A live-action Carmen Sandiego movie was announced back in 2018 with Jane The Virgin actress, Gina Rodriguez, take on the lead role. The film was announced for Netflix but instead, we got a well-received animated series that ran for two seasons, with a third on the way. Rodriguez did voice Sandiego on the show and now she is saying the live-action take is back on the table and the project is set to be an origin story.
“Duane [Capizzi] who did the animation … is a brilliant man and did such a phenomenal job at creating this world because, I mean, I grew up with Carmen Sandiego and it was mostly the PBS game, and it was mostly the computer game, but you didn’t really know anything about her. So Duane created this entire incredibly intertwined beautiful story with backstory and all that, and so with the live-action, ideally, we would be able to create multiple films. But to bring in this first film, it is really imperative to us to create this iconic character that we loved, right? That we didn’t know much about and give her a really solid story that we all fall in love with. So that’s the unique challenge that we are working on, but I’m really excited and hopeful because it’s coming together great.”
Carmen Sandiego made her first appeared in the 1985 classic game “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.” The game introduced the world to the antics of the titular heroine and former spy, who masterminded a series of daring robberies with her crew. It was up to the players to stop and apprehend Sandiego by deciphering a number of clues and puzzles and making strategic decisions to nab the criminal gang.
Since her first appearance in the game, the character has become very popular in pop-culture through a number of spinoff games, comics, and animated shows, which were created to mine her popularity. The Netflix animated series puts a modern spin on the character by making her a Robin Hood of sorts, who steals from evil organizations to give money back to the needy. Aside from her traditional role as the leader of a daring gang of robbers, a new angle was added to the character’s backstory that involved being abandoned by her parents as a baby, finding out that her mother is still alive, and resolving to track her down. I’m sure this angle could be added to the live-action when it’s finally made.
