The numbers don’t lie. Whether you liked the new Mortal Kombat film adaptation or not, it’s broken streaming records and audiences are eating it up. Along with the hype surrounding the forthcoming Sonic the Hedgehog sequel and the HBO series adaption of The Last of Us, it’s clear people are hungry for more video games to make the transition to the big screen. So the inevitable question is, which one is next?
Video game adaptations are tricky because the nature of the medium is interactive and expansive, whereas films and television are a passive experience. Additionally, Hollywood has a difficult path to navigate, because if you stick too close to the source material you could potentially alienate casual audiences, but if you veer too far from it you risk cutting out the game’s fans. Mortal Kombat seems to have achieved a successful balance of both. If other filmmakers can follow a similar model, we have a few ideas for which major video game properties could be the next big adaptation. (Honestly, it’s a crime some of these franchises haven’t been adapted multiple times already.)
Half-Life
This first-person shooter rocked the world with its scripted sequences and uninterrupted game play. Following scientist Gordon Freeman, the game is set in a research facility where an explosion sets off an alien invasion. Freeman must battle both the invaders and the world’s governments to keep humanity alive. Subsequent versions of the game introduced more characters like resistance fighter Alyx and her father Eli. A film following a pocket of survivors as they search desperately for a scientific weakness to defeat the invasion while fighting off hordes of terrifying aliens sounds like the kind of thing you can eat popcorn to.
Half-Life consistently features on ‘Best of’ video game lists, and for a time none other than J.J. Abrams was attached to produce a major adaptation. If Abrams does ultimately take the reins of a Half-Life movie, his Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Oscar Isaac would be a great choice to play Freeman. Meanwhile, The Morning Show’s Janina Gavankar seems like a perfect fit for Alyx. (Gavankar was recently cast as a villain in Borderlands, another upcoming video game adaptation.) The gameplay literally pushes the boundaries of physics, and we need to see that on the big screen. So, where is the adaptation, Hollywood?
Red Dead Redemption
The appeal of the American Old West never dies down, especially if the stories can be upgraded to reflect modern sensibilities. Red Dead Redemption and its sequel/prequel have been favorites among gamers for years, so it seems almost inevitable that this game will eventually make its way to the big screen.
The game follows John Marston, a former outlaw forced to hunt down the surviving members of his old game to keep his family safe. It’s a good ole romp across the American frontier, with all the cornerstones you’d expect of the genre—epic gunfights, horse chases and train robberies, and the fight for survival against a rapidly changing American West. Finding the correct tone will be key for any adaptation, since the game balances its unflinching violence with Marston’s strict moral code. Despite his involvement with HBO's The Last of Us, it’s tempting to want to see Pedro Pascal step in to play Marston. But after his Oscar-nominated turn in Sound of Metal, Riz Ahmed feels like an excellent choice to deftly portray the pathos and rugged charisma of the game’s protagonist.
The Legend of Zelda
Even if you’re not a gamer, odds are you’ve heard of The Legend of Zelda. It’s a beloved game that combines adventure, fantasy, and an old-school sense of fun. Link is an archetypal (and generally mute) hero desperate to save Princess Zelda, who is literally the reincarnation of a god. Together they must battle many villains, chief among whom is Ganon, the embodiment of evil. Will Link and Zelda protect Hyrule, or will Ganon twist the land to his own dark desires?
The Legend of Zelda has a great deal of mainstream appeal, and could lend itself well to an animated adaptation or a young adult film. Both Link and Zelda have extensive backstories, given the many iterations of the game, so there’s plenty of source material for a screenwriter to mine. And the fantasy realm of Hyrule is home to countless visually interesting creatures and landscapes. Additionally, the franchise has a simple, classic story structure, which would make it a compelling yet light film adaptation. Add in a cast of young, upcoming stars like Ian Alexander or Remy Hii as Link and Lyrica Okano or So-dam Park as Zelda, and you have a seemingly perfect recipe for success.
Portal
Portal may seem like a strange choice for an adaptation, because on the surface it’s a straightforward puzzle game about spatial navigation. Players are dropped in a series of rooms and tasked with making their way to the room’s exit using a gun that creates portals. But this genre-bending game has a wide-ranging appeal thanks to razor-sharp writing, an eerie atmosphere, and an unforgettable villain in the form of an insane disembodied AI named GLaDOS, who has locked the game’s protagonist Chell in a testing facility and is tormenting her with the various room puzzles.
A Portal adaptation could lean into the creepy mood of the game and the disorienting nature of its gameplay to leave audiences dizzy and terrified. Picture yourself sitting in the theatre, and there’s a sequence where main protagonist Chell just keeps falling through the two portals in an endless loop; she has a split second to correct her mistake and open a portal elsewhere before she and the audience are trapped forever on the world’s worst rollercoaster ride.
One of the biggest issues with video game adaptations is that the creators believe they have to humanize the characters by giving them prolonged origin stories. But part of the key to making a successful Portal adaptation is to keep Chell and GLaDOS as the enigmatic figures that they are. We know little about these two characters before their battle of wits begins, and fans prefer it that way. Ellen McLain is the one and only voice of GLaDOS, having expertly given the character life in the game, but Chell is a little more of a blank canvas. Veteran action stars like Michelle Rodriguez or Charlize Theron would be natural choices for the role, but with Supergirl ending soon, maybe Azie Tesfai or Nicole Maines would want to pick up the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (a.k.a. the portal gun).
Quake
Quake was the follow-up first-person shooter by id Software, the studio behind the Doom series. The original game had a paper-thin plot that cast players into a twisted high-tech medieval universe of demons and monsters (later installments focused on a more straightforward intergalactic war, but we don’t need to jump the shark just yet). A film adaptation could be an action gorefest like Mortal Kombat, with a stronger emphasis on horror and its unique techno-medieval setting. A Quake film will have to work hard not to avoid the traps that both ill-received Doom movies fell into by completely ignoring the source material, and while we’re not saying a video game adaptation has to look like a glorified walkthrough, the essence of the game should permeate the film’s visuals at the very least.
A Quake film could feature a team of protagonists from the game series who must use their intellect, as well as their weapons, to get out of each scrape. Ranger, the silent protagonist of the original game, is a quintessentially gruff character made for the likes of Josh Brolin or Tom Hardy, but the rest of the cast could be as varied and inclusive as possible. The appeal of a Quake adaptation is being able to see the game rendered in modern-day special effects technology. The very thought of seeing an Inception-esque take on the game’s notorious Ziggurat Vertigo level would be enough to get fans to buy a ticket.
Video game films will always be part of the pop culture zeitgeist. Even silly adaptations like Sonic the Hedgehog, Detective Pikachu, and The Angry Birds Movie 2 have garnered both hype and box office success. The games on this list have memorable characters and engrossing worlds - now they’re just waiting to become excellent films.