The upcoming Helldivers movie won’t heavily involve the developers of the game, according to Arrowhead Game Studios creative director Johan Pilestedt.
Pilestedt was asked on X if the studio would have a hand in the production of the upcoming film. “The short answer is yes. The long answer is that we’ll see,” he replied. “We are not Hollywood people, and we don’t know what it takes to make a movie. And therefore we don’t, and shouldn’t, have final say.”
Although the movie is still in early development, according to Sony’s announcement last week at CES, it sounds like it won’t be led by anyone at Arrowhead. It’s possible things could change as time goes on, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a Last of Us TV show situation with lead developers co-creating it.
With no names publicly attached to the project, it remains to be seen how the Helldivers movie will capture the thrill of exterminating space bugs and robots as an army of space marines loyal to a satirical fascist empire. The game is deeply inspired by 1997’s Starship Troopers, a film coincidentally owned by Sony that still holds up today, which leaves a big question mark on how much the adaptation will lean into that.
PlayStation Productions will be working with Sony Pictures on the film and the rest is up in the air. Since its creation in 2019, PlayStation Productions has been cooking up films and television shows based on Sony’s major video game franchises, including Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, and The Last of Us. The Helldivers movie is just one of seven projects on their way, most of which have no release date. Sony has already announced films based on Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, and Gravity Rush.
