No Cast, No Network, but Payday's TV Show Has 50 Cent

"Payday has always been about the fantasy of getting away with it. Curtis and G-Unit don't do subtle, and neither do we," Starbreeze Entertainment CEO Adolf Kristjansson said in the announcement. "This is not about playing it safe; it's about doing the franchise justice with people who are as immersed in the world as we are."

That's the pitch for a Payday television adaptation that, as of right now, has no cast, no writer, no showrunner, and no network or streaming home. What it does have is Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's G-Unit Film & TV attached as executive producer, alongside Starbreeze and Vice Studios. As reported by Variety, Jackson's production company will partner with the two studios to bring the co-op heist franchise to the screen.

Jackson framed the deal in broad terms. "G-Unit Film & TV has built cinematic crime stories that connect with audiences around the world," he said. "Teaming up with Starbreeze and Vice Studios and bringing the world of Payday to the screen gives us the chance to build something big, a high-energy franchise that pushes the heist genre forward." G-Unit's track record here is real: the Power franchise on Starz, in which Jackson himself has appeared, ran for years and spawned multiple spinoffs. Vice Studios, meanwhile, is currently producing the fourth season of Gangs of London. These are people who know crime drama.

So What's Actually Confirmed?

Almost nothing beyond the executive producer credit. The announcement doesn't even specify whether this is a TV series or a film, referring only to bringing Payday "to the screen." Starbreeze and Vice Studios first announced their partnership back on March 18th to "adapt Payday for audiences beyond games, across screen and other formats," but today's news is the first concrete name attached to the project. Amy Powell, President of Vice Studios, added some colour about the creative direction: "There's mythology behind the masks and a crew of characters with real history that is incredibly exciting to explore."

I'm curious how a Payday adaptation would work. The games are pure mechanical chaos: four players in clown masks drilling vaults, zip-tying hostages, and fighting off waves of increasingly militarised police. There's lore buried in there if you dig for it, but the appeal has always been the moment-to-moment mayhem with friends, not the narrative. Translating that energy into a scripted show without it feeling like a generic heist drama with Payday branding slapped on top is going to be the real challenge. 50 Cent's involvement at least suggests they're leaning into grit over prestige polish, which feels right for a franchise where you can literally throw bags of money at each other.

The Payday franchise launched in 2011 and has built a community of over 50 million players, though the series has had a rough few years. Payday 3 launched in September 2023 to a rocky reception, and Payday 2 continued to outperform its successor, earning double the revenue in 2025. Starbreeze has a VR title, Payday Aces High, releasing later this year as part of a broader push to expand the brand.

As PC Gamer's Andy Chalk pointed out, Starbreeze also signed a deal with production company Stockholm Syndrome back in 2023 to develop a Payday story for TV or film. How that earlier deal relates to this new Vice Studios and G-Unit partnership hasn't been addressed. Getting 50 Cent's name on the project is a smart headline grab, but until there's a script, a cast, and somewhere to actually watch it, this is still very much a press release and a handshake.