Film Characters Built For Gaming Franchises

While film and gaming often go hand-in-hand, we don’t see too many popular film characters used as foundations for lasting video game franchises. When it happens though, the games seem particularly special. These characters already have such large, built-in fan bases that well designed games revolving around them seem to have a leg up on the competition. Gamers simply love the chance to embody popular heroes and determine their actions for them.

Again, however, we’ve only seen lasting franchises for a handful of film characters. James Bond comes to mind, given that 1997’s GoldenEye 007 not only launched the modern first-person shooter genre (more or less), but also led to a wave of Bond games. We’ve also seen several impressive Spider-Man games since the 2002 film Spider-Man brought the Marvel hero to cinemas. And the most noteworthy example of all is probably Batman, who was at the core of the enormously successful Arkham series (which, as we wrote recently, is making a comeback of sorts).

Basically, we seem to get a gaming franchise built on a popular action film character just once every few years at most. And considering that, the fun question is who’s next? There’s no shortage of larger-than-life heroes in modern cinema, and the following characters would seem ideally suited to their own gaming franchises.

John Wick

John Wick was a little bit of a surprise hit in 2014. Set in a bizarre urban underworld of assassin culture, it concerned the deadly killer Wick (Keanu Reeves) on a mission for vengeance after his puppy is killed by home invaders. The film had a very unique look to it, as well as an inventive style of shoot-em-up action that almost seemed to combine martial arts and gunfighting in a way perhaps only Reeves could pull off. The studio is already at work on a sequel, and it stands to reason that a gaming adaptation would be wonderful. In the meantime, John Wick is actually available as a playable character in Payday 2, but it’s not quite the same as a full-fledged Wick series would be.

Judge Dredd

Dredd (2012) didn’t perform quite as well as your average superhero film at the box office, but it gained such a passionate following among fans that petitions for a sequel seem to finally be getting results. There’s now steady chatter about some sort of adaptation of the story for a streaming service like Amazon or Netflix. Meanwhile, the character does star in a film-themed slot game that effectively captures the movie’s setting of the dark, dystopian “Mega City One”. There, slot reel players can enjoy characters and icons from the film whizzing by, but they can’t actually embody Judge Dredd in his deadly metallic suit. The truth is, this futuristic crime-fighting beast (who functions as judge, jury, and executioner) is built for an action game, and if there is indeed a reboot or sequel on the way there could be even more reason for games to follow.

Hit-Girl

This might be a surprising selection, but Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz’s character from Kick-Ass and its sequel) would be a refreshing protagonist for a game. There actually was a mobile game based on the first film, but it was pulled from the app store after some early criticism. Regardless, fans adored Hit-Girl and it might be nice to see a humorous action franchise launched. Gamers enjoyed the lighter side of the Deadpool game that was recently remastered for Xbox One, and some of the aforementioned Spider-Man-based games also came with some jokes. A Hit-Girl franchise could do the same, and it would also be refreshing to see a female gaming protagonist who wasn’t designed as a sex symbol (as so many of them seem to be).

Captain America

Perhaps this isn’t the boldest idea, but it’s actually surprising how little effort has been put into major presentations of Marvel’s Avengers in console gaming. There are countless apps and online games incorporating the characters, as well as some LEGO gaming titles and a few standalone console games. But there hasn’t been a major franchise launched yet. Captain America would seem the best of the bunch to lead the way in such a franchise, simply because controlling his movements and style of action is more feasible than, say, taking on Thor or Iron Man. Marvel is in the process of developing a console game with Telltale, so perhaps this one is on the way in the near future.

What other film characters could you see anchoring gaming franchises?