Start practicing your litany of fear; there’s sudden revival of the old platformer Earthworm Jim. First, later this year (the press release says “soon”) the Sega Genesis versions of Earthworm Jim and Earthworm Jim 2 will be available on the Wii’s Virtual Console (along with two other Interplay titles: Boogerman and Clayfighter). Second, plans are in motion at Interplay to do a sequel, with creator Douglas TenNapel as a consultant: Earthworm Jim 4. Finally, as part of the work on that sequel, Interplay will launch a new TV series and a feature film.

Now if they’d only bring back The Neverhood — that game was awesome. I still have the soundtrack that I picked up at E3 one year. Digging around, I see there are also plans to make it into a feature film, which would be interesting. Given Doug TenNapel’s connections, perhaps Frederator will be working on Earthworm Jim as well?