Henry Cavill might just have his hand in every video gam adaptation on the market right now. We've seen him perform excellently as Geralt of Rivia in the hit Netflix show The Witcher, but he's also talked about joining the Mass Effect TV show, doing a project based in the Warhammer universe, and now, in a recent interview with Gamereactor, making a Red Dead Redemption 2 movie.
When asked at a red carpet event in Madrid for The Witcher about a particular game that he thought would make a great Netflix project, he had this to say:
Well, that's a tricky one, 'cause you're tying both an IP and a company together, which is a tricky thing to do, so I certainly don't want to put myself in any corners with that, but there are plenty of games out there... I've actually started playing Red Dead Redemption 2—I know I'm a little bit late to that party—but I started playing it and I'm really enjoying it. And so, something like that I think would be fun to turn into a movie.
It's an understandable sentiment. Rockstar's recent games have an almost blockbuster cinematic quality to them, especially looking at the last few Grand Theft Auto games and, of course, their beloved western franchise. Seeing the story of Arthur Morgan, John Marston, and the van der Linde gang on the silver screen with Cavill's take on one of the cowboys sounds like a match made in heaven — at least, in theory. In reality, Rockstar games also tend to be long and Red Dead Redemption 2 is no exception, clocking in at around 40 to 50 hours to hear all of Morgan's tale. Any studio would be hard pressed to condense that down into a film while still capturing the essence of what makes the game great.
On the other hand, a Red Dead Redemption 2 Netflix series a la The Witcher with Cavill at the head sounds a lot more enticing. It would be far easier to do the game's story justice, with multiple episodes dedicated to each town the gang runs off to. Moreover, it does Arthur, a character whose perspective on the gang and his life of crime slowly changes over the events of the game, far more justice to have more time dedicated to fleshing him out. It even has sequel potential with the events of the first game as extra material to pull from. Also, be sure to bring in Benjamin Byron Davis to reprise his role as Dutch van der Linde and you're golden.
Western series in general are seeing a comeback too. Between Westworld, Yellowstone and its prequel series 1883, and Walker, there's no shortage of captivating tales of cowboys and rangers on TV right now, so a Red Dead Redemption show could fit right in. As long as Cavill keeps pushing for more adaptations like this, anything's possible. He's certainly earned plenty of goodwill for his portrayal of Geralt to consider the idea.
Cavill will have his hands full with The Witcher for the time being, with the series' second season just dropping on Netflix. Season three is already written for the fantasy show, so he'll be back once again to hunt down what goes bump in the night, but don't be shocked if he pops up in more video game adaptations in the future.