Every Upcoming Movie Based on a Toy

Anyone who has seen Apple TV+’s The Studio knows that Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick is given one major mountain to climb now that he’s a studio head: to craft a Kool-Aid movie. The thing is, a Kool-Aid movie is pretty far from an unbelievable project even in our reality. After all, we got a Battleship movie. But before Battleship there was Transformers, which went to show that a movie based on a toy could actually make a ton of money. And now that both Mattel and Hasbro seem intent on bringing their A-list toys to life on the big screen, we seem to be set to enter a boom of toy-inspired cinema. There are quite a few en route, and we’re going to go through them.

Videos by ComicBook.com

To be included here, though, there needs to be some concrete development on the project. So, we left out the potential movies based on the View-Master (the little 3D image reel displayer), Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots (which was announced in 2021 as a Vin Diesel film and hasn’t experienced any forward momentum), and Uno (which was also announced all the way back in 2021 and seems to have gone nowhere). Speaking of Uno, we’re going for movies based on toys here, and board or card games aren’t quite toys. Apologies to the upcoming Monopoly and Clue films.

1) My Little Pony

Let’s kick things off with a very freshly announced project, which is My Little Pony. The iconic toy line is one of many Hasbro Entertainment is set on bringing to the big screen in live-action.

The My Little Pony movie comes from both Hasbro and Amazon MGM Studios, so a lot of money is behind it, and it will certainly lead to some booming toy sales regardless of how the movie performs. This is far from the first time My Little Pony has been adapted, as there have been animated specials, multiple animated TV series, and a pair of theatrical animated movies, one from 1986 and one from 2017.

2) Hot Wheels

In the wake of Barbie‘s success, Mattel was quick to announce a litany of film projects based on their other top-tier IPs. This included Hot Wheels. This is assuredly great news for those who have ever wanted some variation of a Hot Wheels movie, because it’s a prospect that has been floated for over 20 years. Back in 2003, Charlie’s Angels‘ McG was attached to directed for Columbia Pictures. Then when Fast Five did well in 2011, development on the project was resurrected, but ultimately never got off the ground.

Cut to 2020 and writers were hired for another take on the IP, but again nothing came of it. Things started to turn around in 2022, when Katie McGrath and J. J. Abrams’ Bad Robot became attached as production company. There was some more stagnation, then in 2023 Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson (both of whom penned the upcoming The Dead of Winter) became attached as writers, but it’s unclear if any of their work will end up in the version we get, because now we have Space Jam: A New Legacy writers Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier on scripting duties with Jon M. Chu (Step Up 3D, Crazy Rich Asians, and Wicked) attached as director. That director-writers combo was announced on July 7, 2025, so it seems there’s some strong forward momentum here.

3) Barbie 2

Admittedly, Barbie doesn’t need a sequel. It’s perfectly effective as a zeitgeist-capturing one-off. But it netted $1.447 billion worldwide against a price tag of at most $145 million, so the notion of us not getting a sequel is far-fetched. It also was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, so Warner Bros. Pictures has the two best reasons they’d ever need to develop a follow-up.

For the time being, a proper Barbie 2 hasn’t been confirmed, but Illumination of Despicable Me fame, has been revealed to be making a new animated Barbie movie. Is it a true sequel (it wouldn’t be unheard of, given how the live-action film was fairly meta) or a pivot? That remains to be seen.

4) Masters of the Universe

There already is a He-Man movie, and that would be 1987’s cheesy (which was typical for The Cannon Group), Dolph Lundgren fronted Masters of the Universe. Now, nearly 40 years later, we’re getting another one, with Travis Knight’s (Bumblebee and Kubo and the Two Strings) new take hitting theaters on June 5, 2026.

The Craft: Legacy‘s Nicholas Galitzine is stepping into the He-Man role while Camila Mendes (Riverdale) will play He-Man’s sergeant, Teela. Jared Leto will be playing the iconic role of Skeletor (played well by Frank Langella in the 1987 movie) while Alison Brie, Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, Sasheer Zamata, and James Purefoy round out the cast. Production has already wrapped on the new movie, so expect to see it soon.

5) Matchbox

For about a year now, John Cena has been attached to a Matchbox movie. And along with Masters of the Universe, this is one that is the closest to hitting screens. Matchbox is set to be directed by Sam Hargrave, who helmed both Chris Hemsworth-led Extraction movies for Netflix. The film’s writers, David Coggeshall and Jonathan Tropper, each have experience writing both darker and lighter fare. Coggeshall wrote Orphan: First Kill and The Family Plan while Tropper wrote the popular novel This Is Where I Leave You and created the shows Banshee and Apple TV+’s hit Your Friends and Neighbors.

Cena is set to be joined by Sam Richardson (Veep), Jessica Biel, Teyonah Parris (The Marvels), Corey Stoll (Ant-Man), and Danie Gurira (Black Panther). The film is set to be released at some point during Fall 2026 and will be distributed by Apple TV+.

6) Polly Pocket

At one point, Girls‘ Lena Dunham was set to helm a Polly Pocket movie, but that’s no longer the case. However, it’s not clear if the project is dead.

Back when Dunham was attached as director, Emily in Paris‘ Lily Collins was cast in the lead role. Collins has plenty of star power, and since Mattel is dead set on replicating the success of Barbie, a Collins fronted Polly Pocket seems like a logical step to take for the company.

7) Monster High

Since its introduction in 2010, Monster High has been a huge moneymaker for Mattel. Like with Barbie and American Girl, it allows the buyer the ability to buy a doll that reminds them of themself to an extent. It’s just, in this case, the dolls are inspired by monster movies, thriller fiction, and folklore.

Like the other entries on this list, Monster High‘s profitability has already resulted in its expansion. Specifically, into 15 animated tv specials/film, video games, and young adult novels. In fact, it’s already been adapted as a live-action film, via 2022’s Monster High: The Movie for Nickelodeon. But it’s now getting an even higher-profile release, and back in early June of this year M3GAN‘s Gerard Johnstone was selected as director.

8) American Girl

An American Girl doll movie was announced back in 2023 and, like with Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, it was announced as a Paramount film. As one might expect from such an expansive and popular IP, there have already been quite a few American Girl films, including 2008’s theatrical movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, starring Abigail Breslin.

Time will tell if this film will be less modestly budgeted (Kit Kittredge had a price tag of just $10 million), but we do know at least one thing about it. Specifically, it’s set to be written and directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer, who made her directorial debut with something quite different…Pet Sematary: Bloodlines.

9) G.I. Joe and Transformers Crossover Movie

The end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz attend a job interview. He thinks it’s a security job, and in a way, it is, but with G.I. Joe.

It was announced shortly before Rise of the Beasts‘ wide release in June 2023 that a crossover between Transformers and G.I. Joe was in the works, and the movie certainly got that particular ball rolling. It was then officially announced at CinemaCon the following year. And, in June 2025, it was surprisingly announced that Michael Bay would be returning to the franchise with the ultimate goal being to begin production prior to 2029, when Paramount will lose the film rights.