“For where you're going, there'll be bears. And there'll be wolves.” — Ulysses F. O'Harrison
Hunters is a TV series filled with strategy and symbolism. Legacy, superheroism, and the battle between good and evil – and the moral gray area in-between – are a few of the themes explored in its first season.
The most integral element of the Amazon Prime production, though, is the study of strategy. The cat-and-mouse tactics employed by Meyer Offerman’s (Al Pacino) Nazi hunters and their fascist counterparts ensure that neither side has the upper hand for long and only adds to the tension as the season progresses. It’s apt, then, that a 3D-animated game of chess was chosen for Hunters’ title sequence. The board game offers a glimpse into the show’s strategic nature and basing the main titles on this presents the series’ recurring themes in a digestible manner.
Using chess as a metaphorical exploration of tactical acumen isn’t a new phenomenon in film and TV; The Seventh Seal, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek are but three classic examples that demonstrate its importance to plot subtexts. Its use in a title sequence, though, distinguishes it from similar miniature- or prop-based main titles.
For Elastic, the studio behind the sequence, the chessboard was one of a number of ideas pitched…
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