The gaming community has seen many bad adaptations over the years: Far Cry, Hitman, Lara Croft, the list of mediocre (or just plain bad) movies goes on.
Some good adaptations in recent years — like Super Mario Bros, Sonic, Amazon's Fallout, and Arcane — have reduced some of the skepticism fans feel when an adaptation is announced, but the stigma surrounding half-baked video game movies hasn't completely disappeared.
That's why fans are skeptical of Justin Lin, who was recently announced as the director of the upcoming Helldivers adaptation. Lin has decades of experience in Hollywood, having directed several of the Fast & Furious films (Tokyo Drift—Fast & Furious 6 as well as F9 and Fast X) and Star Trek: Beyond.
The Humanity of Helldivers
However, Lin is not a gamer and has never played Helldivers. An excerpt from a piece by The Hollywood Reporter confirms this:
“Lin is not a gamer and has leaned into that strength when pitching his take on the material, insiders said. He aims to find humanity in the characters and weave current themes into the story, while building out a world and mythology. There are plenty of details waiting to be drawn in, something that is compelling to the filmmaker,” the report reads.
That text is something that could be applied to pretty much any existing universe out there, so I can understand why another director promising to find “humanity” in something doesn't exactly excite the fanbase of the games. This displeasure was expressed in the Helldivers Discord, where Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani was quick to voice support for Lin (nice place, IGN).
“Let Justin Lin work his magic,” Jorjani wrote. “I trust Justin. He did a great job on the Star Trek movie.”
Helldivers 2 developer involved in film adaptation, but will not have creative power
The production company can engage in managed democracy.
The latter quote was in response to a fan asking Arrowhead to ensure that Lin had played the game at least once before directing the film. In all fairness, his previous work is tonally appropriate for the kind of film Helldivers is likely to be – an irreverent parody of a hyper-capitalist fascist space society.
Still, if Lin never experienced the grueling “robot Vietnam” jungle fight against the Automatons last year, how can he really understand the essence of Helldivers?
Helldivers 2
- Released
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February 8, 2024
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, intense violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Developer
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Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher
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Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
