Helldivers Movie Director Is Not a Gamer, Considers It an Advantage
Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani says we should trust Justin Lin.
Maybe not everyone, but a sizeable chunk of Helldivers fans grew uneasy and tense this week after it was revealed that the upcoming movie adaptation of their beloved game series – announced by Sony back in January with a brief 10-second teaser – will be directed by someone who describes himself as a "non-gamer" and, weirder yet, sees it as an advantage.
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As discovered by The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming adaptation will be directed by Justin Lin, known for six Fast & Furious films and 2016's Star Trek Beyond, with a script by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle, It, The Nun, 2025 Until Dawn adaptation). At first glance, you might expect Dauberman's involvement to dominate the conversation – given how "well" Until Dawn was received – but it was actually something else, no less controversial, that grabbed everyone's attention.
Citing insiders, the outlet claimed that Lin is not a gamer and that he was actually framing that as a strength when pitching his take on the material. The Hollywood Reporter also alleges that the director will try to "find the humanity in the characters and weave timely themes into the story, while building out a world and mythology," which does sound a bit concerning, given the more fun and satirical nature of the source material.
At the same time, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani appears to be on damage control, saying that he trusts Justin because of his work on the aforementioned Star Trek movie and encouraging the community to let Lin "work his magic."
Previously, the showrunner of Amazon's upcoming God of War adaptation, Ron Moore, also revealed he was not a gamer, disappointing many fans. And before that, Jonathan Nolan, director of Amazon's Fallout, made a statement just as odd, saying they had no plans to please the original fans of the franchise with their series.
Standing in stark contrast is Alex Garland, director of the upcoming Elden Ring adaptation, who described himself as a huge fan of the game and said he had completed it six times. With three of the four adaptations mentioned in this write-up still in progress, it remains to be seen which approach works better when adapting a video game.
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