There are so many great board games inspired by classic film and TV franchises. They’re a novel way for audiences to get closer to the source material, learn more about characters and really immerse themselves in stories.
There’s The Thing: The Boardgame, which lets you experience what it would be like to slowly lose your sanity (and your humanity) in the wilds of Antarctica, and The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth, which invites you to fight your way through hordes of Orcs.
There are also super cool board games adapting franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Universal Monsters, Scooby-Doo, and more. Here are a few of our favourites to add to your tabletop wishlist.
Best board games inspired by movies and TV – quick links
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth
Players: 1-5
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth is, hands down, one of the best movie-to-board game adaptations you’ll ever get to the chance to experience. This is a hybrid adventure board game with an accompanying app that allows you to travel through the iconic Middle-earth, dispatching Orcs and other creatures in epic battles. Along the way, you’ll investigate an array of gorgeous locations, discover special items, strengthen your heroes, and even be waylaid by side quests.
If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the world of The Lord of the Rings, there’s no better way to do it than to jump in and play this game. There’s so much love and care in its design, and it shines through in every facet of gameplay.
The Thing: The Boardgame
Players: 1-8
Not many of us want to get trapped in the Antarctic, haunted by a strange alien being that can transform into any shape to hide. But if you want to be ready for that wildly not-possible eventuality, then The Thing: The Boardgame will certainly prepare you well.
In this adventure-exploration ‘hidden role’ game, you and your friends will attempt to travel around, and escape, your home base of Outpost 31 without being subsumed by The Thing. That’s complicated by a need to manage your base, while also tending to your hunger and warmth.
The longer you stay alive, the riskier your passage becomes, as The Thing lurks in the shadows, and can strike at any moment. The sense of tension this particular board games experience brings is unmatched.
Horrified
Players: 1-5
Horrified is a fantastic board game, and is actually an adaptation of the classic Universal Monster films Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Invisible Man.
You’ll spend your time roaming across a gothic town, illustrated on a beautiful map, attempting to save civilians from the monsters, as well as figuring out how to cure these creatures or destroy them. When Dracula is on the board, you’ll need to hunt down and destroy his coffins. The Wolf Man deserves your sympathy, and a cure. Each monster has its own unique mechanics, shaking up each run through this spooky adventure.
Scooby-Doo!: The Board Game
Players: 1-5
If you’re keen to keep the spooky vibes going but prefer a lighter-touch experience, Scooby-Doo! The Board Game is an excellent choice. Like other board games on this list, it’s an adventure with a focus on map-based exploration, where you must defeat enemies to advance. The cool twist here is that you’re playing as the original Scooby Gang, and fighting a crew of classic monsters, from The Creeper to the Green Ghost.
The whole board game is elevated by a bright, colourful art style, and light-touch movement and questing mechanics that make turns bouncy, fun and approachable for everyone – even those folks who aren’t as familiar with board games. As a companion to the classic TV series, this game is a wonderful romp.
Rear Window
Players: 3-5
If you’re more into classic movies, then the board game adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window might be the option for you. As wild as it seems, this film has been well-adapted into a sharp mystery game that invites you to put on your detective hat.
One player takes the role of Alfred Hitchcock, tasked with non-verbally communicating clues and signs through a window. As you play through the game, you’ll interpret these strange clues and circumstances, and then use them to solve various mysteries. Rear Window can get very wild, very fast – and games can easily devolve into frustration – but there’s no better feeling than when you finally figure out exactly what’s going on.
Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Players: 1-4
For a similar vibe to the Scooby-Doo board game, check out Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This game, which runs on the Unmatched engine, adapts the classic TMNT cartoon into a quest-based combat brawler. Players will run through story-based missions inspired by the series, and work towards defeating various villains by placing and moving their Ninja Turtles figures across a battlefield.
A personal card deck allows you to play certain attacks or movements, with each bringing you closer to conquering your goals, and defeating each villain.
What works best about this particular game is that all Unmatched board games are compatible, so you can actually mix and match your chosen fighters – there are sets for The Witcher, Marvel, Bruce Lee, the Universal Monsters, and more – to create your own wild little crossover board games event.
Star Wars: Rebellion
Players: 2-4
Star Wars: Rebellion is the sort of board game that could become your entire personality. It’s wildly engaging, and perhaps dangerously so, because you can easily get swept up in its vortex of epic space battles and subterfuge.
In this Star Wars adaptation, you’re controlling an entire fleet – either of the Galactic Empire, or the Rebel Alliance. In turns, you’ll corral your starships into skirmishes, figuring out where to deploy them to best defend your base, and allow for battles into enemy territory. Players on either side of this galactic war have their own goals – destroying the Rebels, or building the Rebel cause – and you must fight hard to see this completed.
What works so well about Rebellion is how visual it is. You’re plotting and planning across a star map, with dozens of tiny little model ships at your command. If you’re ever really wanted to be in the titular Star Wars, this game will deliver that experience.
Betrayal at the Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise
Betrayal at the Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise is an expansion for Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition that changes the game into an adaptation of Stephen King’s It. While the expansion itself is relatively slim, clever tweaks to the game’s rules and story-based ‘haunts’ mean that as you travel through a haunted house, it may quickly transform into Neibolt House – the home haunted by the terror of Pennywise the Clown, as seen in the It films.
What’s so fun about this expansion is that there’s multiple scenarios in which Pennywise can appear, and multiple new cards to add flavour and fun to his appearances. In one scenario, you might run into the clown version of Pennywise. In another, you’ll be fighting it in spider-form. It’s all very creepy, and very good fun – particularly when the board game’s secondary phase kicks in, and the real terror begins.
