2025 was not a banner year for video game movie adaptations. A Minecraft Movie and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 were both hugely financially successful but they weren’t exactly critical darlings, and the Until Dawn movie failed to make a splash either way. But 2026 is a different story.
This coming year there are eight video game-to-film adaptations on the release schedule, some of them with real potential.
Here are all the game adaptations coming to screens next year, and some thoughts on which ones might be worth watching.
Video game movie adaptations in 2026 – quick links
Return to Silent Hill
- Release date: TBA
- Director: Christophe Gans
French director Christophe Gans directed 2006’s Silent Hill, a critically-panned film that I and many others will stand up for as a misunderstood cult work of clever adaptation. It’s a good movie.
Return to Silent Hill is explicitly based on the video game Silent Hill 2 and the trailer suggests that Gans is once again leaning in hard on the series’ distinct aesthetic and adapting it faithfully.
Releasing a horror film in January is often a bad sign, but if this film follows a trajectory similar to the first one, it’ll review poorly before slowly gaining traction when people finally watch it at home and tell people ‘Actually, it’s really good’. Personally, I’m just stoked that Gans was finally allowed to make another Silent Hill movie, regardless of the outcome.
Iron Lung
- Release date: TBA (30 January in the United States)
- Director: Mark Edward Fischbach, Markiplier
Iron Lung is an odd one – it’s an adaptation of an indie horror game that’s not niche per se, but also isn’t exactly a household name. It’s written, directed, edited and self-funded by popular content producer Markiplier, who is also starring in the film alongside another streamer, Seán McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye).
The film is about a lone man piloting a submarine, exploring a blood ocean that has appeared on a moon following an apocalyptic rapture-like event on Earth. It reportedly features the most fake blood ever used in any movie, which is fun.
The movie recently held a premiere event in Los Angeles, but no reviews are out yet. Regardless of the film’s quality, it is nice to see a streamer using their clout to fund and release an independent movie. It’s not as bootstraps as Kevin Smith selling all his comics in the ’90s to make Clerks, but it’s interesting regardless.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Release date: 2 April 2026
Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
The original Super Mario Bros. Movie benefited greatly from the nostalgia so many of us feel for the Mario iconography. Despite a thin plot, weird soundtrack and the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario, the film – in my opinion, which I admit differs slightly from the opinion in ScreenHub‘s review – basically held together. Anyone with young gamers in their lives will have seen how much of a hit it was with them too.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has more of an uphill battle ahead of it when it comes to winning over audiences without the novelty of being the first animated Mario movie.
Of course, it’s almost certainly going to be a huge hit regardless of quality. (The first one made $1.3 billion.) Since it’s based on Galaxy – the absolute best Mario game – there’s real scope for visual splendour if it jumps between different planets. It’s unlikely to be a masterpiece, but it might not be the worst movie to take a kid to.
Exit 8
- Release date: TBA
- Director: Genki Kawamura
Exit 8 is not the most high-profile video game on this list but the film that’s based on it – which debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and was snapped up by Neon in the United States and Umbrella locally – has already earned rave reviews.
The film follows the same structure as the game. A man finds himself trapped within the liminal space of a Japanese subway passage and must search for the exit; if he spots an anomaly he’s going the wrong way and will be returned to the start of his journey through this nightmare.
The trailer is strong and it’s a game that feels well-suited to adaptation. If I had to bet on any movie from this list being properly excellent, it would be this one.
Mortal Kombat 2
- Release date: 15 May 2026
- Director: Simon McQuoid
As a South Australian, I have to admit to some saltiness that Mortal Kombat 2 filmed in Queensland after the first one was shot here. As a movie fan, though, I must begrudgingly admit that Karl Urban as Johnny Cage is wonderful casting, and that Mortal Kombat 2 looks like a great continuation of the fun, loopy nonsense that I enjoyed in the first movie.
The trailer seems to position Johnny as an outsider protagonist, but if the movie doesn’t get too bogged down in exposition (which the first entry in this rebooted franchise very nearly did) then it should be a good time. Although if the previous film wasn’t your bag, odds are this one won’t be either, as returning director Simon McQuoid doesn’t seem to be overhauling his formula dramatically.
Resident Evil
- Release date: 18 September 2026
- Director: Zach Cregger
Between Paul WS Anderson, the CGI films, the Netflix series and 2021’s completely forgotten Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, there have been approximately 1000 different Resident Evil screen adaptations already. But this one has an ace up its sleeve: director Zach Cregger, whose two previous films, Barbarian and Weapons, were huge hits.
Not much is known about this Resident Evil film yet, but Cregger has said that it will be entirely original, rather than being based on an existing game, so don’t expect Leon, Claire, Wesker or any other fan-favourite characters to appear.
Cregger’s stock is high right now, but if the film doesn’t work it wouldn’t be the first time a game adaptation crashed a director’s critical hot streak (see also: Duncan Jones with Warcraft and Justin Kurzel with Assassin’s Creed).
Street Fighter
- Release date: 16 October 2026
- Director: Kitao Sakurai
The new Street Fighter sounds kind of bonkers. It’s set in 1993, when Super Street Fighter II released, and features various characters from the series battling each other while also contending with a ‘deadly conspiracy‘. So far, so Street Fighter.
But the really wild thing about the film is its casting. Jason Momoa as Blanka! Roman Reigns as Akuma! Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson as Balrog! David Dastmalchian as M Bison! Orville Peck as Vega, making his acting debut!
Sakurai’s previous film was Bad Trip, a very fun prank-fuelled two-hander with Eric Andre and Lil Rey Howey that was released on Netflix. Eric Andre is in this Street Fighter too, as ring announcer Don Sauvage. It’ll be interesting to see how this cast of weirdos translates to Street Fighter’s goofy-but-not-THAT-goofy tone.
The Angry Birds Movie 3
- Release date: 23 December 2026
- Director: John Rice
Here’s a wild statistic. When it was released in 2019, The Angry Birds Movie 2 had the highest Rotten Tomatoes score that any movie adapted from a game had ever had. It has since been overtaken by Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Werewolves Within and Exit 8 and, honestly, largely forgotten by most people.
The third movie is arriving seven years after the last entry, with a cast that includes MrBeast and Psalm West (Kim and Ye’s son) alongside a bunch of very funny people including Jason Sudeikis, Rachel Bloom, Danny McBride, Keke Palmer and Nikki Glaser.
Most excitingly, Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson are both in the movie – but then, so is Josh Gad. It’s hard to imagine there’s a huge audience for a third Angry Birds movie in 2026, but we’ll see.
