Back in November of 2015 came the first reveal that Activision Blizzard was making plans on bringing the fan-favorite video game series Call of Duty to the big screen, and they had their sights on a big target: a full-on cinematic universe like Marvel and Star Wars, including TV spin-offs. Now, in an interview with The Guardian, co-presidents of Activision Blizzard Studios, Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyk, opened up about the plans for the franchise and reiterated the first film could arrive as early as 2018.
“We have plotted out many years,” Sher said. “We put together this group of writers to talk about where we were going. There’ll be a film that feels more like Black Ops, the story behind the story. The Modern Warfare series looks at what it’s like to fight a war with the eyes of the world on you. And then maybe something that is more of a hybrid, where you are looking at private, covert operations, while a public operation is going on.”
Modern Warfare and Black Ops make up just two of the many story lines within the franchise, and while the films may carry their namesake, they won’t be direct adaptations of those game’s stories. In addition, they’re not the only ones being looked at as Sher and van Dyk revealed they’re looking to bring World War 2 and Vietnam-era stories to TV.
The pair recognize, however, that to create a long-lasting franchise, you need more than just a recognizable brand name.
“If you look at Marvel, they started working when you had Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, and real film-makers on board as well. What I think made The Avengers so great was the writing and directing. You cared about those characters,” Sher says. “If you just chase the empty blockbuster, and have nothing to say in the genre, forget about it.”
