Hollywood's Video Game Movie Pipeline Is Huge, but Plenty of Projects Are Stuck in Limbo

Hollywood has found its next big obsession, and it comes with a controller. After The Super Mario Bros. Movie made a fortune and Uncharted and the Sonic films proved to be hits, studios have been optioning game franchises at a rapid pace. The result is a list of roughly 50 adaptations in various stages of development. The real question is how many will ever reach a cinema screen.

The projects with the strongest momentum are easy to spot. Elden Ring is at A24 with Alex Garland writing and directing, George R. R. Martin producing, and a cast led by Kit Connor that includes Jonathan Pryce, Sonoya Mizuno and Peter Serafinowicz. Production is underway, and the film is dated for March 2028. The Legend of Zelda, a Nintendo and Sony Pictures co-production directed by Wes Ball, has Bo Bragason as Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link. Ball says he wants a serious film with a touch of Miyazaki in its look. The source lists two release dates for it, April 30 and May 7, 2027, so check the final date before you plan a trip.

Street Fighter is also on track after a rocky start. The Philippou brothers left, Kitao Sakurai took over as director, and the cast now includes Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, Noah Centineo and David Dastmalchian. Watch Dogs has wrapped principal photography and is in post-production, more than a decade after it was first announced. Helldivers, pitched as a spiritual successor to Starship Troopers with Justin Lin directing, has slipped from November 2027 to June 2028.

Sequels are the safest bets. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is set for March 19, 2027, and Paramount has a separate "Sonic Universe" film dated December 22, 2028. A Minecraft Movie Squared arrives in July 2027 with Jared Hess returning. Split Fiction has Sydney Sweeney attached, Jon M. Chu directing, and Deadpool and Wolverine writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on the script.

Further down the list, things get murkier. Death Stranding has an A24 live-action film and an adult animated spinoff with Prisoners writer Aaron Guzikowski. Call of Duty is at Paramount with Taylor Sheridan among the writers, and it will use the Modern Warfare continuity. Gears of War is being pursued at Netflix alongside an animated series. The House of the Dead is lined up with Paul W.S. Anderson directing and Isabela Merced in the lead, and Bloodborne is heading to Sony Pictures as an R-rated animated feature.

Then there are the projects that have simply gone quiet. Metal Gear Solid has been gestating for close to a decade, with Oscar Isaac attached to play Solid Snake. Just Cause, Saints Row, Space Invaders, Just Dance, Rabbids and Duke Nukem have had little or no news for years. A Detective Pikachu sequel is officially "in active development," but there is nothing concrete to show for it. Portal's JJ Abrams last said a script was being written back in 2021, and Netflix's BioShock reportedly shrank into a smaller film after budget cuts.

The list also includes plenty of oddities. Atari has a deal with Universal covering ten classics, including Pong, Asteroids and Centipede. Talking Tom, Pac-Man, Slime Rancher, Space Channel 5, Sifu and Streets of Rage are all in the mix, with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad attached to several of them.

The takeaway is that a development announcement means little on its own. Projects with a director, a cast and a firm date are the ones to take seriously. The rest may follow the usual path of the genre and never make it past the title screen.