The Gears of War film adaptation has found its director. Deadline reports that David Leitch has been selected for the job; he’s also expected to produce alongside Kelly McCormick, his wife and producing partner, via their 87North Productions and alongside game developer The Coalition. Leitch is known for movies like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, Bullet Train, and The Fall Guy.
However, he won’t be working on the Gears of War film right away. Leitch is currently in the pre-production phase of How to Rob a Bank, an upcoming bank robber movie featuring Nicholas Hoult, Anna Sawai, and Zoë Kravitz. Meanwhile, as originally reported two years ago, Jon Spaihts (who is credited with Prometheus, Doctor Strange, Passengers, and the two Dune movies) is still writing the script for the Gears of War movie.
The announcement of the adaptation came in November 2022. The movie will be distributed on Netflix, which secured the rights at a time when gaming adaptations weren’t so in demand. After the outstanding reception of The Last of Us and Fallout, though, there are more on the way, including God of War and Mass Effect.
As for new game installments in The Coalition franchise, there’s a lot on the way. Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel set on Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde swarmed the surface of the planet Sera, featuring younger versions of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. It is being developed by People Can Fly alongside The Coalition; there’s no release date yet, but we might very well learn more in a month during the yearly Xbox Games Showcase.
This Summer, Gears of War: Reloaded will bring back the original game remastered and improved for the latest hardware. It will also mark the franchise’s debut on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console, now that Microsoft has shifted to a fully multiplatform strategy.