Video game movies have been a part of Hollywood for over 30 years now. And, more often than not, they haven’t panned out as much as they’ve just been panned. The ’90s had Paul W. S. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat, but it also had Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Wing Commander, Super Mario Bros., and Street Fighter. The aughts had Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, but it also had those films’ sequels, House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Doom, and BloodRayne. The 2010s didn’t fare any better, with larger budget films such as Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed finding themselves swiftly dismissed. But it seems studios have found ways to make video game movies work, as Uncharted, the three Sonic the Hedgehog movies, Five Nights at Freddy’s, A Minecraft Movie, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie all making substantial chunks of change and, in some cases, scoring solid reviews, as well. And now, it seems one of the gaming industry’s biggest IPs is all set to move forward with a movie.
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Unlike God of War and Halo (the latter of which did receive a short-lived TV series), we now have confirmation that a Call of Duty film is movie forward, according to Variety. And it seems this is just the beginning.
What Will This Call of Duty Movie Lead to?
Paramount has inked a deal with Activision, the company behind Call of Duty, to make the long-awaited film a reality. Paramount will develop, produce, and distribute the live-action cinematic adaptation. However, this is reportedly only the beginning, because while the deal is focused on making one movie, it also “encompasses the potential for Paramount to expand the CoD universe across film and TV.”
A new Call of Duty game has been an annual tradition ever since the release of Call of Duty 2 in 2005. There have been 21 games thus far, with the 22nd, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 set for release on November 14th. There have been tons of stories the upcoming movie could tell, be it from one of the earlier World War II games, the futuristic Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, or, most likely, the more modern Modern Warfare games.
What shape will this Call of Duty movie take? It’s too early to say but, again, it seems likely they’ll pattern the first installment on one of the Modern Warfare games, either the initial trilogy running from 2007 to 2011 or the 2019 to 2023 reboot trilogy. If they go this direction, and choose that latter trilogy, casting shouldn’t be too hard considering they nailed that aspect for the games. This is especially true of Julian Kostov as big bad Vladimir Makarov from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Fans might also recognize Kostov from his work in A Discovery of Witches and two of the summer 2025 movie season’s more breezily enjoyable films, Fight or Flight and The Toxic Avenger.
We’ll let you know more about the Call of Duty film as we learn it but, for now, let us know how you feel about this project in the comments.
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