Duke Nukem doesn’t really fit in the modern world, except as the poster boy of toxic masculinity. As much as I like the OG games for the gameplay, I don’t see the character working now unless they change him dramatically.
I dunno, it was pretty over the top back then already. Just lean into it, put him across some ultra feminist and let them both grow from it. Similar to Austin Powers. I think Civvie said something along those lines in his DN Forever video.
That sounds … genius
i love the new headcanon duke that the internet has developed after the games. he’s still a rabid womanizer, but he’s wizened with age and become a supportive womanizer. “nobody messes with our chicks and lives” applies to all women. trans women are women because hey, more chicks is always good. and trans men? hell yeah, who wouldn’t want to be like duke?
They could pull a Spec Ops: The Line, and use the franchise flag to pull a masterful writing twist that analyzes the original gluttony in a confrontational way.
Just get Gianni Matragrano on the team and let him go nuts.
Aww just the screen rights, I thought this was about someone else acquiring the Duke franchise
As someone who has a giant soft spot in her heart for Duke, what story is there to tell?
Duke Nukem is a simple man. He’s here to fuck up alien bastards(for taking the babes, crashing his ride, generally existing), save attractive women, and maybe remember to pick up that pack of gum on his way home.
He’s not really even a “character”, he’s a walking embodiment of 80s and 90s machismo with big guns and less plot than the typical comic book of the time. He’s a machine built for one-liners. He’s a never-ending thoughtless action flick you love because it takes so little actual thought to enjoy.
This same person also made Captain lazerhawk: a blood dragon remix, which was absolutely one of the most unhinged things I have ever seen. An unholy mashup of random Ubisoft characters and references from over the decades, thrown into this dystopic sci-fi plot without any regard for sanity.
I really need to just sit down and watch that. I keep seeing either “It’s insane, but absolutely great” or “It’s absolute dogshit”, and that’s the kinda shit I normally dig.
If they can turn something out with Duke that feels like Duke, I’m down, I’ll support it. He just feels like the most out of left field character to bring back, especially as something outside of a game.
When Gearbox got the rights, I was sure Duke was going to show up in Borderlands, because thats basically the perfect place to put a relic of a character like that.
Have him do the 80s macho-man thing as a side character, and then contrast how much things have changed in the last 30 years for comedy.
There is no story that you could tell with Duke as the main character that wouldn’t feel like it was a script written in 1998 just rotting in a warehouse somewhere.
I have wanted to see him interact with Sal in some capacity for the longest time. I feel like there could be at least some “a better you” gags on Duke.
I feel Duke, Torgue, and Sal would make for a dialogue that is as equally epic as it is brain rotting.
Well, see Last Action Hero
A movie from '93. Which, I believe, influenced what is probably the most recognizable Duke outing, Duke 3D.
That’s kinda part of the point I’m making. Duke is a product of that time, of shallow action flicks with beefy dudes and solid one-liners, often with a little sexism tossed in for spice.
But wasn’t the point of Last Action Hero that „shallow action flicks with beefy dudes and solid one-liners“ are a thing of the past? If it was an influence on Duke 3D, it didn’t retain any of this notion. Video games are a generation behind, maybe it could work again.
And Duke has kinda proven that. 3D has had multiple ports, some better than others, but barely anyone talks about the 2D GBA titles, and Forever will forever be a rotting flop.
The last big commercial success was at an end of an era, at best becoming an archaic parody of a branch of the industry no longer really made, at worst an uncomfortable artifact of a bygone era of entertainment.
Duke could try to reconnect with his daughter, in a world under the benevolent rule of the aliens.
That’d work…
In a very strange reboot of Johnny Bravo, who was a much more positive parody of characters like Duke Nukem. Duke is written as the stereotype who’d bag 'em, tag 'em, and jet to the next bed.
sounds great to me we need more big dumbass corny action flicks about buff dudes and hot ladies
Right. A Duke Nukem movie is impossible in the same way a Baywatch movie was, but that turned out pretty fun and…well…less offensive than expected…?
I don’t think it’s a particularity great idea, but I like to imagine that it’s possible for a Duke Nukem film to keep what’s fun without being as cringe as the original.
If nothing else, the original games were just “Mario had a gun now.”
You just gave all the reasons they would make a movie of him.
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A nasty baddie that the audience can hate? ✅
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Macho main character? ✅
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One liners that can be sprinkled throughout the movie to give the audience goose bumps when uttered? ✅
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Hot chicks in trouble? ✅
This is already a movie that a game would normally be made from.
In the actual time of Duke’s peak, absolutely. Hell, with a clever writer and director team, I would support a low-budget tongue-in-cheek flick.
But Duke is heavily a product of the times. I just can’t see a full take that wouldn’t rip out what makes him iconic, but equally terrible, as a character.
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Yes, but it’s a very good character & world/lore to build a story + the games themselves have a ton of situationally epic things in them to include or even build around them.
(If Duke doesn’t shit up the throat of a decapitated alien we riot.)And tho there is more lore, it’s not like Castlevania and DMC are directly screen-playable, but they did a fairly good job (there are better showrunners in the genre, but I think Duky Nuky fits the chill & just barely enough complicated/just over the border of simplistic vibe of DMC show, and I’m sure won’t skip on epic cool shit, maybe even a decent joke or two … I dread the inevitably cringe oneliners).
I’d argue both DMC and Castlevania has more depth than Duke. While DMC can be summed down to “Cocky man kicks ass”, there’s been greater depths explored with a lot of the cast. Not an ocean, of course, but there’s more to the characters than mere face value.
Castlevania has a wide cast of characters who, while not always presented in the most complex manner, have implied histories and personalities that can be built upon. There’s enough skeleton to support some good muscle.
Duke has the depth of a petri dish. He’s the embodiment of “What You See Is What You Get”.
Like I said elsewhere, a single movie in his peak, or a low budget tongue-in-cheek throwback, I could get behind.
I just don’t see the potential of a Duke series, or even a film getting beyond cult classic status among a select few.
I’d argue both DMC and Castlevania has more depth than Duke.
Def! I said that specifically.
Of the two especially Castlevania offers much more depth & independence to it’s characters.
Duke 1 & 2 didn’t even leave that much character impression on me as the 3(D) did (ok, nether did Keen tbh).
Duke Nukem series will def be it’s own thing (like DMCs & Castlevanias), taking characters & the base premise & do its own thing. Same universe but unrelated to the games. Like comic books - the number of different ways Bruce’s parents get deaded is absurd :D (one time even due to Teen Titans actions).
… up?
Yeah, lol, didn’t know how to phrase that - down the throat would def be if he shat in the throat part of the body, but with the head you could say both (‘up’ in regards to the usual way things go down the throat but ‘down’ in regards to gravity).
I guess “down” would be the better choice, my bad.
edit: … my brainhole fucked up, he shits down the throat of the body. Why do I remember him sitting on the decapitated head? Was that in
ForneverForever?
I could see a single short mini-episode where Duke shoots shit up and saves the day, and that’s the depth it goes. A whole series? Kinda seems a bit too thin for that.
Besides, considering the character: if they keep him as is - some people are gonna raise hell. If they don’t - other people gonna raise hell. I don’t see there being a winning move here.
But, eh, whatever. If someone really wants to spend money on making it happen, sure, go ahead.
edit:
“It’s a middle finger to everybody,” Shankar said when describing his vision for Duke Nukem. “When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it’s just a middle finger. Duke Nukem can’t be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it’s no longer Duke Nukem. I don’t intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one.”
as the article says. I guess they have a vision, but at the end of the day, a “middle finger to everybody” doesn’t seem like a commercial success. Oh well, remains to be seen what comes out of this.
A recognizable blank slate for action set-pieces sounds like a studio’s dream. They can do anything and someone will watch it.
Oh yeahhh
Hail to the King, baby.
Ah great. Duke’s dead.
That is true. To be fair, Duke is already dead. But now he will be even deader.
I heard they traded Dukes rights for a whole carton of cigarettes.
Is Duke Nukem going to Iraq now?
Reposting some thoughts from /r/Civvie11, when Randy Pitchford stepped down:
I admire their optimism for a Duke Nukem redemption. I don’t share it, but I admire it. Some characters are deeply rooted in a particular era.
Personally, if I had crazy billionaire money, the route I’d go is less Johnny Bravo (self-obsessed dork with limitless self-confidence) and more like a shameless hedonist who knows what he’s into and just does not waste time worrying about anything else. The kind of machismo-driven maniac who’d exit an exploding spaceship wearing a parachute and carrying a rescued blonde, have some one-liner suggesting a dramatic kiss as debris rains around them, take no for an answer, and then have a followup line playing off the situation. An egomaniac whose only response to aliens dropping a building-sized effigy mocking him is to admire the likeness - possibly after adding sunglasses, using a rocket launcher and their ships.
The durable goal is a larger-than-life figure like Theodore Roosevelt. Some fearless asshole with enough money and fame to try all the stupid shit that sounds equal parts impressive and deadly, and enough skill, brawn, and sheer dumb luck to survive it all. Someone who - if he is not already in the authorities’ short list of troubleshooters to call when trouble arises and needs shooting - shows up anyway, kicks a jawdropping quantity of ass, and shakes the hand of whichever military or police leader marches up to call him a reckless idiot. (And if we jump-cut to him in a holding cell, he’d use an improvised hook to reach past the keys and grab his cigar.)
Toxic fuckboys are still going to distort that into support for their “nice guy” delusions of adequacy, but it’s not like they’d be scared off by cliche scenes of polite respect and private complexity. Duke Nukem is is not a deep character. He’s never gonna be the kind of guy to wax poetic about the nature of masculinity. He’s unlikely to express any emotion besides anger, explosion, and penis. But the list of people whose urethras he’d invert with his boot includes a lot of assholes who think they’re like him just because they drink and curse and piss people off.
It should be a fun line to ride. Duke is simple. He’s not charismatic. He’s not anyone you’d like in real life. He’s a shallow dickhead who wants to be surrounded by shallow floozies, until shit goes down, at which point he’ll strut through hell rearranging the faces and organs of whoever ruined his caveman paradise, and then he’ll want to be surrounded by shallow floozies whilst watching himself on TV. It would be goddamn near impossible to make that both realistic and tolerable, but it should not be terribly difficult to make it entertaining.
DNF was a miss on most fronts. However: I think Johnny Bravo is a good example of what not to do, because he’s not taken seriously by anyone. Not in his world or in ours. Duke can’t have that… epic loserdom, I guess, where no amount of disrespect phases him. He’s not Peter Parker shooting finger-guns in Spider-Man 3.
Being a loser doesn’t mean being a bad person, it means lacking respect from others. It’s a sort of social failure. Arguably the whole gag for Johnny Bravo is that he’s socially inept in a harmless and predictable way. And either in spite of that or because of that, the near-universal rejection never bothers him.
You can’t do that to Duke without ruining him. His machismo is not a punchline. He is genuinely a capable and witty protagonist, molded in traditional masculinity, draped in the trappings of late-20th-century excess. The difference between 90s games and now is that no sane dev team would start by saying “and any guy who’s not like him is a WUSSAY!” But I feel like actively undermining his self-image for the audience is the same mistake for a new generation. There’s nothing inherently wrong with gym rats who enjoy whiskey and cigars and loose women. It is a common archetype that many people strive for, and Duke embodies it with zero irony.
He can be that kind of guy without also being a complete douchebag. And the script doesn’t have to mock or sideline him to do it. Less Jack Burton, more RJ MacReady.
The original Duke was much closer to what you described, funnily enough. Go back and play Duke Nukem 1 and 2, before the 3D era when they made the misogyny of the character much more overt.
It’s not a coincidence. I know DN2 began with a talk-show cutscene promoting his book, Why I’m So Great. It’s a narrative self-awareness where the character is not in on the joke. DNF referenced that, but really whiffed on the tone.
The oft-forgotten origin of the character is as a beeftank dipshit who nevertheless does save the Earth. DN3D’s immutable extension of that was crass humor and lurid sensibilities - but that doesn’t require manosphere bigots would celebrate the end result. Duke, the character, can be just as intolerant of any human fuckboy who disrespects “our chicks.”
That’s a lot of words, I can simplify it for you:
Saxton Hale
