Will 2025 Be a Good Year for Game Adaptations?

Video game adaptations have become a big thing in TV and film in recent years. Recent reports suggest that the James Bond origin story, made by IO Interactive (makers of Hitman), could still be years away. But even if we don’t get to play as Bond in his Aston Martin or playing roulette at a casino, there are some intriguing movies to look forward to.

Metal Gear Solid

Based on the legendary game, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is working on a Metal Gear Solid adaptation. Vogt-Roberts is known for The Kings of Summer and Kong: Skull Island. The film is only in pre-production so we might have to wait until 2026. According to IMDb, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima had suggested a few stars for the role of Solid Snake: Luca Marinelli, Viggo Mortensen, and Hugh Jackman. Eventually, Oscar Isaac was cast. The plot summary reads, as per IMDb, “An advanced tank is stolen by a terrorist group and an elite soldier, Solid Snake, is dispatched to retrieve it.”

Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs is in pre-production. Chief character Aiden Pierce will use his phone to take over an operating system in Chicago. The staff of writers includes Rhett Reese, Sean O’Keefe, and Jonathan Herman, who worked on The Talented Mr. Ripley. Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2 both scored highly with the critics, with 80 and 82 Metascores on Metacritic. The film is set to star Sophie Wilde, who won the AACTA Award for Best Actress for her part in the horror film Talk to Me.

Halo

There aren’t many details on the Halo adaptation yet, but there’ll be millions of fans waiting to see it. Way back in 2005, Alex Garland, known for the films Ex Machina and Annihilation, was paid $1 million by Microsoft to write a script, which was sold to Universal for $10 million. In 2006, D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote the script. The project has halted and restarted multiple times and the rights have since returned to Microsoft.

The games have already spawned a TV series that ran from 2022 to 2024. The series was enjoyed by fans and critics, and currently holds a 7.3/10 on IMDb, but it was cancelled by Paramount+ in mid-2024. Paramount+ said they were “extremely proud of this ambitious series”. Steven Spielberg was among the executive producers. Pablo Shreiber starred as Master Chief. No casting news for the film is available yet. 

The best game adaptation ever?

Earlier this year, Vulture updated their list of every video game movie ranked. The number 1 spot went to Werewolves Within (2021), which was called a “fun little genre comedy”. They praised the cast, including Michaela Watkins and Harvey Guillen. Vulture called Postal the worst adaptation of all time. 

Last word

There probably won’t be a James Bond movie anytime soon, but 2025 could be the year of some particularly exciting video game movies. There’s plenty of source material for Metal Gear Solid and Watch Dogs, and maybe we’ll finally get to see that Halo film.