Borderlands Movie Will Kickstart A "Cinematic Universe"

After nine years, the Borderlands movie is finally here. This week, we've not only had our first look at the characters, but a trailer to show them in action ahead of its August 9 release. However, there's a lot more to come, as Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford, who is also an executive producer on the movie, says that this film will kickstart its own cinematic universe.

"One of the cool things about the movie is we've created a cinematic universe that lives side by side with the video game universe," Pitchford said in an interview with IGN. "And of course, the characters are there and authentic in the themes and even some of the storylines. But they're independent storylines.

The Borderlands movie is the first of the Borderlands Cinematic Universe.

"This isn't Borderlands 1. This isn't Borderlands 2. The Borderlands movie is the first of the Borderlands Cinematic Universe and you'll see some characters from some of the different parts of what you might know from the video games. But it also gives us an opportunity to go deeper and expand a little bit. You never met the CEO of Atlas Corporation and you will meet that character for the first time in the Borderlands movie and his name is Deukalian Atlas."

The diverging narrative between the games and the movie is already clear, as the first Borderlands sees us take on the role of a vault hunter in search of the elusive, mythical vault. However, in the movie, Lilith ventures back to her homeworld Pandora in search of Atlas' missing daughter, a completely different motivation that allows for characters like Deukalian Atlas to be introduced.

The difference in approach is also made clear through its the cast. In the games, Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick team up to find the vault, whereas the film follows Krieg, Tiny Tina, Lilith, Roland, Claptrap, and Tannis.

There’s No Way The Borderlands Movie Is Good, Right?

Even setting aside the long post-production, the things that make Borderlands distinct as a game are liabilities as a movie.

Regardless of whether these changes pay off and the film does well, a cinematic universe is an incredibly ambitious prospect. We've seen many try and fail to emulate the MCU's success, from the short-lived Dark Universe to the maligned DCEU to Sony's universe of Spider-Man villains and side characters that just released two films back-to-back with overwhelmingly negative reviews.

That's not to mention the arduous nine years it took to get Borderlands off the ground. It reportedly went through ten writers, and Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl) even had his name removed from the final script, opting to use a pseudonym. At any rate, it's clear that Pitchford has high hopes for bringing Gearbox's iconic FPS series to the world of film.

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