With narrative-driven video games becoming increasingly popular, more and more of gaming's biggest franchises are being treated to movie and television adaptations. There have already been some pretty big video game movies over the past few years, but there are plenty more in the pipeline that will hopefully be hitting theaters over the course of the next few years.
Sony alone has ten video game adaptions currently in development and this number rises higher still when other big publishers and developers are factored into the equation. COVID-19 has caused delays to many of the video game movies that are currently being worked on, but with the world slowly recovering, most are now starting to get back on track.
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Following the overwhelming success of the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie, it came as little surprise when a sequel was announced mere months after the release of the original. Filming in Vancouver and Hawaii has since wrapped, with the movie currently slated to to hit theaters in April of 2022.
Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey reprise their roles as Sonic and Robotnic, with James Marsden and Tika Sumpter also returning as Tom and Maddie Wachowski. As teased at the end of the first movie, Tails will also be making an appearance and he'll be joined by Knuckles, the emerald-hunting echidna.
9 Uncharted
Work on Sony's Uncharted movie adaptation hasn't exactly gone to plan. It's now been delayed seven times, with the five year anniversary of its original release date having recently passed. If all goes to plan, however, fans should finally get a chance to watch the movie in February of 2022.
Mark Wahlberg and Chris Pratt were among several actors considered for the role of Nathan Drake, but the role ultimately went to Spider-Man's Tom Holland instead. Wahlberg will still appear in the movie, although it'll be as Sully, rather than Drake. Sophia Taylor Ali is the last of the leads, and will play the hero's fellow treasure hunter, Chloe.
8 Minecraft: The Movie
Microsoft hasn't made too many big changes to Minecraft since its $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang in 2018, although an effort does seem to have been made to expand the franchise's reach. There have been numerous books and spin-off titles in recent years and so a movie adaptation seems like the next logical step.
Warner Brothers had planned to release the movie in March of 2022, but it was pushed back to an unknown release date in late-2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rob McElhenney of It's Always Sunny and Mythic Quest fame was at one point on board to direct, but Peter Sollett now occupies the director's chair.
7 Tomb Raider: Obsidian
Though only $53k separated the first Tomb Raider movie and the 2018 reboot, critics and audiences responded a lot better to the latter. With that in mind, a sequel was always likely to happen. It probably won't be hitting theaters anytime soon though, with the first draft of the script having only been completed in May 2021.
Misha Green, the woman behind Lovecraft Country and WGN's Underground, is currently signed up to both write and direct the flick, having replaced Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley in early 2021. There's still no word on whether Alicia Vikander will reprise her role as Lara, although the actress has expressed an interest in doing so on several occasions now.
6 Borderlands
Filming for the Borderlands movie wrapped at the end of June of 2021, although there's still no word on when exactly the movie will be making its way to theaters. Some are expecting a 2022 release though, and with filming now complete, that's certainly a possibility.
A lot of big names will feature in the movie, including Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Hart. Based on some of the comments made by the cast during production, it seems that a lot of effort has gone into creating an authentic Borderlands experience. Exactly how well the looter-shooter franchise will translate to the big screen remains to be seen though.
5 Duke Nukem
Much like Duke Nukem Forever, work on the Duke Nukem movie adaptation doesn't seem to have gone particularly smoothly thus far. Plans for a movie featuring everybody's favorite foul-mouthed felon were first unveiled as far back as 2001, but it wasn't until fairly recently that it ever really looked like materializing.
As recently as early 2019, there were reports suggesting that the movie wouldn't be happening. Following the Embracer Group's merger with Gearbox Software a few years later, however, it was revealed that the flick is definitely in the pipeline, with former WWE superstar John Cena strongly linked to the leading role.
4 The Division
A movie adaptation of Ubisoft's The Division was first announced in June of 2016, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain announced as the movie's leads soon thereafter. Multiple people have been attached to direct since then, but it's now looking like Rawson Marshall Thurber will be the one occupying the director's chair once filming gets underway.
Though it's been confirmed that the movie will be set in the same nightmarish future as the games, little is known about its plot at this time. What is known, however, is that it will be coming to Netflix, with the streaming platform agreeing a distribution deal for the movie back in 2019.
3 Gears Of War
New Line Cinema acquired the rights for a movie adaptation of Gears of War in early 2007, but the project is yet to really get off the ground. At one point, those involved had hoped to start filming in early 2009, with a view to releasing the movie the following summer. Evidently though, things didn't quite go to plan.
According to Rod Ferguson, the former head of the development studio behind the series, the movie will be set in the same universe as the games, but outside of their official canon. Dave Bautista has been tipped to play Marcus Fenix, while Netflix have reportedly expressed an interest in distributing the movie.
2 Just Cause
Following the relative financial success of the Resident Evil and Tomb Raider movies in the early two-thousands, the movie rights to a lot of popular video game series were snapped up. Most of these deals came to nothing, however, with comic book writer Bryan Edward Hill's Just Cause: Scorpion Rising just one of many video game movie projects that never entered full production.
As the years passed, however, Square Enix began to express an interesting in creating its own cinematic universe and a Just Cause movie once again found itself on the agenda. Jason Momoa was signed up to play the revolutionary Rico Rodriguez in 2017 and the Aquaman star has since been joined by Derek Kolstad and Michael Dowse, who will write and direct the movie respectively.
1 Metal Gear Solid
There's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of Metal Gear as a video game series. As a movie, however, things seem to be going full steam ahead. First announced by Hideo Kojima in 2012 as part of the series' 25th-anniversary celebrations, the script now seems to be ready and its lead has been agreed.
Oscar Isaac is the man that was chosen to play Snake and the Golden Globe winner will be directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts. There's still no word on when production will actually begin though, nor what exactly will be covered in the plot. With Kojima seemingly still be a collaborator on the project, however, it will no doubt be in keeping with the rest of the series.