Justin Lin Drops Into Helldivers as Sony and PlayStation Plot a Big-Screen Invasion

Justin Lin is swapping quarter-mile drag races for starship drop pods: he is set to direct a Helldivers movie for Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions. Yes, the co-op game where you accidentally team-kill your friends while shouting about freedom is heading to the big screen.

The project

The movie is based on Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers franchise and has a script by Gary Dauberman, the writer behind the Annabelle movies and both It films. Sony Pictures is producing alongside PlayStation Productions, and Lin will also produce through his Perfect Storm Entertainment banner. He is joined by producers Hutch Parker and PlayStation's Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan.

An industry wrinkle worth flagging: Lin is not a heavy gamer. The appeal here, per the trades, is the room to build out character and world.

"[He] aims to find the humanity in the characters and weave timely themes into the story, while building out a world and mythology."

So, what is Helldivers?

The first Helldivers landed in 2015 and did well, but Helldivers 2 blew the doors off: more than 12 million copies on PS5 and PC in its first four months after launching in 2024. The Starship Troopers vibes are not subtle. You play as elite shock troops dropped into hostile worlds to squash threats to humanity — Bugs, Cyborgs, and the Illuminate — all while exporting so-called managed democracy with a grin.

It is loud, satirical, and built on co-op chaos and camaraderie. There is a loose lore framework in the games, but there is a ton of space to expand it — exactly the kind of sandbox a filmmaker can dig into.

Where Lin is coming from (and what he is juggling)

• Fast & Furious architect: Lin steered Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and F9, helping push the series into billion-dollar territory. He exited Fast X a week into production, reportedly over creative differences with Vin Diesel.
• BRZRKR: Earlier this year he signed on to direct the live-action take on the comic co-created by Keanu Reeves. It follows an immortal warrior known as B — half-mortal, half-god — who has spent roughly 80,000 years fighting, cursed to violence that chips away at his sanity. He ends up working for the U.S. government on jobs too brutal for anyone else, in exchange for answers about his blood-soaked existence — including how to end it.
• One-Punch Man: He is still attached to direct the adaptation of the smash-hit manga created by One.
• Last Days: His most recent release was a smaller, true-story drama about John Allen Chau, the Christian missionary killed while attempting to evangelize the self-isolated Sentinelese people.

Bottom line: Helldivers gives Lin a chance to stage big spectacle with a wink, and if he nails the tone — equal parts satire and sincerity — this could be absurdly fun.