With its remarkable first-person shooter video games, Call of Duty has managed to become one of the biggest video game franchises in the world. The series, particularly the Black Ops and Modern Warfare games, popularised the genre among a wider audience. With a range of intense storylines and immersive gameplay, Call of Duty has certainly solidified itself as a successful video game company. Its upcoming expansion to Hollywood, therefore, can only be deemed natural.
In the mid-2010s, Activision (now Activision Blizzard) launched a studio to create movies and television shows. Shortly after that, a movie based on the Call of Duty video game series was announced which would be a part of a live-action Call of Duty cinematic universe. Throughout the late 2010s, the film’s production was in full swing but unfortunately, in 2020, it was confirmed that the production was halted as it wasn’t Activision Blizzard’s priority at the time.
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Activision Blizzard planned to create a Call of Duty cinematic universe
In 2015, during investor day, Activision (now Activision Blizzard) announced a movie based on the Call of Duty video game series, which was all set to be a part of a Call of Duty cinematic universe but the release date was not disclosed. In 2018, it was confirmed that Stefano Sollima would direct the film and in an interview with Metro UK, the director expressed interest in including Tom Hardy and Chris Pine as leading men in the Call of Duty movie.
As time passed, more information about the film came forward: the film was confirmed to be a real soldier movie, not a war movie. The filming was supposed to start filming in Spring 2019 for a 2020 or 2021 release, however, Activision Blizzard decided to put the idea on a back burner.
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Why was the Call of Duty movie canceled?
In 2020, Stefano Sollima gave fans an update on the film in an interview with BadTaste, revealing that Activision Blizzard decided to keep that idea on hold because it was not their priority,
“Well, the Call of Duty film has remained a bit like this… We wrote the script with Scott Silver, and let’s say that the idea of expanding the universe, the world of Call of Duty… is no longer (at the moment) an industrial priority of the group, of Activision… So, trivially, it has stood still, which happens quite frequently there in America.”
It’s not like Activision Blizzard hasn’t touched their studios as the company partnered with Netflix in 2016 to create an animated series based on Activision’s video game series Skylanders, called Skylanders Academy.
The news disappointed many fans, but many believe that the idea might come to fruition in the near future. With many video game franchises constantly expanding to Hollywood, it is about time fans get to see their favorite Call of Duty characters in a live-action movie/TV show. Some media outlets claim that Henry Cavill has been shortlisted for the role of Captain Price for an upcoming Call of Duty movie, but all these are rumors as of now as nothing has been confirmed.
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