Starbreeze Entertainment and Vice Studio’s Payday TV show has added an unexpected name to its team: rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
The artist and actor behind everything from 2000s hit “In Da Club” to 2009 video game 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand has officially joined the heist video game adaptation as an executive producer. He’s attached via his G-Unit Film and Television, a company he launched in the 2000s as part of his work outside of music.
“G-Unit Film & TV has built cinematic crime stories that connect with audiences around the world,” 50 Cent said in a statement. “Teaming up with 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.”
50 Cent has plenty of experience both in front of and behind the camera. He’s most recently served as an executive producer on shows like Fightland, The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, and Power Book IV: Force.
As an actor, he’s shown up for movies like Den of Thieves, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Southpaw. One of his most notable movie roles will actually arrive in October when he plays Balrog for the live-action Street Fighter movie. Gaming fans may also recognize him from his work not only in projects like Blood on the Sand and 50 Cent: Bulletproof but also the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
“Payday has always been about the fantasy of getting away with it,” Starbreeze CEO Adolf Kristjansson said. “Curtis and G-Unit don’t do subtle, and neither do we. 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.”
It seems 50 Cent’s involvement in Payday seems to be limited to his part as an executive producer. As the pieces to Starbreeze and Vice’s grand scheme are still coming together, the video game-to-TV-show adaptation is still without a network or streamer to air it.
Payday, meanwhile, is Starbreeze’s long-running co-op video game series, which was announced to come to the TV world with help from Vice this past March. The series has followed masked criminals like Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf, and Chains as they plot and execute high-level heists. Payday has received three mainline entries to varying degrees of success. Payday 2, for example, still attracts tens of thousands of players on Steam alone every day, while its most recent entry, Payday 3, has struggled to retain interest following its extremely rocky launch back in 2023.
“Vice has always been drawn to stories that live outside the lines, and Payday is exactly that kind of world,” president of Vice Studios Amy Powell said. “G-Unit understands what makes Payday tick, and they’re bringing a perspective that’s true to the franchise without playing it safe.”
Starbreeze has also teased its interest in a Payday movie in the past, though we’ve received few updates on that front so far. For now, the Payday TV show has no release date, cast, or plot details ready to be officially revealed. You can read up on the four-player co-op VR spinoff called Payday: Aces High that was announced earlier this year.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
