As many fellow cinephiles might know, there is beginning to be a blend of two medias: video games and movies. Video games as a media can create a lot of interesting and truly unique stories and cinematic moments, which then lends to the movie medium. Over time, more and more movies based upon video games have been popping up. Some of these have been considered successes, such as The Last of Us, Fallout, Uncharted, Iron Lung, and Silent Hill. 

Unfortunately, there have been almost equal amounts of failures than there were successes. This can be seen in the Halo TV show and some of the Resident Evil movies. Due to this, I would like to talk a little bit about some upcoming video game movies that I am excited for (and therefore nervous about). These being the upcoming Elden Ring, Helldivers, and Bloodborne movies. 

Firstly, I would like to touch on the currently most popular Elden Ring movie. Elden Ring is a open world, High Fantasy – style Soulslike game developed by FromSoftware. It won game of the year, and swept through the masses and will go down in history as a classic.

Some footage has recently been leaked for theElden Ring movie, which has pushed it back into the spotlight a couple of months post announcement. These leaks seem honestly very promising, with fully built sets and ornate costumes, and a very solid cast of actors. However, I am still worried about plenty of issues. 

Firstly, Elden Ring could be very plausibly devolved into a CGI nightmare, given it is being produced in a live action format. I surely hope that the directors go the The Lord of the Rings route, with just as many practical effects as there are CGI effects. More specifically, I wish that they keep the very grand scale that the video game is known for, but even still work with practical effects. Quite a difficult and expensive task, but that’s what it seems like the studio is working towards.

Speaking of all the things that the video game is known for, let us touch on briefly on the massive open world and story. How is the entire story of the game going to be folded into a contained film narrative? How is it possible to condense an entire vibrant world, with potentially limitless hours of exploration, into 120 minutes? Elden Ring was hailed as the flagship of a new open world craze, with part of the appeal coming from looking across a vast land at a distant landmark and thinking to yourself, “I can go there.” I’m not really sure if a film could capture that feeling like the game does.

That said, Elden Ring is the movie that I am the least worried about on this list. The movie will be directed by Alex Garland, who is a self proclaimed fan of the original video game. This gives me a lot of hope that the studio and director aren’t attempting to cash in on a very popular game, but actually have a specific vision for what they want to make. That, combined with a cast of skilled actors that aren’t famous enough to ruin it, makes me extremely hopeful and willing to wait for March 2028 for its release, granted there are no unforeseen roadblocks. Garland even stated in an interview that he consulted directly with FromSoftware, which is definitely a plus. 

However, the same cannot be said about the upcoming Helldivers movie. Both Helldivers and it’s extremely popular sequel, Helldivers II, are multiplayer cooperative games focused around expendable grunts serving a totalitarian government in a Sci Fi war. 

Helldivers’ movie was announced during Sony’s CES 2025, and is slated for release sometime in 2027, which is a very quick turnaround for a high budget live action movie. Unlike Elden Ring’s director Alex Garland, Helldivers’ director Justin Lin has stated he has never played the game and never will. What makes me even more nervous is the fact that Lin believes this is a benefit. Just from this one quote, it seems to me that Lin wants this movie to prioritize appeal to a very broad audience instead of to those that are fans of the game.

Coupled with this, the only announced actor for the movie is Jason Momoa. However a good actor he may be, simply the fact of them announcing only this A-list celebrity is worrying. It could very well be that the studio will attempt to move forwards with the “Sci-Fi Action-Adventure” view of the game, and not the modern commentary on a totalitarian society, which would be a shame. In fact, I think that this commentary is just as (if not more) relevant today as it was 29 years ago, when Starship Troopers was released. For those who don’t know, the original video game Helldivers was largely based upon the 1997 movie Starship Troopers, from which the parallels of themes and totalitarian imagery can hardly be missed. 

In fact, simply that the video game ‘borrows’ lots of ideas from other pieces of media and films could pose an issue by itself. The insectoid Terminid aliens look like a cross between Starship Troopers’ Arachnids and Warhammer 40K’s similarly named Tyrranids, Automaton Commissars in the game are the spitting image of the Terminator, Automaton Hulks that of Warhammer 40K’s Dreadnoughts, Illuminate Harvesters that of the Tripods from War of the Worlds, and Factory Striders that of Star Wars’ lumbering AT-ATs. However, this was all allowed to pass because these dangerously similar silhouettes were wrapped in a unique gameplay loop that halted any potential issues with copyright. This will change completely with the release of a movie, as then all of these characters will have nothing concrete to differentiate themselves from their cinematic inspirations, potentially causing copyright infringement issues.

I’m worried about the Helldivers movie. After all, it seems like it’s going to end up another piece of slop in the bucket of modern movies. Helldivers II is my most played game on Steam, and it sucks seeing such an interesting concept being messed up so thoroughly. 

Now onto Bloodborne. This section will be a lot longer than the other two, particularly because Bloodborne is my favorite video game of all time. That said, what’s the big deal?

Much later than the Helldivers announcement, in the 2026 CinemaCon, Sony again announced a film was in the works. Another Playstation video game and FromSoftware work adapted into a movie, this time with the cult classic Bloodborne. Bloodborne is a gothic style Soulslike game developed by FromSoftware, known for its savage and fast combat. Although it starts as a simple tale surrounding a plague that turns its victims into wild beasts, it quickly devolves into a Lovecraftian tale about dreams, nightmares, and eldritch horrors just beyond human sight.

As a self proclaimed Bloodborne super fan, I am at the same time wildly excited and extremely nervous for how this movie will turn out. This was recently announced this very year, and therefore the details are pretty scarce. This is what we know: The movie will be animated, the movie will be R rated, and the movie will be produced by popular youtuber Sean McLoughlin. That is it. 

Now, I’d like to start with perhaps the most intriguing part of this story, and that would be Sean McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye on Youtube). McLoughlin is a fellow Bloodborne fan, so much in fact that he is single handedly funding this project. That makes me quite hopeful that this isn’t a cash grab, and that it will be an actual labour of love. In response to worry about how much he would actually be influencing the movie, McLoughlin has already put out a short public introduction to his role in the project. As a co-producer along with Sony, McLoughlin will be funding the project and making sure that it remains genuine and true to the game, but won’t be the one directing or animating the movie (of course). 

Speaking of the animation, some are conflicted on whether or not animation is the correct move for Bloodborne, as the game is relatively realistic in its art style (well, however realistic a game about eldritch horrors and twisted beasts can be). I do believe there would be no possible way to convey Bloodborne in a live action-format, and that animation is the only way to depict the wild images and crazy story that you experience through playing the game. I am, however, worried about the degree of stylization of the animation. Although part of me wants to see an extremely stylized and trippy depiction of Bloodborne, unfortunately I think that the best move would be to go down the realism path.

Although we haven’t seen any clips or teasers for the movie whatsoever, and have no idea how close the project is to completion, my personal theory is that the animation will follow closely with what the cinematic trailers show and have a focus on realism. What does give me hope with respect to animation is that this is being done through Sony, who have produced some amazing animated movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. If that movie is any evidence for how much work is being put into Bloodborne’s animation, I think we’re in good hands. 

Onto the last piece of concrete information that we have been given: the movie’s R rating. I thought this point would be very controversial, but it actually proves that this film will focus on sticking to what made Bloodborne special instead of appealing to a wider audience. This is what sets apart Bloodborne from Helldivers, as one is going to be a labor of love, while the other is going to end up an unfortunate quick cash grab. And in any case, if Bloodborne was not going to end up R rated I would be a little uneasy. I mean, the game literally has the word ‘blood’ in its name; if gore were to be absent from the film that would be disingenuous to the original work. 

Now onto speculation and wishes: Firstly, I wish that McLoughlin urges the animators and actors working on the project to play the game, or at least watch a playthrough or lore video to experience it somehow. There is so much atmosphere, imagery, and story details that are unique to only Bloodborne, and it is essential to get all of that right in order to capture what makes the game so special. Along with urging the cast and crew to experience the game somehow, I hope that the production involves FromSoftware’s CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki in some form. Bloodborne is widely considered Miyazaki’s magnum opus, which he famously (and controversially) guarded from a Bluepoint remaster to maintain the game’s ingenuity. I think that if FromSoftware were not consulted at all about their own IP, that could be quite the blunder on Sony’s part. Finally, Bloodborne is an amazing story and experience on its lonesome, but what really completes the package is its (now free) DLC The Old Hunters. It is widely considered some of the best video game content ever produced, and without spoilers, it is a crime not to include with the rest of  Bloodborne. However, in the interest of keeping the film feature length, It would be impossible to include two entire stories in two hours. Now, that leads to conversations about a sequel to a movie that isn’t even released, and we know that is probably not a very good discussion. 

In any case, all of these upcoming movies could possibly be great, but we won’t really know until they finally release. These three are not even the only video game movies coming out in the near future. There is the upcoming A Minecraft Movie Squared, Sekiro: No Defeat, and even the Backrooms movie (which may or may not be considered a video game movie). However, I really wanted to take a minute to delve deeper into the three that I was the most interested in. If you read this whole piece, I’m very surprised, and I hope you are just as excited as I am for these films.