During this past CinemaCon, all of Hollywood’s biggest juggernauts announced their upcoming slates with varying degrees of hype. Executives announced many blockbusters of all varieties – original, new IPs, and long-awaited sequels – pointing towards where the future of popular cinema is heading. Events like CinemaCon are generally used to gauge where industry trends are pointing and the health of the film industry as a whole. One announcement seems like a sort of culmination of films of its kind. Sony Pictures announced an upcoming animated film set in the universe of FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed 2015 game “Bloodborne.”
While Sony has not announced a director, screenwriter, actors, or release date, the film will be set within the world of Yharnam and may not strictly follow the game’s story. The one piece of production news the Sony team let loose is that the film is set to be co-produced by Seán McLoughlin, better known as prolific “let’s play” YouTuber JackSepticEye.
Although there’s not much about the Bloodborne film available to the public, what Sony has chosen to prioritize revealing is quite interesting. While McLoughlin has clearly stated he will not be undertaking any creative control, he is another YouTuber entering the filmmaking space. I must note that YouTubers working in film, especially in horror, is no longer a novelty, with the Phillipou brothers (also known as RackaRacka) arguably being the most successful in the transition. However, in this year alone, Mark Ficshbach/Markiplier released his self-funded directorial debut, Iron Lung (2026), and Kane Parsons/KanePixels will be following soon with his adaptation of his ARG Backrooms (2026) , which isn’t a video game itself but has been added into several.
While Ficshbach’s totally independent approach to adapting a video game may be a bit of an anomaly, it seems that creators who started their careers on YouTube are slowly being brought into the fold for video game adaptations. Name recognition is certainly a factor; YouTube has superseded traditional media outlets in popularity, but if that were the only case, these creators wouldn’t be in very front-facing roles on the films they’re working on. These creators have a skill set that could be crucial to making a more successful video game movie.
Being intimately familiar with the source material and making it entertaining for a viewing audience are not skill sets that many directors, screenwriters, or producers currently in the industry possess. Because video games are a medium that thrives on player investment and participation, transitioning them to a medium defined by passive viewing has been notoriously difficult. While Iron Lung and Backrooms are certainly on the more passive end of gaming experiences, it’s possible that McLoughlin’s hand as a producer could be a massive boon towards adapting such a successful video game into a successful film.
Additionally, Sony Pictures seems to be carving out a niche for itself in producing and distributing video game adaptations: a market that Variety notes has consistently been profitable in a post-2020 cinematic landscape. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise (2020-2024), The Super Mario Bros. movies (2023-2026), and A Minecraft Movie (2025) epitomize that taking beloved characters and moving them from one screen to another, much larger screen, pays dividends in terms of getting people to go to the theater. Even more niche films or franchises that are less family-friendly, like Mortal Kombat (2021-2026), are successful enough to receive sequels. Clearly, even if many video game adaptations aren’t hitting very many critical highs, they are doing wonders at getting the masses back into theater seats.
In the next year or two, both the live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda and Helldivers adaptations are on the studio’s docket. Interestingly, Helldivers is also a Sony production, just from its gaming arm. Sony’s parent company, which also covers the PlayStation brand, has the unique position of holding the rights to many well-regarded video games to adapt, including Bloodborne and the rest of FromSoft’s Dark Souls series. While video game movies are no stranger to having creatives from their respective franchises attached, very few have the creatives readily available under the same company umbrella. Only time and future announcements will tell whether the Bloodborne animated film will live up to the game’s reputation, though. However, it does seem like Hollywood is more willing to integrate newer media and creatives into the still-novel, ever-shifting meta of video game movies.
Update Courtesy of Red Broadwell
Feature Image Courtesy of IGN