Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for Twisted Metal season 2!
Peacock’s Twisted Metal incorporates characters from the video games while altering many of their backstories for the series. The original Twisted Metal game arrived for the PlayStation in 1995 and spawned a hit franchise. In each round, racers fight in custom vehicles with unique weaponry. The contest is usually held by the mysterious Calypso, who grants the Twisted Metal characters who win one wish.
The Twisted Metal video games don’t have a strict canon, with each entry essentially acting as a reboot. Peacock’s Twisted Metal season 1 followed this approach, setting up the world and characters. Then, the tournament started halfway through Twisted Metal season 2. Throughout both seasons, the game’s fan-favorite characters make appearances in major and minor roles.
John Doe
Twisted Metal: Black
Anthony Mackie leads the cast of the Twisted Metal series as John Doe. The John Doe featured in Peacock’s Twisted Metal might share the same name as the character from Twisted Metal: Black and they might both be amnesiacs, but that’s where the similarities end.
On the show, John originally came from San Francisco but lost his memory in a car accident. While Calypso isn’t around to grant any wishes, his goal is to earn a permanent place in New San Francisco and become the first “Milkman” to retire. However, his wish changes when he’s actually in the tournament, hoping to bring his sister Krista back to life.
In Twisted Metal: Black, John is a person locked up in Blackfield Asylum, whose wish is to regain his lost memories. He believes he was once part of a gang that tried to blow up a Disease Control building.
However, his ending revealed he was an undercover FBI agent who prevented the bombing from going ahead. While this revelation makes him one of the game’s more heroic figures, his wish to learn who he was is still twisted ironically by Calypso.
Sweet Tooth
The Icon Of Every Twisted Metal Game
Sweet Tooth is played by wrestler Samoa Joe (voiced by Will Arnett) in Twisted Metal. Easily the most ironic character from the games, this version of Sweet Tooth is a former child star whose jealousy over his co-star, a lovable dog, drives him into a murderous rage that gets him sent to an asylum.
John Doe and Quiet first encounter Sweet Tooth in Vegas, and the psychotic clown later goes on a road trip across the Divided States of America, attacking various law enforcement outposts and building a cult.
Sweet Tooth’s haunting clown mask and ice cream truck are staples of the Twisted Metal games, but his backstory has been reinvented many times. In Twisted Metal 4, he even became the organizer of the contest, having overthrown Calypso.
Still, in nearly every game, he’s depicted as a serial killer with an appetite for chaos. In the most recent outing, 2012’s Twisted Metal, Sweet Tooth’s wish was to find the “One who got away,” referencing the only one of his victims to escape with their life.
Alpha Raven
Twisted Metal: Black
Neve Campbell plays Raven in Twisted Metal, the COO of New San Francisco. While technically one of the main villains of the series, Raven only appears in the first and last episodes, and her true plan is only revealed in Twisted Metal’s final scenes.
The character also has no similarities to the actual Raven featured in Twisted Metal: Black, who is introduced in season 2. Still, she’s one of the many versions of the character who exist in New San Francisco in the second season.
The character Raven in the Twisted Metal games is goth, witchy, and fits much better with the tone of the franchise overall. When portrayed in the games, Raven is a teenager who enters the tournament to gain revenge on the boys responsible for her girlfriend’s death.
The car she drives is Shadow, which is a hearse, and the special weapon is usually an explosive shadow that launches from the car and explodes upon contact with a rival racer.
Agent Stone
Twisted Metal & Twisted Metal: Black
Thomas Haden Church’s Agent Stone is the main antagonist of the Twisted Metal series on Peacock, and is responsible for the death of Quiet’s brother. Stone was a mall cop who earned little respect before the apocalypse. When society breaks down, he becomes a ruthless enforcer of the law who punishes even the most minor offenses.
The original Twisted Metal game featured the first version of Agent Stone, a secret agent who drove the sleek Crimson Fury, while Black introduced the version the TV series is based on. The second Agent Stone in the Twisted Metal games is a strict lawman who wants to undo a past mistake.
The first Agent Stone in the Twisted Metal games drove Crimson Fury, a red sports car, usually with a laser beam as its special weapon. The Twisted Metal: Black version drove Outlaw, a modified police car.
Agent Shepard
Twisted Metal: Head-On
Jared Bankens plays Agent Shepard in the TV adaptation, who, besides having long hair and working in law enforcement, is an entirely different character from the version seen in the Twisted Metal games. Shepard, in the Twisted Metal Peacock series, is Agent Stone’s cruel henchman and becomes one of the targets for Quiet’s revenge for his brother’s death.
In Twisted Metal: Head-On for the PSP, Agent Shepard is an upstanding FBI agent who becomes the new driver of the Crimson Fury, the car driven by the first Agent Stone in earlier Twisted Metal games. His wish is simple: if he wins the tournament, he’ll bring down Calypso himself.
In doing so, he hopes to end the Twisted Metal contest for good. He only appeared in a single Twisted Metal game, which explains why he only had a relatively minor role in the Peacock series, in which he died in the first episode.
Miranda Watts
Twisted Metal: Head-On
Jamie Neumann plays Miranda Watts in the live-action Twisted Metal cast, the leader of a convoy of trucks that never stops moving. She’s also in a relationship with Diany Rodriguez’s florist, Amber. However, they aren’t together when the Twisted Metal series begins, and she and her convoy become allies of John and Quiet during their road trip.
In the finale, Miranda drives the Twister car, just like the character in the Twisted Metal games. While she was expected to return for the tournament in Twisted Metal season 2, she didn’t end up competing.
Like other characters in Peacock’s Twisted Metal series, the version from Twisted Metal: Head-On, is quite different. The game version of the character entered the race to track down her missing sister. Her twin sister, Amanda Watts, first appeared in Twisted Metal 2, but was also a playable character in Head-On, and was voiced by esteemed voice actor Tara Strong.
Amber Rose
Twisted Metal III
Diany Rodriguez’s Amber appears in several episodes of Peacock’s Twisted Metal series, and is one of the few characters with real similarities to their game counterpart. Amber appears to be based on Amber Rose, a character from Twisted Metal III.
Amber drove the Flower Power car and was an environmentalist who entered the competition to stop it from destroying the world. In the Peacock TV show, Amber is also an environmentalist who runs an apothecary using her plants.
Her car, Flower Power, also appeared in the Peacock series, parked outside Amber’s house. Flower Power was one of the new vehicles introduced in the 3rd Twisted Metal game. Its special attack involved a flower emerging from the car to damage rival racers with a blast of pollen
Granny Dread
Twisted Metal III
Granny Dread is another obscure character from the Twisted Metal video game franchise, making her sole appearance in Twisted Metal III. Peg O’Keef is the character in the Twisted Metal series who is the original leader of the truck convoy. She makes a deal with John to collect something for her in exchange for weapons for his car.
In Twisted Metal III, Granny Dread entered the competition (driving the monster truck “Hammerhead”) to end it for good, so she could watch daytime TV in peace. Her dislike of the Twisted Metal contest is incredibly personal, since a previous competition left her neighborhood in ruins.
She’s a character with an incredibly bombastic backstory, one that perfectly fits into the borderline-cartoonish tone of the Twisted Metal games. Like Amber Rose, Granny Dread only appeared in the third Twisted Metal game, making her an intriguing choice for the Peacock show.
Bloody Mary
Twisted Metal: Black & Twisted Metal: Lost
In the Twisted Metal series, Bloody Mary, a former lover of John Doe, is played by Chloe Fineman. She is introduced when John and Quiet stop at a Milkman Pitstop, which features cameos from other Twisted Metal game characters, with Mary recalling their history together.
Mary’s anger stems from her unrequited romantic feelings and the fact that he’s set to retire thanks to his mystery package. Consequently, she decides to scheme against him.
In the games, Bloody Mary is one of the many drivers of Spectre, a car whose driver switches every game. She has quite a tragic backstory in the games. She confessed her feelings to her crush in school, and in response, he pushed her into some mud, making her the subject of ridicule.
After a lifetime of romantic rejection, she enters the race to finally meet her one true love. Her car, the Spectre is renowned for its somewhat overpowered Ghost Missile ability.
Carl & Jamie Roberts
Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal 2, Twisted Metal III & Twisted Metal: Head-On
Brother and sister duo Carl and Jamie Roberts were upstanding police officers in the original games, with Carl driving the Outlaw in the first Twisted Metal. However, Carl disappears due to Calypso sending him into outer space in his Twisted Metal ending.
Following his disappearance, Jamie enters the next tournament to find him. Carl is also known as Buzz Roberts in Twisted Metal 2 & 3, and following the second game, the duo drives together rather than being individual characters.
On the Twisted Metal show, Carl is played by Michael Carollo while Chelle Ramos plays Jamie. The two are still officers of the law, but sadly, that means obeying Agent Stone. The pair appear in multiple episodes of Twisted Metal, and are part of Stone’s Lawmen faction. Unfortunately, the pair are deceased by the time series one reaches its conclusion.
