Earlier this month, Sony announced plans to adapt Arrowhead Studios' co-op shooter Helldivers 2 into a movie. The 2024 blockbuster -- a sequel to 2015's Helldivers -- puts players in the boots of nameless soldiers sent to "spread democracy" through war.
A political satire targeting militarisation and imperialism, among other things, the point of Helldivers is that you're just a cog in the war machine. If you die, you are immediately brought back into action as another nameless soldier.
It's unlikely that a movie adaptation won't follow a specific character or group of characters, but Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani is hoping that the spirit of the game remains intact -- at least through casting.
As the movie was just announced, no casting announcements have been made. Usually, big-budget blockbusters feature several big-named action stars. And to that, Jorjani is hopeful that the film stars as many notable celebrities as possible -- and then immediately kills them off.
"We're all hoping for as many A-list actors as possible--as long as they all get killed immediately," Jorjani wrote to a user in Discord. The Helldivers training program has a reported 23% survival rate, and the life expectancy of a Helldiver is approximately two minutes after deployment.
Assuming it's a standard two-hour movie, they can certainly fit lots of celebrity bloodshed into it.
Of course, Arrowhead isn't the one making the movie. While they do hope to be involved in the process, Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt acknowledged that the game studio isn't well-versed in movie-making, so they are leaving it up to the experts.
"The short answer is yes. The long answer is that we'll see," Pilestedt told a fan when asked if Arrowhead will be involved in the movie. "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."
A synopsis for the Helldivers 2 movie has not yet been revealed, but the game's description reads:
Do you believe in freedom? Can you stand in the face of oppression – and defend the defenceless? Wage war for peace. Die for democracy.
Join forces with up to three friends and wreak havoc on an alien scourge threatening the safety of your home planet, Super Earth, in this multiplayer co-op shooter for PS5 and PC from Arrowhead Game Studios.
Step into the boots of the Helldivers, an elite class of soldiers whose mission is to spread peace, liberty and Managed Democracy using the biggest, baddest and most explosive tools in the galaxy.
Helldivers 2 is just one of multiple PlayStation games getting an adaptation. Also announced at CES was a Horizon Zero Dawn movie. We've also got a movie based on the interactive horror Until Dawn coming soon.