2020: The Netflix Relationship Becomes Complicated

2020 was also the year when Activision Blizzard and Netflix became involved in a separate legal dispute — one that should not be confused with Blizzard’s reported entertainment projects.

In December 2020, Activision Blizzard sued Netflix over the recruitment of Spencer Neumann, who had previously served as Activision Blizzard’s Chief Financial Officer. Activision Blizzard alleged that Netflix had induced Neumann to leave before the end of his contractual commitment and had interfered with his employment agreement. Netflix had hired Neumann as its CFO in January 2019. (Axios)

The lawsuit was therefore fundamentally a corporate executive-recruitment dispute, rather than a lawsuit over Diablo, Overwatch or StarCraft adaptations.

At around the same period, separate reports had described animated projects involving Blizzard properties and Netflix. However, the existence of the legal dispute does not by itself establish that it caused those reported adaptation projects to be cancelled.

That distinction is important.

The reported Blizzard–Netflix adaptation plans did not ultimately produce the major publicly released Diablo or Overwatch series that had been anticipated, but the precise relationship between those projects and the later Activision Blizzard–Netflix litigation should not be presented as confirmed.

For the purposes of Blizzard’s film-and-television history, the safer conclusion is that the reported Netflix adaptation plans remained unrealised, while the companies subsequently became involved in a separate legal conflict over executive recruitment.