This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin - Now Available on Netflix
Blizzard
Posted
17 hr 29 min ago
by
Archimtiros
Netflix has released
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
, a heartfelt documentary of the true story of Mats “Ibelin” Steen, a Norwegian World of Warcraft player who suffered from Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the real world while living a life of friendship and passion online.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin on NetflixSupport CureDuchenne with the Reven Pack
Upon passing away from the degenerative disease on November 18th of 2014, his parents were left grieving with the idea that Mats' life had been an isolated and lonely one. Sharing the news
on his blog
, they were stunned to discover the large network of devoted friends within the virtual world, represented by an outpouring of hundreds of letters, emails, and other tributes from a community that only existed online.
Mats' story was first published
by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in 2019, drawing the attention of several filmmakers before Benjamin Ree pitched the idea of capturing Mats' life through his avatar Ibelin. Combining archival home videos with immersive WoW animation drawn from over 42,000 pages of in-game text logs saved over ten years and 20,000 hours in World of Warcraft, the Norwegian director took a big risk in filming the documentary - working over two years with Rasmus Tukia and two other YouTube animators to painstakingly recreate the in-game world Mats had lived in, they never actually got permission from Blizzard to use its IP. It wasn't until screening the final product in California that the Blizzard bosses gave their blessing with tears in their eyes: “The main boss turned around and said, ‘This film is fantastic.’”
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is available today on Netflix.
During Dragonflight, Blizzard commemorated Mats with a memorial in Elwynn Forest, modeled after his
real-world gravestone
. With the release of the Netflix documentary today, Blizzard also launched
The Reven Pack
charity fox pet for Classic and Modern WoW, which included a short video of Blizzard staff sharing details of his story and has pledged 100% of proceeds to
CureDuchenne
.
The epitaph reads "deeply missed, never forgotten."
Get Wowhead
Premium
$2
A Month
Enjoy an ad-free experience, unlock premium features, & support the site!
Show 21 Comments
Hide 21 Comments
Sign In to Post a Comment
1
2
Comment by
Concerned
on 2024-10-26T03:35:43-05:00
Very sad. My wife and I got the diagnosis 2 years ago that my son (now 4) has DMD. It's a terrible disease the progresses over time. We fought to get him into a Gene therapy trial with Pfizer and was one of 10 kids his age that got accepted after many tests/immunology tests. He went from not walking to walking in 2 weeks after the gene therapy infusion. It is not a cure and too soon to see it's true progress, but anything at this point is a plus. This disease is more prevalent in boys and can be passed through the mother. We got my wife tested and she was not a carrier so it was just a random mutation for my son. Prays for everyone with DMD and their families.
I Hope everything gets better!
1
2
Post a Comment
You are not logged in. Please
log in
or
register an account
to add your comment.
Previous Post
Next Post