Here's every upcoming video game movie either with a release date or confirmed to be in development. It's no secret that Hollywood has consistently struggled to turn successful video games into successful movies. Early attempts with Super Mario Bros. and Mortal Kombat missed the mark spectacularly, while Tomb Raider and Resident Evil managed to be financially viable in spite of scathing reviews. Fortunately, the so-called video game movie curse has started to break thanks to more recent efforts.
With Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in the lead, Rampage became the highest-grossing video game movie in history in 2018, despite mixed reviews. Then along came two fan-favorite video game critters who proved it was possible to make a critically well-received and financially successful transition to the big screen. Detective Pikachu hit theaters in 2019 and remains fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, performing shockingly well at the box office thanks to the legions of Pokémon fans across the world. Shortly after, Sonic the Hedgehog sprinted into theaters, earning $320 million worldwide and making amends for that godawful first design. Continuing the string of hits, 2021's Mortal Kombat proved to be a vast improvement on previous adaptations.
Thanks to these recent success stories capturing key aspects from the games they're based on while updating the source material for a feature-length format, the video game movie genre looks more viable than ever. And that's reassuring, because the game industry is filled with franchises that Hollywood has spent years developing into film franchises. A handful of adaptations currently have confirmed release dates, while many others are still working to achieve that goal. Here's a complete list.
Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City - November 24, 2021
After six Resident Evil movies starring Milla Jovovich, Constantin Films is in the process of rebooting the franchise from scratch. Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) is attached to direct after pitching a new take that the studio apparently loved. His vision involves dragging Resident Evil back to its scary roots, away from the critically maligned, action-focused fare that came before. Based on the first two PlayStation games, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City stars Kaya Scodelario (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Robbie Amell as Claire and Chris Redfield, respectively. Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man & The Wasp) plays Jill Valentine, and The Umbrella Academy's Tom Hopper is Albert Wesker. Filming took place in late 2020, with reshoots and post-production scheduled for 2021 ahead of a November release.
Uncharted - February 18, 2022
Sony's attempt to turn this acclaimed Naughty Dog adventure franchise into a movie is finally happening. The Uncharted live-action film will star Tom Holland as a younger Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Sully, and will also include Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali (Grey's Anatomy), and Tati Gabrielle (The 100) in supporting roles. Ruben Fleischer is taking on directing duties after working with Sony on Venom and Zombieland: Double Tap, with the adaptation inspired by Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Since filming was unfortunate enough to begin during the March of 2020, Uncharted was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, pushing the release date from March 2021 to February 2022.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - April 8, 2022
With Sonic's first adventure proving a whole lot of fun (and a box office triumph), a sequel was only a matter of time. Most of the first film's usual suspects are set to return. Jeff Fowler will once again direct, and original writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller are writing the script, which will star Ben Schwartz as the titular blue blur, with James Marsden and Tiki Sumpter as his... parents? Fortunately for all involved, Jim Carrey is back as a more authentic-looking Robotnik after the villain was sent to another world at the end of his first clash with Sonic. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is confirmed to feature both Tails (following on from his post-credits debut) and Knuckles the Echidna. With filming currently ongoing, plot details remain scarce, but the Chaos Emeralds will be involved.
Borderlands - 2022
The massively popular Borderlands franchise is coming to the big screen at last, after Lionsgate first began developing an adaptation in 2015. The live-action Borderlands movie will be directed by Eli Roth, best known for horror films like Cabin Fever or Knock Knock, but more recently found behind the camera on family-friendly fantasy movie The House with a Clock in Its Walls. The impressive Borderlands cast includes Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Jack Black as Claptrap, and Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Tannis, and production wrapped principal filming in June 2021 ahead of a planned 2022 release. Official images of Blanchett and others in character confirm this one isn't too far away.
Tomb Raider: Obsidian
Following the success of 2018's Tomb Raider, a sequel was quickly put into motion. The original film made nearly $275 million worldwide at the box office, benefiting from huge international appeal, and Lara Croft never goes out of style. Tomb Raider 2 will once again star Alicia Vikander as the intrepid explorer, now a seasoned adventurer after the first film covered her origin story. The sequel initially hired Amy Jump to write the script and her husband, Ben Wheatley, to direct ahead of an early 2021 release date. Since then, Jump and Wheatley have been replaced by Misha Green who, as of May 2021, announced that a first draft had been completed with a working title of Tomb Raider: Obsidian. Due to COVID-19, no release date is currently set, with filming expected to begin shooting in 2021.
Metal Gear Solid
Given the natural cinematic qualities of Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise, it was only a matter of time before the adventures of Solid Snake were given the live-action treatment. Sure enough, Sony has been developing a Metal Gear Solid movie for nearly a decade. Kong: Skull Island's Jordan Vogt-Roberts was first reported to be directing in 2014 and remains attached to bring Snake and company to the screen. As a massive fan of the games, Vogt-Roberts has repeatedly teased what he wants to do with his Metal Gear Solid adaptation and unveiled all kinds of tantalizing concept art, finally confirming the script was finished in 2019. Although progress has certainly been gradual, Oscar Isaac was officially announced as playing Snake in December 2020, and Vogt-Roberts reaffirmed his commitment to the project at 2021's virtual E3 event.
Ghost Of Tsushima
Announced by Sony and PlayStation in 2021, Ghost of Tsushima will adapt the popular open-world samurai game and Twitch streamer's favorite. Chad Stahelski (director of all three John Wick movies) will be behind the camera, promising plenty of visceral kinetic action, but casting details and a release date are unknown at present.
Five Nights at Freddy's
A movie version of Scott Cawthon's horror game Five Nights at Freddy's has been in development since 2015, but it was in 2017 that Blumhouse got involved and kick-started the project. The following year, Harry Potter's Chris Columbus jumped on to direct, but even though Blumhouse usually moves projects through development at pace, the Five Nights at Freddy's movie went back to the drawing board in 2018 after Cawthon disapproved of the script being written. Both Cawthon and Jason Blum have kept the Five Nights At Freddy's movie adaptation alive in recent years and, finally, a script draft has been agreed upon. Filming is expected to begin in 2021.
The Division
Another Tom Clancy spy franchise is getting a live-action adaptation, as The Division is coming to Netflix. First announced in 2016, Jake Gyllenhaal boarded the Ubisoft movie in the lead role, with Jessica Chastain joining shortly thereafter. Both stars are still attached to The Division, which was originally to be directed by Deadpool 2's David Leitch. Due to scheduling problems, Leitch will now serve as a producer, and Rawson Marshall Thurber will direct. Instead of premiering theaters as originally planned, Netflix acquired the project in 2019, but production has yet to begin.
Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo's iconic plumber already starred in an infamous live-action movie with Bob Hoskins in the title role, but now Illumination is giving Mario an animated feature. The studio behind Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets announced it was working on a Super Mario Bros. film in 2018, stated to be a priority for Illumination ahead of a 2022 release date. As of January 2020, progress was being made with Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri serving as co-producers.
Just Cause
Constantin Films is currently developing a live-action Just Cause movie, based on the popular Square Enix video game franchise of the same name. Back in 2017, Jason Momoa signed on to play Rico Rodriguez with Rampage's Brad Peyton later hired to direct. After that, the movie's development went silent until it was reported in 2019 that John Wick's Derek Kolstad will write the script. There have been no updates since, and whether or not Momoa and Peyton are still attached is unknown, but the 2020 hiring of Michael Dowse as director suggests the Just Cause movie is still creeping along steadily.
Minecraft: The Movie
A cinematic interpretation of the extremely popular sandbox video game has been in development at Warner Bros. for years, but Minecraft doesn't look to be happening any time soon. Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) has been hired to direct the movie adaptation, with Frozen 2's Allison Schreoder writing a story that focuses on a teenage girl and her group of adventurers as they attempt to save Overworld from the Ender Dragon. No cast members have been announced so far (although Steve Carell was attached earlier in the development process) and although an initial date of March 4, 2022 was set by Warner, Minecraft: The Movie was delayed indefinitely due to the pandemic, with no updates for almost a year now. At least we've still got the game...
Sleeping Dogs
The underrated 2012 Sleeping Dogs video game lends itself perfectly to the big screen. Hong Kong police officer Wei Shen infiltrates the Sun On Yee triad and attempts to bring them down from the inside, committing just enough atrocious crimes to convince the gangsters that he's the real deal. With an intricate story and compelling characters, the 2017 announcement of a Sleeping Dogs movie was met with enthusiasm by fans, especially when Donnie Yen was revealed to be playing Wei Shen. Although Sleeping Dogs announcements have been few and far between since, Yen confirmed in 2020 that the project was still going ahead.
Yakuza
In September 2020, reports of a live-action Yakuza movie from SEGA emerged. Though no director or writer has been announced, Yakuza will be produced by Erik Barmack, Roberto Grande, and Joshua Long, who hail the cinematic appeal of Kazuma Kiryu's underworld shenanigans.
Detective Pikachu 2
Warner Bros. began working on a Detective Pikachu sequel before the first movie even hit theaters, hiring 22 Jump Street's Oren Uziel to write the script. Pikachu's debut case became the second-highest-grossing video game movie in history with a global gross of $433 million, so it's certainly not surprising that the studio was eager for more Pika-madness with Ryan Reynolds. Sadly, there have been no updates on Detective Pikachu 2 over the past two years, with star, Justice Smith, expressing doubt over whether the follow-up would actually happen in a 2021 interview.
Mega Man
20th Century Fox had been developing a Mega Man movie based around the iconic Capcon character for several years before being bought by Disney. In 2017, Paranormal Activity 4 directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman were in negotiations to write and direct, but the status of Mega Man was then put in question due to the aforementioned Disney deal. The Batman's Mattson Tomlin was hired to write a new script in early 2020, giving Mega Man a second chance. The most recent (albeit unconfirmed) rumors suggest Capcom has partnered with Netflix to bring Mega Man to the big screen, although firm updates have not been forthcoming.
Call of Duty
Activision Blizzard Studios has been working on a Call of Duty movie for years, hoping to turn the insanely popular shooter series into a cinematic universe. Stefano Solima (Sicario: Day of the Soldado) was hired to direct the first entry in 2018 and the project later recruited Black Panther writer Joe Robert Cole. Despite hoping to begin production in 2019, Solima confirms the project is currently on hold, with no further updates on a Call of Duty movie for the past two years.
Rabbids
Ubisoft's Rabbids games have been eyed as movie fodder since 2014, and Lionsgate is the studio still currently attempting to make that happen. The studio acquired Rabbids in 2019 and hired Isn't It Romantic's Todd Strauss-Schulson to direct the live-action film. There haven't been any further updates since, with a cast and release date still unknown.
Other Video Game Movies In Development
In addition to the films already listed above, there's a long list of announced video game movie adaptations we know far less about. Here are the latest updates on other video game fare that could one day materialize in theaters.
- Mortal Kombat 2 - No official announcement yet, but the 2021 adaptation explicitly sets up a sequel by teasing Johnny Cage.
- CrossFire - Announced by Sony in 2020; no names confirmed as of yet.
- Saints Row - 2019 reports claim Greg Russo is writing and F. Gary Gray is directing a Saints Row movie.
- Watch Dogs - Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were announced to write the script in 2014. Active as of 2016; now languishing somewhere in development hell.
- Dante's Inferno - Fede Alvarez announced to direct in 2013.
- Temple Run - Developed at Warner Bros. in 2013 with David Heyman producing. Now looks destined to become a game show instead.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Michael Finch announced to write in 2014.
- Just Dance - Revealed in 2019 from Screen Gems. Presumably similar to Step-Up, but with everyone dancing in one spot.
- Space Invaders - Greg Russo is writing a script for Warner Bros. with Akuva Goldsman producing, as of 2019.
- Splinter Cell - Tom Hardy attached to star. An anime adaptation is set for Netflix soon.
- Ghost Recon - Developed at Warner Bros. in 2013 with Michael Bay to direct.
- Kane and Lynch - Developed at Lionsgate in 2010 with F. Gary Gray to direct.
- Devil May Cry - Kyle Ward announced to write the script in 2011.
- Heavy Rain - David Milch announced to write the script in 2011
- Gears of War - F. Scott Frazier writing a new script in 2018, reportedly won't be a direct adaptation of the games.
- Portal - J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot developing for Warner Bros. in 2016, confirmed as still active in 2021 by Abrams himself.
- Half-Life - J.J. Abrams developing in 2016, though not currently active as of 2021.