In a year already packed with video game movies that includes Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat 2, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, there’s a good chance that the one based on John Madden could be 2026’s best. It will at least be the most fascinating to watch. After all, Madden‘s got Nicolas Cage as John Madden, Christian Bale as Al Davis, and David O. Russell behind the camera.
Make no mistake, Madden is a video game movie. The biopic “follows the football legend from Super Bowl glory with the Raiders to revolutionizing the game with Madden NFL,” according to Amazon MGM’s synopsis of the movie. The long-in-development film based on John Madden appears to be as much about the legendary coach’s work with Oakland as much as it is about his partnership with Electronic Arts and the Madden NFL football video games. (Blink and you’ll miss it: At 0:26 in the trailer, you can see a flash of the game.) John Mulaney plays Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, in next year’s Madden.
After Madden’s coaching career with the Raiders, he became an NFL commentator across major networks, winning 16 Sports Emmy Awards. His on-camera work attracted the attention of EA founder Trip Hawkins, who pitched the realistic sports game that became John Madden Football, later rebranded as Madden NFL, one of the most successful and influential video game franchises of all time. Madden will chronicle that era of John Madden’s life. At one point during production, Will Ferrell was in talks to star as John Madden.
Joining Cage as Madden, Bale as Raiders owner Davis, and Mulaney as Hawkins in Madden are Kathryn Hahn as Virginia Madden, Sienna Miller as Carol Davis, and Shane Gillis in an unspecified role. David O. Russell wrote the script, based on an earlier draft by Cambron Clark.
Madden arrives on Prime Video just in time for Turducken season: Nov. 26, 2026.
