Helldivers 2 director says Arrowhead “don’t, and shouldn’t, have final say” on the Helldivers movie, but the developer is likely to be involved in keeping things “faithful”

About a week ago, we learned that Helldivers 2 is on the list of Sony-affiliated games getting film or anime adaptations, with the Horizon series and Ghost of Tsushima being the other two.

There were few details shared about this Galactic War movie when it was revealed, but Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt has now said some stuff about what Arrowhead’s involvement in the project might look like.

“Hey! I’ve been dodging this question,” the developer admitted in response to a social media user asking him if he was able to “confirm if Arrowhead will be involved with the production of the Helldivers movie to ensure the film stays faithful to the games”.

Pilestedt went on to explain: “The short answer is yes. The long answer is that we’ll see. We are not Hollywood people, and we don’t know what it takes to make a movie. And therefore we don’t, and shouldn’t, have final say.”

So, it sounds like things will generally be being left to the pros at Sony Pictures, but Arrowhead could well be consulted on things that are game-related, rather than anything that concerns the actual moviemaking elements. Hopefully it can help the film strike a good balance when it comes to mirroring the helldiving experience, something that’s often difficult if things go too hard either way on the scale of “faithfulness” to source material.

The best you can really hope for in this situation is that the different parties involved in a production recognise what they can ideally bring to it in their area of expertise, while being open to ideas in other areas and being keen to understand what it is that makes the games tick and draws people to them. It’s not easy. I’m dipping into TV adaptations rather than film here, but for every percent chance there is of us getting a Helldivers adaption appeases pretty much everyone like last year’s Fallout series, there’s also a chance of something that’s a bit more polarising, as Like A Dragon: Yakuza was when it arrived on the same streaming service just six months later.

Either way, here’s hoping Chris Pratt makes a charismatic Bile Titan, assuming the Helldivers community’s sarky fantasy castings come true.

How concerned are you about about the Helldivers movie being “faithful” to the games? Let us know below and make sure to check out the cool things Helldivers 2 modders have recently been adding to the game itself.