Splinter Cell: Deathwatch

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
Also known as	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
Genre	Action Spy fiction Adult animation
Created by	Derek Kolstad
Based on	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell by Ubisoft
Directed by	Guillaume Dousse
Voices of	Liev Schreiber Kirby
Music by	Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans Chase Deso
Country of origin	France United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Derek Kolstad Gérard Guillemot Hélène Juguet Hugo Revon
Producers	Gérard Guillemot Hélène Juguet Hugo Revon
Editor	Thomas Belair
Running time	20–27 minutes
Production companies	Tradecraft Sun Creature Studio FOST Studio Ubisoft Film & Television Netflix Animation Studios
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14) – present

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is an adult animated espionage action television series created by Derek Kolstad and based on the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game franchise by Ubisoft. The series stars Liev Schreiber as the voice of Sam Fisher alongside Kirby as Zinnia McKenna. It is directed by Sun Creature Studio co-founder Guillaume Dousse and produced by Ubisoft Film & Television while animation services are provided by FOST Studio.

The series premiered on October 14, 2025, on Netflix. A day after the series premiere, it was renewed for a second season.

Voice cast and characters

Main

• Liev Schreiber as Sam Fisher, a retired field agent who initially served as a Splinter Cell operative for the Third Echelon sub-division of the NSA. He eventually became the spymaster and commander of the covert Fourth Echelon counter-terrorism unit, ^[a] who answer directly to the President of the United States. Fisher was previously voiced by Michael Ironside and Eric Johnson in the video games.
• Kirby as Zinnia McKenna, a Splinter Cell field operative of Fourth Echelon

Supporting

• Janet Varney as Anna Grímsdóttir, the former chief technical analyst of Third Echelon and the former technical operations officer of Fourth Echelon ^[a] who became its commander following Fisher's retirement. Grímsdóttir was previously voiced by Claudia Besso, Adriana Anderson, and Kate Drummond in the video games.
• Helen Hong as Jo Ahn, the technical operations officer of Fourth Echelon
• Joel Oulette as Thunder, a skilled hacker whom Grímsdóttir recruits to join Fourth Echelon
• Kari Wahlgren as Diana Shetland, the CEO of Displace International, a former private military company that is involved in clean energy production
• Aleks Le as Charlie Shetland, Diana's half-brother
• Kiff VandenHeuvel as Douglas Shetland, Diana and Charlie's father, and a former close friend of Fisher who he served alongside in the Navy SEALs. Shetland founded Displace International after he was dishonorably discharged and was killed by Fisher after attempting to instigate a world war. ^[b] Shetland was previously voiced by Marcel Jeannin in the video games.
• Bella Dayne as Freya Niemeyer, the second-in-command of Karimi's unit
  • Dayne also voices Milena, one of Diana's employees
• Navid Negahban as Reza "Gunther" Karimi, the leader of a mercenary unit working for Diana
• JB Blanc as Thomas, Diana's personal assistant

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Up from the Grave"	Guillaume Dousse	Derek Kolstad	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
Splinter Cell agent Zinnia McKenna sneaks into a building in Vilnius to retrieve something referred to as the Shetland Files, but becomes distraught when she comes across a man who has been tortured and killed. She removes a tooth from the man and kills almost everyone in the building and escapes, but is injured. The headquarters, Fourth Echelon, is shut down after a cyber attack, and its director Anna sends coordinates to Zinnia to flee to. Zinnia flees to Poland to find Sam Fisher, a retired Fourth Echelon Splinter Cell agent. Zinnia is pursued, but Sam kills all of them.
2	"Dinner First, Talk Later"	Guillaume Dousse	David Daitch & Katie J. Stone	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
Sam escapes with Zinnia to Gdańsk, but is chased by the mercenaries. He manages to kill most of them, and confronts Zinnia to find out why they are being pursued.
3	"Welcome to the 4th Echelon"	Guillaume Dousse	David Daitch & Katie J. Stone	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
Sam and Zinnia take the tooth that Zinnia extracted to a spy that helps them extract information; the tooth contains files incriminating an organization. There are more files in a safe house, which Sam breaks into to steal them. Anna travels to Canada to hired a hacker to help at Fourth Echelon.
4	"Scars of Bagram"	Guillaume Dousse	David Daitch & Katie J. Stone	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
5	"Simple As That"	Guillaume Dousse	Naomi Davis and Matias Wulff	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
6	"The Man is the Mission"	Guillaume Dousse	Naomi Davis and Matias Wulff	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
7	"Chaos Theory: Part 1"	Guillaume Dousse	Derek Kolstad	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)
8	"Chaos Theory: Part 2"	Guillaume Dousse	Derek Kolstad	October 14, 2025 (2025-10-14)

Production

In July 2020, it was revealed that Ubisoft Film & Television was developing an animated adaptation of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game franchise for Netflix. Derek Kolstad was hired to serve as the lead writer for the series, which was initially reported to have received a two-season order but ^[1] Kolstad later stated that only the first season had been green-lit and that it would take a few years before the series was released. ^[2] Kolstad imagined the series with an older Sam Fisher, ^[3] and he wrote the story such that the history behind the games was canon for the show. He also maintained the clandestine feel from the games by utilizing long periods of silence before sudden bursts of action. ^[4]

In August 2024, Michael Ironside, who had previously voiced the character Sam Fisher in the video games, stated that he was too old to portray the character for television and that Liev Schreiber had taken over the role. ^[5] This was confirmed the following month, when Netflix released a first look of the series and announced Schrieber's casting. Animation was provided by the Danish/French Sun Creature Studio and the French studio Fost. ^[6] Guillaume Dousse began working on the series at Sun Creature as a creative director, and as development progressed, his responsibilities grew to director of some episodes and then the whole first season. The scale of the production was too large for Sun Creature, so most production animation was done at Fost, where Dousse worked with co-director Félicien Colmet-Daâge to lead that aspect. ^[3]

On October 15, 2025, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. ^[7]

Release

The series premiered on Netflix on October 14, 2025. ^{[8] [9]}

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 86%, based on 14 reviews. ^[10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. ^[11]

The series was nominated for "Best Adaptation" at The Game Awards 2025. ^[12]

Notes

1. As depicted in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)
2. As depicted in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)

References

1. Otterson, Joe (July 30, 2020). "Splinter Cell Anime Series From John Wick Writer Derek Kolstad Set at Netflix (Exclusive)". Variety . Penske Media Corporation.
2. Sneider, Jeff (March 22, 2021). "Splinter Cell Netflix Series Writer Derek Kolstad Reveals New Details, Including Episode Length". Collider . Valnet.
3. Giraud, Kévin (October 13, 2025). "Guillaume Dousse On Netflix/Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch". Cartoon Brew .
4. Breznican, Anthony (October 9, 2025). "Is Netflix About to Drop the Next Great Video Game Adaptation?". Esquire . Hearst Communications. Archived from the original on October 10, 2025.
5. Hermanns, Grant (August 30, 2024). "Netflix's Splinter Cell Anime Gets Surprising Casting Update From OG Sam Fisher Actor". ScreenRant . Valnet.
6. Murphy, J. Kim (September 20, 2024). "Splinter Cell: Deathwatch Confirms Liev Schreiber as Sam Fisher in First Look at Netflix Anime Series". Variety . Penske Media Corporation.
7. Vejvoda, Jim (October 15, 2025). "Splinter Cell: Deathwatch Renewed for Season 2 - IGN Fall Fan Fest 2025". IGN. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
8. Milligan, Mercedes (April 23, 2025). "Netflix Animation Returns to Annecy with Stranger Things, In Your Dreams, Fixed & Much More!". Animation Magazine . Retrieved April 23, 2025.
9. Milligan, Mercedes (August 21, 2025). "Anime NYC: Netflix Previews New Seasons of Blue Eye Samurai, Sakamoto Days, Devil May Cry & More!". Animation Magazine . Retrieved August 21, 2025.
10. "Splinter Cell: Deathwatch: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved October 31, 2025.
11. "Splinter Cell: Deathwatch: Season 1". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
12. Lewis, Claire (December 11, 2025). "Here are all The Game Awards 2025 winners". Polygon . Retrieved December 11, 2025.

External links

• Splinter Cell: Deathwatch at IMDb