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Overview

A feature film adaptation of Kingmakers is in development at Netflix. The project pairs writer Christopher MacBride with producers Shawn Levy and Dan Levine of 21 Laps Entertainment, alongside Story Kitchen, the production company that brokered the original adaptation deal. The adaptation was pitched as "What if Braveheart included time travel?" and Netflix acquired the project preemptively, taking it off the market before other studios could bid.

The deal is remarkable for several reasons. Kingmakers has not been released yet; it is still in development at Redemption Road Games and has not entered Early Access. A major streaming platform committing to a film adaptation of an unreleased game is almost unheard of. The strength of the concept, combined with the viral success of the game's announcement trailer and the involvement of high-profile producers, was enough for Netflix to move quickly. The announcement came on December 15, 2025, reported by Deadline.

Phase 1: Story Kitchen Partnership

The path to Netflix began in August 2024, when Story Kitchen announced a partnership with tinyBuild (Kingmakers' publisher) and Redemption Road Games to bring the game to Hollywood. Story Kitchen is a production company founded in 2022 by Dmitri M. Johnson (the Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise producer and former dj2 Entertainment founder) and Michael Lawrence Goldberg (a former IAG agent and partner), alongside Timothy I. Stevenson and Elena Sandoval.

Story Kitchen specializes in what they call "Franchise Farming," connecting video game and other non-traditional intellectual properties with film and television production. Their track record is substantial. The company was a driving force behind Prime Video's Tomb Raider series, and Johnson's prior company dj2 Entertainment was instrumental in getting the Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise off the ground. By May 2025, Variety's Luminate Film and TV report ranked Story Kitchen third in Hollywood for most notable transmedia production companies by game and toy IP, behind only Mattel and LEGO.

Story Kitchen's other active projects include adaptations of Just Cause (Universal), Streets of Rage (Lionsgate), Shinobi (Universal), and ToeJam and Earl (Amazon MGM). The company's first-look TV deal with Amazon MGM Studios gives them a platform for several of these projects. Their involvement with Kingmakers was announced the same month that the game was attracting massive attention following its viral announcement trailer, and the timing was intentional: Story Kitchen saw an opportunity to attach themselves to a property that was already generating significant public interest.

Phase 2: Netflix Acquisition

The Netflix deal was announced on December 15, 2025. Netflix leveraged its creative partnership with 21 Laps Entertainment, which had developed the project with Story Kitchen, to take it off the market preemptively. A preemptive acquisition means Netflix purchased the rights before the project went out to a broader competitive bidding process. This indicates a high level of confidence in the material and a desire to secure it quickly.

The involvement of 21 Laps was a significant factor. Shawn Levy's production company has a deep relationship with Netflix, having produced Stranger Things (currently in its fifth and final season), the Night at the Museum films, Free Guy, and The Adam Project. 21 Laps is also currently producing Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling for Lucasfilm, with Levy directing. The company's existing Netflix relationship gave them the leverage to bring the Kingmakers project directly to the streamer without a prolonged bidding war.

Key Personnel

The Writer: Christopher MacBride

Christopher MacBride is a Canadian writer-director who broke onto the scene with The Conspiracy, a found-footage thriller that premiered in 2012 and became a hit on the festival circuit. His subsequent feature, Flashback (released in 2021 by Lionsgate), starred Dylan O'Brien and Maika Monroe in a mind-bending thriller about a man whose reality fractures as suppressed memories resurface.

MacBride's biggest studio work before the Kingmakers project was rewriting Face/Off 2 for Paramount Pictures and Original Film, with Adam Wingard originally attached to direct. The Face/Off sequel involves elaborate identity-swapping concepts, and MacBride's pitch reportedly confused some executives due to the complexity of the face-swapping mechanics. His other in-development projects include The Wolf, a global action-thriller for Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Amazon, and Echo, a psychological thriller for Searchlight and Hulu.

MacBride's selection as writer for the Kingmakers adaptation makes sense given his track record with high-concept genre premises. The Conspiracy dealt with conspiracy theorists who stumble into a real conspiracy. Flashback played with fractured timelines and unreliable memory. Face/Off 2 involved identity manipulation. Kingmakers' time travel premise, with its paradoxes and the collision of modern and medieval worlds, fits squarely within the kind of conceptually ambitious material MacBride has built his career on.

The Producers: 21 Laps Entertainment

21 Laps Entertainment is one of the most prolific production companies working with Netflix. Founded by Shawn Levy, the company has been behind some of the platform's biggest hits. Stranger Things alone has been one of Netflix's most-watched properties since its debut in 2016, and the fifth and final season was in production at the time the Kingmakers deal was announced. Dan Levine is president of the company and co-produces alongside Levy on most projects.

Beyond Netflix, 21 Laps has produced major theatrical releases including Free Guy (with Ryan Reynolds), The Adam Project (also Reynolds, for Netflix), and the Night at the Museum trilogy. Levy's upcoming directorial project, Star Wars: Starfighter starring Ryan Gosling, represents the company's growing involvement in franchise filmmaking. The combination of Levy's action-comedy sensibility and 21 Laps' experience managing large-scale productions with significant visual effects makes them a natural fit for a Kingmakers film, which would presumably require extensive CGI for its medieval battles and modern military hardware.

21 Laps' existing Netflix relationship was the mechanism that enabled the preemptive acquisition. Rather than shopping the project around to multiple studios and streamers, 21 Laps brought it directly to Netflix, where their track record gave the project immediate credibility. Netflix's willingness to take the project off the market without a competitive bid reflects both confidence in the concept and trust in 21 Laps' ability to deliver.

Format and Approach

As of the December 2025 announcement, it has not been publicly confirmed whether the Kingmakers adaptation will be live-action or animated. Story Kitchen's initial August 2024 announcement described it as a live-action film, but the Netflix deal described it as a feature film without specifying the format. Given the visual demands of the source material (thousands of medieval soldiers, modern military vehicles, destructible castles, and time travel effects), a significant visual effects budget would be required regardless of the format chosen.

The pitch description, "What if Braveheart included time travel?," suggests a tone that leans toward epic historical action with a science fiction twist rather than comedy or satire. Braveheart (1995, directed by Mel Gibson) is remembered for its large-scale medieval battle sequences, dramatic storytelling, and gritty tone. Adding time travel to that formula implies a film that takes its medieval setting seriously while using the modern-weapons-in-medieval-warfare concept as the core dramatic and visual hook.

The game itself has drawn comparisons to Army of Darkness (1992, directed by Sam Raimi) for its tone of absurd action, and Paul Fisch has cited that film as an inspiration for the scale of Kingmakers' combat. Whether the film adaptation leans more toward the earnest epic tone of Braveheart or the gleeful absurdity of Army of Darkness remains to be seen. MacBride's filmography suggests he is capable of both serious genre work (The Conspiracy) and more playful high-concept material (Flashback), so the tone will likely depend on the final script and the direction Netflix and the producers choose to take.

Context: Game-to-Film Adaptations

The Kingmakers film adaptation exists within a broader industry trend of video game properties being adapted for film and television. Following decades of mostly poor video game movies, the industry has seen a dramatic shift in quality and commercial success in recent years. HBO's The Last of Us became one of the most acclaimed shows on television. Amazon's Fallout was a hit. Netflix's own Arcane (based on League of Legends) won multiple awards. The Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise, produced by Story Kitchen founder Dmitri M. Johnson's former company, has grossed over a billion dollars worldwide.

This track record has made studios and streamers significantly more receptive to game adaptations. Where game-to-film pitches were once met with skepticism, they now attract serious attention and significant budgets. Kingmakers benefits from this environment. The concept is immediately visual and easy to pitch: modern soldiers with guns, tanks, and helicopters fighting alongside and against medieval armies. It does not require extensive lore knowledge to understand, which makes it accessible to audiences who have never heard of the game.

The fact that the adaptation deal was secured before the game's release is unusual even in this favorable environment. Most game-to-film adaptations are based on established properties with proven audiences. The Last of Us had sold over 37 million copies before HBO adapted it. Sonic had decades of brand recognition. Kingmakers has neither; it has a concept that went viral and over a million Steam wishlists. That Netflix was willing to commit to the project on the strength of the concept alone, before any player had actually played the finished game, speaks to how compelling the premise is and how effectively the game's trailers communicated its potential.

Golden Joystick Nomination

Kingmakers' announcement trailer was nominated for Best Game Trailer at the Golden Joystick Awards in October 2024. The trailer, which showed modern military hardware (including an attack helicopter) being used against medieval armies, went viral upon release in February 2024 and became one of the most-discussed game reveals of the year. The trailer's success was a direct factor in attracting Hollywood's attention; Story Kitchen announced the film adaptation partnership less than six months after the trailer's release.

The Golden Joystick nomination validated the trailer's impact. While Kingmakers had not yet released any playable content at the time of the nomination, the trailer's combination of spectacle, concept clarity, and technical impressiveness earned it a place alongside trailers from much larger studios with bigger budgets. For Redemption Road Games, a team of approximately 20 developers, receiving a major awards nomination for their marketing material was both a professional milestone and proof that the concept resonated with a mass audience.

Impact on the Game

The film adaptation has implications for the game itself, though the full extent remains to be seen. At minimum, the Netflix deal raises the profile of Kingmakers significantly. A film adaptation starring or produced by names like Shawn Levy introduces the property to audiences who do not follow gaming news. When the game eventually launches into Early Access, it will benefit from the cross-promotional visibility that comes with a Netflix project in development.

tinyBuild's involvement as executive producers (through CEO Alex Nichiporchik and executive Jon Carnage) ensures that the game's developers and publisher have a seat at the table during the film's development. This is not always the case with game adaptations, where game creators are sometimes sidelined once the Hollywood machinery takes over. Having the publisher's leadership directly involved in the production should help ensure that the film captures the tone and spirit of the game, even if the specific story diverges from the game's narrative about assisting Owain Glyndwr's 1401 Welsh Rebellion.

For the development team at Redemption Road Games, the film deal adds both opportunity and pressure. The opportunity is clear: a successful Netflix film could drive millions of new players to the game. The pressure is equally clear: the game needs to be good enough to justify the hype that a major film adaptation generates. A mediocre game with a great film attached to it would be a missed opportunity. A great game with a great film would be the kind of cross-media success story that defines a studio's reputation. The stakes, already high for a game with over a million wishlists, have gotten higher.