Continuing Movie Series with Video Games

Continuing Movie Series with Video Games
July 19, 2017
By Ryan Porzl

Over the decades, we've seen many movie series and movie universes for superhero movies, action movies, and science fiction. Many of these franchises have seen many series with different actors and stories in each series while the franchises have been rebooted many times resulting in several "universes". Each of these series or universes has a fanbase with many considering a certain actor being the best of the franchise or an adaptation of certain characters being best or the stories. However, as time goes on, actors age and can no longer play the parts while directors come in with their own vision and at times, reboot series'. In the movie world, these actors are done and likely won't return. However, these series' and actors can continue in video game form. In this article, I'll explain why I think that past series' from classic franchises could get second lives in video games and maybe even some closure as well as the benefits of doing it.


It freshens things up. The Batman Arkham games are great games but after four games in the same universe, it can be old. The games mostly come from the Batman: The Animated Series Universe which is great but again, how many more games can you make using that universe before it gets stale? Batman games could be freshen up by doing one from one of the many movie series' that we got. Many people are huge fans of Tim Burton & Michael Keaton's Batman so why not do one with Keaton voicing and providing his likeness while the setting and vehicles are those from the Burton movies while the music could be similar to Danny Elfman's score. Some fans love Batman Forever so we can have games Val Kilmer as Batman with vehicles and locations like from the movie with the music being similar to Eliott Goldenthal's score. A lot of people think The Dark Knight Trilogy are the best Batmans so how bout Christian Bale portraying and voicing Batman with locations and vehicles from the trilogy and the music similar to Hans Zimmer's? Same with Spider-Man games. Maybe we can have some that come off as the Sam Raimi trilogy with Tobey Mcguire back as Spider-Man or maybe games based on The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield providing his voice and likeness. We've been seeing Daniel Craig as James Bond in games for years. It would be interesting to see Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton or George Lazenby perhaps return in game form with a score similar to John Barry and settings from their movies.

It allows for continuation and possible closure. Everybody has their favorite Batman or Spider-Man or James Bond to name some. However, for one reason or another some sequels never happened or the actor left the series too soon in the eyes of some. Michael Keaton was supposed to return for Batman Forever despite Joel Schumacher replacing Tim Burton as director but eventually decided to leave the movie after not agreeing with Schumacher's direction. Tobey Mcguire was supposed to do a fourth Spider-Man but it never happened and it was decided to reboot the series. Andrew Garfield was supposed to return for a third Amazing Spider-Man but that got dropped when Marvel Studios struck a deal with Sony to integrate Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which resulted in the cancellation of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and the series being rebooted again. George Lazenby was originally attached to do the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever before backing out and leaving the series after one film. Timothy Dalton was supposed to do a third Bond film before legal problems delayed it and he eventually quit. Obviously, all these actors are too old and the ship has long sailed for them to return in movie form. However, they could return in video game form and give us new adventures or provide closure by doing stories that were in the works before the sequels were cancelled or actors left. Harrison Ford is 75 and while he's announced to be doing a fifth Indiana Jones, it will be his last. However, he could continue that role in video game form. Hugh Jackman just retired from the role of Wolverine after seventeen years but in a few years down the line could return in video game form. The original X-Men will likely never reunite as they are getting older but they could reunite in game form with adventures that could take place following the events of Days of Future Past since the timeline has been altered.

There's interesting stories to tell. Before certains series' were cancelled or the actors quit, there were plans in place or at least ideas for future movies that never happened. Sam Raimi had plans for a fourth Spider-Man with Tobey Mcguire that could've saw Dr. Curt Connors finally become The Lizard as well as appearances of The Vulture and Black Cat. The Amazing Spider-Man series had stories to tell as the second movie left us with a battle between Spider-Man and Rhino. What happened? Spider-Man was also just coming off the death of Gwen Stacy and we hadn't met Mary Jane yet while Spider-Man had yet to face off with Dr. Octopus or Venom to name some. We've also never seen any Spider-Man yet face villains like Mysterio, Hobgoblin, Carnage, Scorpion as himself or with the Venom symbiote, Kraven The Hunter or The Sinister Six. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine could've had more as none of the movies explored Wolverine's previous history with Alpha Flight and we never saw him fight Omega Red. The X-Men have other rivals we haven't seen yet and maybe might not ever see including Mr. Sinister, Sauron, Nimrod, Arcade, Blob, Shadow King, and Onslaught. With Arcade, maybe someone could make a Batman Arkham Asylum type game with the X-Men trying to escape Murderworld. Maybe do another X-Men game based off the 1989 Pryde of the X-Men pilot since it produced the classic 1992 Arcade Game or maybe one based off the classic FOX Kids cartoon. Since both Michael Keaton and Tim Burton were supposed to return for a third Batman, maybe we could have a game inspired by Batman Forever only with the scenery being based off Burton's gloomy portrayal instead of Joel Schumacher's colorful one while the music could be similar to Danny Elfman's scores instead of Eliot Goldenthal. Michael Keaton is Batman while Billy Dee Williams is Two-Face as he previously played Harvey Dent in the 1989 Batman and reprised the character in the Lego Batman Movie last year. The Riddler could maybe be played by former Monkee Micky Dolenz who was a contender for the role and screen tested when Burton was still attached to direct. Robin could see the return of Chris O'Donnell or maybe Marlon Wayans who was Burton's pick for Batman Returns before the character was dropped and then for Batman Forever before Burton was dropped. There's a 19 year gap between Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A lot happened in the real world between 1938 to 1957. Was Indy involved in these world events? Did he have other adventures with past characters like Sallah or Short Round or ran into Marion Ravenwood between Raiders & Kingdom and what about when he first met Mac from Kingdom? There's other plenty of mythical artifacts Indy could try to go for like perhaps King Arthur's sword Excalibur. Before George Lazenby left the James Bond series, Diamonds Are Forever was supposed to take place after On Her Majesty's Secret Service with Bond trying to avenge his wife's death. Work began on a third Timothy Dalton film before the legal issues and we know some of the story, characters, and gadgets that were planned while Anthony Hopkins was the front runner to play the main villain and Bond's former mentor while Elizabeth Hurley was considered for a part. Why not adapt those ideas from a movie to a Bond game? Pierce Brosnan did want to come back for a fifth Bond film before it was decided to recast. Meanwhile, Quentin Tarantino had an idea for a movie adaptation to Casino Royale before Eon Production finally acquired the rights. His version would've been set in the 50s when the novel was written and Brosnan would play Bond but an older one that's at the end of his career. Maybe, something like that could work.

We've also seen this succeed. In the James Bond series, we saw Pierce Brosnan reprise the James Bond character one more time before Daniel Craig took over with the video game Everything or Nothing. We seen Sean Connery return to James Bond with the video game James Bond 007: From Russia With Love. The biggest example is Ghostbusters: The Video Game which saw the four actors Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis return providing their likeness and voices along with other cast members from the first two movies. There was also the 2005 Warriors’ game which was based off the 1979 Cult Film but along with the game being based off the movie, there were levels that provided back stories for The Warriors as well as the other gangs from the movie. All four games sold well and were well received with Ghostbusters seeing at least one million copies released while From Russia With Love sold nearly 300,000 copies in it's first three months. Between the release of Ghostbusters II in 1989 to Harold Ramis' death in 2014, fans waited 25 years for a third movie. Many Ghostbusters fans badly wanted one more movie with the original cast but they never got it. However, fans sort of got something of a third movie with the video game. Even Ghostbusters co-star and co-creator Dan Aykroyd himself even said that The Ghostbusters: The Video Game was "essentially the third movie".

All in all, continuing movie series with video games has it's benefits. While nothing will fully replace the feeling of an actual movie, video games have gotten bigger and better over the decades to where they're a great substitute and programmers don't have to worry about age or doing one series while another is ongoing. We've seen it work before so there's no reason why we can't continue it in the future.