Back in the late 2000s, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige teased the idea of a Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was an unprecedented step. Not only would we be seeing sequels to our favorite film franchises, but they would also cross over in each others’ films, and eventually come together in one mega-franchise that would culminate in The Avengers. While it’s easy to look back on that and know that it works, back then it was far from a sure thing. There were many questions raised by such an ambitious goal. What happens if one film flops? How can you maintain continuity between all these films? How do you handle actor contracts? These are problems that Marvel is handling on a continuous basis, but after years of laying they groundwork, they have unquestionably paved the path for other studios to follow suit. 

And they have.

Legendary and Warner Bros are making a MonsterVerse that includes Godzilla and King Kong; Universal is starting up a universe that consists of their trademarked monsters that include the Mummy, Dracula, the Invisible Man, Mr. Hyde, and more; And of course, DC is knee deep in their own shared universe, with Wonder Woman due this June and Justice League out this November. They are all at different stages of their respective universes, and they have all varying success. But if you’re tired of seeing shared universes on the big screen, too bad, because there’s at least one more on the way.

This latest comes in the form of the popular video game franchise, Call of Duty. Yes, there are many different games that come to mind when thinking of games that could be adapted to the big screen, and admittedly Call of Duty isn’t one of them. That’s not that there’s anything wrong with them. It’s just that the franchise isn’t really synonymous with storytelling as much as it is with its first-person-shooter gameplay.

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Speaking with The Guardian, Activision Blizzard Studios co-presidents Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyke discussed their desire to make a franchise to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, if you’re hoping for them to pull from the plots of the games, you’ll be disappointed. It turns out they’ll be using the games more for a tonal reference and inspiration than anything else.

“It’s going to have the same sort of high-adrenaline, high-energy aesthetic as the game,” Van Dyke told the outlet. “But it’s not a literal adaptation. It’s a much more broad and inclusive, global in scope … a big, tentpole Marvel-esque movie.”

So what progress have they made so far? Well, they’ve reportedly already written multiple scripts and done plenty of research, with the help of military experts and retired soldiers. 

Sher told the outlet:

“We have plotted out many years. We put together this group of writers to talk about where we were going. There’ll be a film that feels more like Black Ops, the story behind the story. The Modern Warfare series looks at what it’s like to fight a war with the eyes of the world on you. And then maybe something that is more of a hybrid, where you are looking at private, covert operations, while a public operation is going on.”

This is certainly quite ambitious, and it would be easy to criticize them for following the herd, but these two aren’t exactly unqualified. Sher has a decent amount of experience filmmaking, and has worked on dozens of films, including Quentin Tarantino fare like Pulp Fictin, Django Unchained, and Hateful Eight. Van Dyke is no pushover, either. He “played a key role” in developing the Marvel and Star Wars brands, and very much seems to be looking to his previous employer for inspiration.

Will it succeed? We’ll have to wait and see. Should everything pan out, we can see movies start to go into production as early as next year, with more to come if that pans out.

Would you be interested in seeing a Call of Duty shared universe? Let us know in the comments down below.

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SOURCE: The Guardian