Alan Ritchson is in talks to lead Sony Pictures' film adaptation of Helldivers, three months after Jason Momoa walked away from the project, according to Deadline.
Sources told the outlet that Justin Lin is still attached to direct, and that Ritchson would play one of the helldivers if a deal closes, with further casting to be announced. Sony declined to comment.
Plot details are still under wraps. The film is dated for release on November 10th 2027, a date it has held since it was announced.
Momoa was first linked to the lead role in February and exited in June. Neither Sony nor the actor gave a reason at the time, although The Hollywood Reporter has since attributed the split to ‘creative differences’. The actor's schedule over the next two years includes Street Fighter, Dune: Part Three and A Minecraft Movie Squared. f the Helldivers deal closes, it would be his first time headlining a major studio feature.
What is Helldivers?
Helldivers launched in 2015 as a co-operative twin-stick shooter from Swedish developer Arrowhead Game Studios. Players drop in as members of an elite unit defending Super Earth from alien forces in a galaxy-wide war, with a heavy satirical streak running through the marketing and the mission briefings.
Sequel Helldivers 2 moved the action behind the shoulder and arrived on PS5 and PC in February 2024. It sold more than 12m units in its first four months and its warbond updates have kept it in Steam's most-played charts two years on. Arrowhead brought the game to Xbox Series X|S in August 2025, one of the first PlayStation-published titles to make the jump, which pushed its concurrent playercount past 500,000 across all platforms. Sony Interactive Entertainment said in August that more than 22.9m people had played the game.
Sony's growing game adaptation slate
Hutch Parker is producing the film alongside PlayStation Productions head Asad Qizilbash and Lin, through his Perfect Storm Entertainment banner. Gary Dauberman, who wrote It and the Until Dawn adaptation, penned the original script, with Bad Boys writer Chris Bremner handling the most recent draft according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions have already worked together on Uncharted, which took $407m worldwide and sits among the 10 highest-grossing video game adaptations, as well as Gran Turismo, Peacock's Twisted Metal and HBO's The Last of Us. Lin, meanwhile, has four Fast & Furious films and Star Trek Beyond to his name, and most recently directed 2025's Last Days.
