20 CANCELED Movie and TV Adaptations of Video Games

20 Canceled Movie & TV Adaptations of Video Games

Ty Richardson

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 20 canceled movies and TV shows based on our favorite video games.

“Castlevania”

Long before Netflix gave us its stellar four-season show, we were due for a “Castlevania” movie sometime in the late 2000’s. The movie was to be produced by Rogue Pictures, who were best known for “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” at the time. Unfortunately, two major events disrupted the production: the Writers Guild of America Strike of 2007-08, and Relativity Media’s acquisition of the studio in 2009. Those close to the project have also stated that the “Castlevania” had simply spent too much time in pre-production, going through several rewrites before Rogue scrapped the project altogether in 2009.

“Assassin’s Creed II”

Though “Assassin’s Creed” had already seen a few short films before, the 2016 movie had a ton of hype behind it. Unfortunately, this hype led to one of the biggest box office bombs of 2016. Despite making double its budget back, “Assassin’s Creed” did not recoup all of its costs in other areas like marketing nor did it see a single rave review. While 20th Century Fox did greenlight a sequel, Disney reversed that decision after it acquired the corporation in 2019. And it wasn’t just one sequel that was planned before the first movie was even out - there were supposed to be TWO sequels.

“Bubsy”

“Bubsy” might be one of the oldest tales of “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” in video games. With the rise of platforming mascots in the 90’s, Bubsy was planned to be the next big thing. Thing is you can’t plan for success. That didn’t stop Calico Entertainment and Imagination Factory from creating a whole pilot episode for a TV series starring the obnoxious bobcat. Unsurprisingly, no one liked it. With no one wanting to pick it up and fund a full season, Bubsy never got another episode for the would-be series.

George Romero’s “Resident Evil”

One of the most interesting points in “Resident Evil” history was when we almost got a movie made by famed horror filmmaker George A. Romero. Initially, this sounded like a match made in heaven between a hit zombie video game franchise and a famed zombie filmmaker. And since we learned about Capcom almost hiring Romero for a “Resident Evil” movie, fans have been begging for this to come to fruition. Alas, no. Romero worked on several drafts, each one being rejected over rating concerns (the movie would have received an NC-17 rating with each draft). Eventually, the project went to Paul W.S. Anderson, and we got the “Resident Evil” movies we know today. Romero’s current script can be viewed from the University of Pittsburgh Library via the George A. Romero Archival Collection.

“Drake of the 99 Dragons”

If you aren’t aware of this game, “Drake of the 99 Dragons” was (and still is) one of the worst video games ever made. Released back in 2003 for the original Xbox, the game was universally scrutinized for its awful controls, poor voice acting, and overall broken technical state. However, much like Bubsy, the developers were counting their chickens before they hatched, thinking “Drake of the 99 Dragons” was going to be a guaranteed hit. Plans were in place for a comic book series as well as an animated series. But once the reviews started rolling in, those plans were tossed in trash, and honestly, probably for the best.

“The Legend of Spyro 3D”

Once upon a time, Activision did want Spyro to be the next pop culture icon, and another company wanted to help make that happen. While Activision’s own studios toiled away on the games, The Animation Picture Company acquired the movie rights to Spyro in 2007 with plans to release “The Legend of Spyro 3D” sometime in 2009. The project went totally dark until 2022 when a movie poster and the script for the movie leaked online. At the time of this video, not much else is known about the movie aside from these two assets along with speculation over what the budget was set to.

“BioShock”

Speaking of budgets, this was a major concern for the “BioShock” movie back in the late 2000’s. After the massive success of the original “BioShock”, Universal Pictures announced a movie adaptation in 2008 and would include Ken Levine as well as 2K Games during production. Sadly, the commercial failure of 2009’s “Watchmen” caused Universal to get cold feet after going over the project’s proposed $200 million budget. Changes prompted a swap of directors and a new script, which Levine rejected due to how the project wasn’t shaping up to capture the essence of “BioShock”. Universal then left the decision up to Levine whether the project should move forward or not. Levine pulled the plug on the whole thing.

“Klonoa”

Given how few games there are in the franchise, we’re not sure who was expecting Klonoa to get his very own movie. As absurd as it sounds, yes, “Klonoa” was planned to receive a movie adaptation, the announcement being made in October 2016. California-based company Henshin confirmed their plans at TIFFCOM that year only for the project to go dark over the next two years. Eventually, those who were eager to see the project finished received bad news in January 2019. Hitoshi Ariga, who was hired to write the movie, revealed that the “Klonoa” film had been canceled. Ariga did not specify any particular reasons as to why the project was canned.

“Raving Rabbids”

We’re not quite sure what has happened with this project, but we doubt it’s even in development anymore let alone active development. In 2014, Ubisoft and Columbia Pictures announced a live-action/animated hybrid movie starring the Rabbids with a release window for 2016. Well, 2016 came and went with not a peep regarding where the movie was in production. Then, in 2019, Ubisoft came out with Lionsgate to announce another Rabbids movie with “Robot Chicken” creator Stoopid Buddy Studios on board to write and animate. Well, here we are in 2024…and neither movie has made its presence known since their announcements.

“DOOM 2: Hell on Earth”

Remember the 2005 movie, “DOOM”? Remember how awful it was with its writing, acting, and that one CGI shot that was supposed to be like the video game? Yeah, we were supposed to get a sequel to that, and it was not 2019’s “DOOM: Annihilation”. No, there was a completely different sequel planned, and it was planned while the first movie was still in production! Care to guess why “DOOM II: Hell on Earth” was axed? Yep, it was because the first movie was a commercial and critical disaster. We’ll give it credit, though - we’ll take the 2005 movie over whatever the hell “Annihilation” was supposed to be.

Netflix’s “Horizon”

With PlayStation Productions having a pretty solid track record with projects and partners, many of us were somewhat excited for Netflix’s own “Horizon” TV series. Unfortunately, this show would be canceled not for reasons relating to the game, but reasons relating to the showrunner. When the show was announced in May 2022, Netflix and Sony had already chosen someone to serve as showrunner: Steve Blackman, who had seen great success with the “Umbrella Academy” TV series. But in June 2024, Blackman came under fire as numerous allegations came out about Blackman creating a toxic work environment. Details were not shared as to who chose to pull the plug, though Sony is now looking for a new partnership, most likely.

“Driver”

Can you believe it - a THIRD Ubisoft IP failing to move forward with a movie or TV adaptation? February 2002 marked the beginning of a long pre-production phase for the “Driver” movie to be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. However, the project seemed to have suffered repeated delays as it made incredibly slow progress over the next five years. The project has gone completely silent since with the script being leaked online in 2009. A “Driver” TV series was announced in 2021, but that was canned less than two months after its announcement.

“Plants vs. Zombies”

Hard to believe we haven’t seen a “Plants vs. Zombies” cartoon of any kind. In 2015, a website known as “The Tracking Board” revealed supposedly exclusive news about a “Plants vs. Zombies” movie being in development. Oddly enough, no one else but We Got This Covered seemed to have reported on this news let alone confirm it. It wasn’t until 2022 when concept art for the movie was leaked online. No one knows why the movie was canned in the first place, though it is believed that DreamWorks was set to produce it.

“Sly Cooper”

The “Sly Cooper” movie is another anomaly that may never get a resounding conclusion. Some may remember that in 2014, a teaser trailer dropped for an incoming animated “Sly Cooper” movie, slated for release in 2016. Here we are over a decade later, and there has been no word as to where the movie is, why it missed its window, or even if the project is still ongoing. It doesn’t help that a “Sly Cooper” TV series was announced a year after the movie’s supposed release window. That, too, has been MIA since its announcement as Sony has not said a word about the movie nor the show. Rainmaker left the film project in 2017, citing the failure of the 2016 movie “Ratchet & Clank” caused the company to reevaluate. As for the TV show…who knows what happened to that.

“RollerCoaster Tycoon”

How on Earth do you even make a movie based on “RollerCoaster Tycoon”? We’re not quite sure ourselves, but there was a time where Sony Pictures had some idea on how to approach the idea. In 2010, Sony announced it had acquired the film rights to “RollerCoaster Tycoon” only to then never speak about it again. Supposedly, the movie did get super deep into production before the whole thing was scrapped. We’re curious to see what exactly Sony Pictures came up with, but chances are we’ll never know outside of the fact that it existed.

“Mortal Kombat: Devastation”

Believe it or not, there was a moment where we were supposed to get a third “Mortal Kombat” movie back in the New Line Cinema era. However, no one knew about this until after some legal troubles began to boil up for Midway Games. As Midway navigated through its bankruptcy filing, Lawrence Kasanoff, producer of both the 1995 “Mortal Kombat” movie and its sequel, sued Midway in an effort to retain the film rights to the IP. During this lawsuit, Kasanoff had stated that a third movie was still in the works and that his company should retain the rights to “Mortal Kombat” without Warner Bros’s involvement. Kasanoff ultimately lost the case and the film rights, and Warner Bros became the new owner of “Mortal Kombat”.

“Twisted Metal”

Long before PlayStation Productions was ever a thing, “Twisted Metal” did have plans to not be a TV show on Peacock, but a full-fledged movie. Right when “Twisted Metal” launched on PS3 in 2012, Sony announced a “Twisted Metal” movie was in development with Brian Taylor as the writer and director. And once again, as we saw with “Sly Cooper” and “RollerCoaster Tycoon”, this would be the first, last, and only time Sony would ever say anything about the project. Perhaps they realized Taylor’s awful track record with movies like “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”, “Jonah Hex”, and “Gamer”. Or maybe it had something to do with the new game turning out to be a financial failure. Either way, we got the new TV show now, and it is a thrill!

Netflix’s “Star Fox” & “The Legend of Zelda”

Unlike Sony, Nintendo definitely keeps its cards close to its chest and prefers everyone be on guard at the same level. Apparently, someone at Netflix may not have understood that because in 2015, one Netflix staff member leaked the news of a “Legend of Zelda” show premiering on the platform. The show had not yet been announced, but Nintendo was so furious that they canceled all plans a month after they had already struck a deal. This leak not only robbed fans of a “Zelda” TV show, but a stop-motion animated series based on “Star Fox” as well. Given that Sony Pictures is working on a “Zelda” movie as of 2024, we highly doubt Nintendo is ever going to work with Netflix ever again.

“Crash Bandicoot”

By now, you’ve probably heard about how there was supposed to be an animated “Crash” series back in the 90’s during the original game’s development. It didn’t move forward after Sony picked up publishing rights, which caused Universal to lose interest in the potential of a show. However, there was another attempt to make an animated “Crash Bandicoot” series. In 2021, a Reddit post leaked an animation test for an unknown “Crash” cartoon. Turns out that Amazon Studios and Activision were working on an animated series for the marsupial at one point. What killed the project allegedly were internal conflicts over the show’s direction. Not much else is known about the series, and now, internet sleuths within the bandicoot’s fandom are investigating to figure out what exactly happened.

“Halo”

There was a point where maybe we wouldn’t have such an abysmal TV adaptation like Paramount’s “Halo”. We could have gotten a brand new movie instead. You could say 2005 was the start of what could have been a movie-making dream team; you had a bold new future for “Halo” in a different medium, Alex Garland as the writer, Peter Jackson as producer, and Neill Blomkamp as the director. However, pre-production restarted so many times that caused the movie’s investors to grow agitated. Once 20th Century Fox threatened to pull funding, Universal Studios got involved and told Jackson and Columbia Pictures president Peter Schlessel to reduce their percentage of box office revenue or the project gets canned. Although Jackson and Schlessel chose to nuke the whole project, many of the props and set pieces would be reused for the 2009 film “District 9”.

Were you hoping to see any of these shows and movies before they got the ax? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!