After years of manufacturing stalls and peering by the porthole at Rapture with nothing however rumors to maintain us afloat, we lastly have one thing concrete about Netflix’s BioShock film, and it’s exactly the information followers wished to listen to. A key producer has confirmed which story the upcoming online game adaptation will deal with first, and it’s the selection that makes probably the most sense for an enormous, moody plunge into this world.
In an unique chat with The Direct whereas selling the upcoming The Lengthy Stroll, producer Roy Lee confirmed the movie will instantly adapt the unique 2007 sport, not a remix or aspect story. As Lee put it:
Netflix desires us to maintain the whole lot beneath wraps. But it surely’s undoubtedly going to be primarily based on the primary BioShock sport.
Lee additionally defined how Francis Lawrence’s Starvation Video games schedule and extra script work briefly reshuffled the deck, with out knocking BioShock off track. He continued:
Properly, The Lengthy Stroll turned a actuality as a result of BioShock was delayed for a bit bit the place we needed to do some extra script work. And in order the script work is being finished, we shot The Lengthy Stroll, and he was already dedicated to doing the subsequent Starvation Video games film. And so it is simply ready for him each time the’Starvation Video games is accomplished, and the script is simply being labored on proper now.
That timeline tracks with Lawrence’s present commitments. Manufacturing on The Starvation Video games: Dawn of the Reaping is underway in Spain with a theatrical launch set for the 2026 launch schedule, dropping subsequent November. If the items fall as Lee suggests, BioShock is poised to step up subsequent, with the screenplay being tightened within the interim. No casting or launch window has been introduced, however Michael Inexperienced (Logan) is scripting, and the venture stays set for a worldwide Netflix debut each time it is truly prepared.
For anybody new to the franchise (or due for a refresher), the primary BioShock unfurls after a airplane crash strands protagonist Jack within the mid-Atlantic, the place he discovers Rapture, a leaking Artwork Deco utopia. What follows is a heady mixture of survival horror, pointed satire, and one among gaming’s most memorable twists. The unique spawned two sequels, BioShock 2 (2010) and BioShock Infinite (2013), and is often cited as a high-water mark in narrative design.
Adapting the sequence has lengthy been the thorn within the aspect of filmmakers who’ve taken up the problem. There are funds and believability issues. We’re speaking about making a plausible underwater metropolis that’s crumbling from years of neglect, and it is not one thing that may be delivered to life simply with no ton of VFX.
However the adaptation panorama has shifted. Status style sequence and movies, from The Final of Us (obtainable to stream with an HBO Max subscription) to different latest game-to-screen successes, have proven that world-building on this scale is feasible with out sacrificing character or tone. Lawrence, recent off the momentum of the guide to display diversifications of The Lengthy Stroll and his continued work on all of the Starvation Video games movies, looks like a gradual hand to stability spectacle with the philosophical chunk that made BioShock greater than a monster mash and a sport I’ve returned to again and again.
The affirmation that Lawrence continues to be connected to the venture and that his imaginative and prescient of the movie is predicated on the primary sport—and ready patiently in his queue—makes this return to Rapture really feel actual finally. Nonetheless, after almost 20 years of begins and stops, I discover myself cautiously optimistic.
Francis Lawrence’s newest, The Lengthy Stroll, hits the 2025 film schedule on September 12.