Ninja Theory’s 2017 video game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is cited as one of the best games of all time, but it would’ve never existed without director Alex Garland’s 2014 movie Ex Machina. Ninja Theory’s co-founder, Tameem Antoniades, once revealed that the movie, featuring Oscar Issac, inspired him to create the game.
He explained that Garland told him the idea and he decided to create the video game in a similar manner with a small budget. The result was 2017’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which follows Senua, a Pict warrior who must make her way to Helheim while overcoming challenges to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the goddess Hela.
Oscar Isaac’s 2014 movie inspired Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
In 2022, Ninja Theory co-founder, Tameem Antoniades, told NME that he was inspired by Alex Garland’s 2014 movie Ex Machina’s production process and implemented the idea in his 2017 video game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice,
“Alex Garland had just told us about a concept that he had, which became the film Ex Machina. He said, ‘There’s going to be three speaking parts, one location and a small team. We’re going to do it on a low budget and we’re going to make it look as good as we possibly can.’ That struck a chord with me. So for Hellblade I thought, right, let’s restrict it to one character; let’s use performance capture; let’s build our own stage to support that one character. We’ll have one environment artist, one character artist, one audio person, one of everyone – keep the team as small and tight as possible.”
Like Ex Machina, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was made with a very small team that only consisted of people who were essential for creating the game. For example, its cutscenes combine motion capture by Melina Juergens, and live-action performances by other actors. So, only those actors were on the sets apart from Antoniades directing and filming, a second person to look after the audio, and a third to look after the motion capture process.
The next installment in the Hellblade franchise will be released on 21st May 2024
The sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is called Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, serving as a continuation of the events of the first game. The game reportedly carries over the concepts and gameplay elements of its predecessor but introduces a fresh fighting system that is more realistic than the previous one.
Unlike the first game, the team working on the game is big as they wanted the game to feature new characters and a new combat style. Ninja Theory has announced that the game will be released on 21st May 2024 and will cost $49.99. It will not have a physical edition, and be of similar length as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
