Summary
With live-action adaptations of Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Twisted Metal already seeing success, Sony and PlayStation have addedHelldivers 2to their list of upcoming game-to-film adaptations,as announced at CES 2025. Nominated for numerous awards in 2024, Helldivers 2 became a breakout multiplayer hit that blends fun sci-fi action adventure and hilarious political satire.
Helldivers 2 is indeed one of the best sci-fi games out on PS5and it’s only continued to rise in popularity after Omens of Tyranny and the Killzone crossover. A movie adaptation is always inevitable, and with these inclusions, it will hopefully live up to the likes of Fallout and The Last of Us.
Before we get into the details, it’s also worth mentioning that we hope the Helldivers movie is given a fair R-rating rather than being a less faithful PG-13 adaptation that video game movies of its sort tend to go with (e.g. Borderlands).
7Fun References To Starship Troopers
Helldivers owes a lot to Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, a satirical sci-fi movie about a fascistic regime fighting alien bugs based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The game from Arrowhead is often thought of as a respectful copycat, so why not include some homages in a film adapted from a video game that’s already a giant homage to the 1997 movie?
It would be nice to see references to the iconic characters Johnny Rico, Carmen, Dizzy, Ace, and Carl, possibly even casting Casper Van Dien or Neil Patrick Harris for meta cameos. A spoof of the training scenes and other moments without seeming like blatant copyright and having some mention of the United Citizen Federation would be just as epic (maybe the UCF failed to spread democracy and it gave rise to the Federation of Super Earth).
6A Nod To The Original Helldivers' Top-Down Style
If you’ve played the original Helldivers before joining the universally praised third-person shooter sequel, you’d know that one was designed much differently. 2015’sHelldivers offers isometric top-down twin-stick shooter gameplay, which could be fun to recreate in the film through some creative camerawork.
There could be a battle sequence taking place that transitions to the top-down perspective for either a brief or prolonged period. A great example to set the basis for this shot would be John Wick: Chapter 4, which featured a brutal top-down action sequence that was almost a one-to-one recreation of the gameplay in the 2019 video game The Hong Kong Massacre.
5The Helldivers 2 Opening PSA Cinematic
The opening cinematic from Helldivers 2 is a hilarious and satirical Super Earth propaganda video that has Starship Troopers written all over it; a call to action as to why you should join the Helldivers and spread democracy by killing space bugs! It’s a key component of the narrative that must make it into the live-action movie.
There are two ways they may want to incorporate this moment into the film. One is if you see this exact PSA recruitment video from Helldivers 2 playing on someone’s screen, whether it be on a TV channel or a phone. The other is to actually begin the movie with either the exact recreation of the PSA video from the game or create a new spin on it that better fits the movie.
4The Game’s Classic Weapons, Enemies, And Mission Objectives
This is quite an obvious point lore-wise to include in the Helldivers movie. Prime Video’s Fallout TV adaptation showed meticulous attention to detailin the enemies, weapons, and items found across the games, so Helldivers should follow the precise example Fallout sets if it aims to rise to the same level of acclaim as far as live-action video game adaptations go.
Laser cannons, the Adjudicator, and the Liberatorare some of the best weaponsin a helldiver’s arsenal that should be seen in live-action. Then, of course, there’s the Automatons, Terminids, and the Illuminate, and all three enemy factions would be wonderful to see (though introducing a new faction just for the movie wouldn’t hurt either). Helldiver Mech Suits and funny and iconic mission objectives, like planting a flag, would make Super Earth feel represented as well.
A natural reference to John Helldiverwould be pretty on-point here too.
3A Better Glimpse Into Life And Society On Super Earth
Being a motion picture, Helldivers has the unique opportunity to do things differently. While the gameplay primarily relies on massive amounts of bug-killing and completing objectives with your friends on various planetary targets, you don’t really get to explore Super Earth and see how its societies are run.
This could be a very interesting direction and would add more depth to the movie. From the way some of Super Earth’s homes, cars, and structures look and the way its citizens are dressed in those suits, it seems like a cross between Fallout and Detroit: Become Human. Diving into this futuristic way of life by following a character’s progress through it, or even through flashbacks, would work brilliantly. There are also different Super Earth Mega Cities around the globe to examine closer.
2An Original Storyline With Expanded Lore And Better-Developed Characters
While Sony Interactive Entertainment hasan award-winning list of narrative-driven games, like with series such as The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War, and Uncharted, Helldivers is not really known for being a narrative blockbuster with a focus on well-developed characters. That needs to change for the movie adaptation since it actually must have some semblance of a plot.
The Helldivers film can still play off comedy and satire with action-adventure elements,but it should be anchored by a compelling narrativethat will make you feel attached and have a deeper connection to some of the main characters, where losing them in the story would have a much greater impact. Some of the lore regarding established alien planets as well as the backstory of the founding of Super Earth can also be explored.
1New Planets Not Yet Democratized In The Game
Other than its satire and humor, Helldivers, especially the graphically marvelous sequel, is known for its stunning alien-infested biomes and planetary environments. There are lots of unexplored planets that exist in the game’s universe, so that would be better put to use in the movie adaptation.
Rather than making one-to-one recreations of planets familiar to players, there should be either completely new fictional planets or live-action debuts of those that aren’t yet available in the game. It’s also wise to probably feature a variety of planets for the Helldivers to spread democracy to, like in the games.
