Paramount+ Drops 'Golden Axe' Trailer: Sega's Arcade Classic Becomes Adult Animated Comedy Sept. 16

Paramount+ has unveiled the first trailer for Golden Axe, an adult animated comedy series based on Sega's 1989 arcade beat-em-up, with all 10 episodes landing on the platform on Wednesday, 16 September 2026 (Variety; Deadline).

Emmy winner Matthew Rhys leads the voice cast as Gilius Thunderhead, described by Variety as "a grumpy battle dwarf with exceptionally poor hygiene and a chip on his shoulder." The character is one of three warriors from the original game who reunite to save the land of Yuria from the evil giant Death Adder. Joining them is Hampton Squib, an inexperienced adventurer who did not appear in the source material.

The voice cast also includes Danny Pudi as Hampton Squib, Lisa Gilroy as Tyris Flare, Liam McIntyre as Ax Battler, and Carl Tart as Chronos "Evil" Lait (Variety).

Mike McMahan and Joe Chandler co-created the series and co-wrote its first episode. Chandler serves as showrunner — the writer-producer who oversees the writers' room and day-to-day creative decisions across a season. Both are executive producers (Variety; Deadline).

The production spans several companies. CBS' Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Original Film produce the series. Sega's executive producers are Haruki Satomi, Shuji Utsumi and Toru Nakahara. Original Film's are Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty and Toby Ascher. Titmouse, a studio known for animated comedies, handles animation, with Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio and Ben Kalina as executive producers (Variety).

For anyone who fed coins into an arcade cabinet in the early 1990s, the premise will sound familiar: a band of fantasy warriors takes on a towering villain across a side-scrolling fantasy world. The animated series keeps the characters and the setting but shifts the tone toward adult comedy, broadening the property beyond the button-mashing action that made it a household name among Sega fans.

The full-season drop on a single day is a deliberate scheduling choice by Paramount+, giving subscribers the option to binge all 10 episodes at once rather than releasing them weekly. How the show performs in viewing hours and completion rate — the metrics streaming platforms use to judge whether a title earns a second season — will be the next thing to watch after 16 September.