the wildest episodes is the one involving Pac-Man, which is titled “Circle”.
The creative team was really thinking outside of the box when they developed that episode and turned it into an intense horror story. There’s a reason for this as the developers of the game wanted audiences to be caught off guard.
During an interview with GamesRadar+, Secret Level’s executive producer Dave Wilson said this unique direction they took with the story came during a meeting with the developers.
Wilson explained: “We just took that and sort of disemboweled what Pac-Man is meant to be. They challenged us, the developers. The developers hopped on a call with us and were like – mind you, this was a translator saying this – ‘We would like the audiences to wonder, What the fuck did they do to Pac Man?’
“So it’s not just our responsibility when audiences watch it. But in that case, it’s like, I think people have enough knowledge of what Pac-Man is that we can take some risks.”
Wilson said they were pitched a lot of ideas for the Pac-Man episode, but one those really stood out. “We got a lot of great ideas, but some of them were exactly what you would think a Pac-Man episode would be, and we kept feeling like we’re not pushing the limits of what this is.”
JT Petty came up with the unique concept, and Wilson shared: “He came back with that script, and I remember reading it clearly being like, ‘I’m not fully sure I get this one, but I’m like, I shouldn’t get every episode.
“It’s not all for me, it’s an anthology, and I will say, the script was great, but when we gave it to Victor [Maldonado] and Alfredo [Torres], the directing team called Headless, their pitch was incredible.”
In the story, “a man (voiced by Aleks Le) wakes from his slumber, suspended inside a water tank. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Over email, Le likens this character to ‘a newborn baby in concept but with the motor functions and capabilities of an adult.’
“All this character knows is that there’s a spherical android of some sort floating in front of him (voiced by The Mandalorian’s Emily Swallow). Puck — named after Pac-Man’s original moniker of Puck-Man — claims he’s ‘the Chosen,’ someone destined to escape the maze in which they are currently trapped.
“Whether Puck can actually be trusted or if there’s more to this reality is a different matter. Puck guides the man to a sword, which he uses to cut across the jungles and barren deserts of this world to find a means of escape.”
If you haven’t started watching Secret Level yet, you should jump in! So, far from what I’ve watched, it’s been great! I’m enjoying it.
