After years of production stalls and peering through the porthole at Rapture with nothing but rumors to keep us afloat, we finally have something concrete about Netflix’s BioShock movie, and it’s precisely the news fans wanted to hear. A key producer has confirmed which story the upcoming video game adaptation will tackle first, and it’s the choice that makes the most sense for a big, moody plunge into this world.
In an exclusive chat with The Direct while promoting the upcoming The Long Walk, producer Roy Lee confirmed the film will directly adapt the original 2007 game, not a remix or side story. As Lee put it:
Netflix wants us to keep everything under wraps. But it’s definitely going to be based on the first BioShock game.
Lee also explained how Francis Lawrence’s Hunger Games schedule and additional script work briefly reshuffled the deck, without knocking BioShock off course. He continued:
Well, The Long Walk became a reality because BioShock was delayed for a little bit where we had to do some more script work. And so as the script work is being done, we shot The Long Walk, and he was already committed to doing the next Hunger Games movie. And so it's just waiting for him whenever the'Hunger Games is completed, and the script is just being worked on right now.
That timeline tracks with Lawrence’s current commitments. Production on The Hunger Games: Sunrise of the Reaping is underway in Spain with a theatrical release set for the 2026 release schedule, dropping next November. If the pieces fall as Lee suggests, BioShock is poised to step up next, with the screenplay being tightened in the interim. No casting or release window has been announced, but Michael Green (Logan) is scripting, and the project remains set for a global Netflix debut whenever it's actually ready.
For anyone new to the franchise (or due for a refresher), the first BioShock unfurls after a plane crash strands protagonist Jack in the mid-Atlantic, where he discovers Rapture, a leaking Art Deco utopia. What follows is a heady mix of survival horror, pointed satire, and one of gaming’s most memorable twists. The original spawned two sequels, BioShock 2 (2010) and BioShock Infinite (2013), and is frequently cited as a high-water mark in narrative design.
Adapting the series has long been the thorn in the side of filmmakers who have taken up the challenge. There are budget and believability considerations. We are talking about creating a believable underwater city that is crumbling from years of neglect, and it's not something that can be brought to life easily without a ton of VFX.
But the adaptation landscape has shifted. Prestige genre series and films, from The Last of Us (available to stream with an HBO Max subscription) to other recent game-to-screen successes, have shown that world-building on this scale is possible without sacrificing character or tone. Lawrence, fresh off the momentum of the book to screen adaptations of The Long Walk and his continued work on all the Hunger Games films, seems like a steady hand to balance spectacle with the philosophical bite that made BioShock more than a monster mash and a game I have returned to over and over again.
The confirmation that Lawrence is still attached to the project and that his vision of the film is based on the first game—and waiting patiently in his queue—makes this return to Rapture feel real at last. Still, after nearly 20 years of starts and stops, I find myself cautiously optimistic.
Francis Lawrence’s latest, The Long Walk, hits the 2025 movie schedule on September 12.
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