A trailer for the Golden Axe animated series is full of self-referencing jokes

The adaptation of Sega's classic games hits Paramount+ on September 16.

Sega is reviving several of its old game franchises with new entries . It's also bringing back stagnating properties through adaptations, such as an animated Golden Axe series. The show — which was announced in 2024 — will debut on September 16 and a trailer just dropped.

The series focuses on a trio of heroes who set out to save the kingdom of Yuria from the evil Death Adder. Said villain wields the Golden Axe.

There are some fun nods toward the games in the trailer, such as a reference to the character select screen and Tyris saying the crew will have to "defeat a series of progressively harder enemies until we have a big final battle with Death Adder." There's a quippy tone here, with meta jokes about mini-bosses and Tyris yelling "Sega!" before charging into battle.

Ax Battler is voiced by Liam McIntyre ( Marvel's Wolverine ) and Lisa Gilroy of Dropout fame takes on the role of Tyris, while Widow's Bay and The Americans star Matthew Rhys portrays Gilius. The core trio is joined by would-be adventurer Hampton Squib, played by Danny Pudi.

The Golden Axe series was created by Mike McMahan (who created Star Trek: Lower Decks ) and Joe Chandler (a writer for American Dad ). It was originally supposed to air on Comedy Central, but it'll stream on Paramount+ instead.

The first season will run for 10 episodes. It's not clear how long each episode lasts, but it's likely the runtime will be close to the 32 minutes or so that it takes to beat the original 1989 game. I'll never forget the sound of the game's classic slash-slash-dunt-dunt-kick combo, which I hope is in the next Golden Axe game that's seemingly in the works .