While there were a handful of successful video game adaptations before this year, 2026 might be the inflection point when Hollywood decides to go all in on the trend. This year alone, we’ve already had The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Return to Silent Hill, Iron Lung, and Mortal Kombat 2, and Resident Evil and Street Fighter are still on the horizon. Six movies in one year might not sound like a lot, but that’s almost half the number of video game movies released in the first five years of the decade.
The early 2000s and 2010s are littered with failed video game adaptations, so living in an age of Fallout and Arcane feels like a major step up. But how likely is it that these studios truly respect the material, and aren’t just treating the video game medium as a resource to be extracted? The recent announcement of an adaptation for a game that hasn’t even been released yet might reveal what the filmmaking industry really thinks of gaming.
