Tina's Adventures In Wonderland(s)

At Thursday’s Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live!, Geoff Keighley opened the show with a bang. Literally. The rumored Borderlands spinoff, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, was officially revealed with a cinematic trailer that truly captures the essence of the Borderlands franchise.

The trailer begins with dramatic narration and stylized lettering that are clearly parodying series like The Elder Scrolls and Lord of the Rings. The camera follows a dragon as it flies through a mountain range toward a hooded figure working at an anvil. When the dragon finally meets the mysterious blacksmith it spews lightning breathe at him only to be met with hot lead. The blacksmith/gunman soon adds a magical spell to his arsenal, summoning runes and arcane symbols in his free hand.

As the two trade blows the trailer reveals that the game has a star-studded cast including Andy Samberg, Wanda Sykes, Will Arnett, Ashley Burch, and Her Royal Higness, Butt Stallion. As Butt Stallion vanquishes the dragon, a title card pops up: “Wonderlands,” only for Tiny Tina to rush in and quickly spray paint “Tiny Tina’s” above it before shouting “Roll for initiative, suckers!” and throwing a pair of dice into the camera. The final title image pops up before revealing a release window of early 2022.

After the trailer dropped Keighley revealed that Ashley Burch, the voice of the titular Tiny Tina, was with him on stage where she revealed some more details about the game. It will feature its own, unique story independent from other games in the Borderlands universe and is heavily inspired by the popular Assault on Dragon Keep DLC Gearbox released for Borderlands 2. Burch closed by quickly remarking that this entry will feature new additions to Borderlands stylistic combat, most notably, the ability to use magic and customize your character beyond just cosmetics.

After the reveal, Gearbox President and CEO Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to express his deep love for this genre and how excited he is to finally get a chance to make a fantasy video game, stating “I have been trying to make a first person action RPG fantasy game at Gearbox since 1999 (when I unsuccessfully pitches [sic] three concepts for games based on the Lord of the Rings franchise – long before the movies). For me, Wonderlands is the culmination of this 20+ year long dream.”

In response to a comment to the post where a fan expressed excitement for the length and tone of the game, Pitchford replied “It’s all that and more. We’ll be ready to do a full game play reveal hopefully later this summer.”

Gearbox will have a 30-minute segment of the E3 broadcast airing today, (June 12th) at 5pm EST, so we may get more details about the game before the gameplay reveal coming later in the summer.

Is more Borderlands something you’re excited about? Let us know in the comments below, and stick around for more coverage coming out E3 and beyond!