{"id":475475,"date":"2026-02-15T00:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475475\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T00:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:31:07","slug":"john-wick-and-castlevania-are-entering-a-new-adaptation-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475475\/","title":{"rendered":"‘John Wick’ and ‘Castlevania’ Are Entering a New Adaptation Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the PlayStation State of Play event on Thursday, viewers learned it was finally happening: the\u00a0John Wick\u00a0franchise was getting its first major video game<\/a>. After Bithell Games\u2019 tactical (and now delisted<\/a>) John Wick Hex\u00a0and\u00a0John Wick Chronicles\u00a0for VR, it\u2019s time for Keanu Reeves\u2019 action franchise<\/a> to enter the triple-A world courtesy of Space Marine 2\u00a0developer Saber Interactive.<\/p>\n

Lionsgate owns the Wick\u00a0franchise, and it\u2019s said in the past it wanted to make such a game<\/a> for everyone\u2019s favorite suit-wearing killer. (Well, everyone\u2019s other\u00a0favorite suit-wearing killer<\/a>.) Whether you think it\u2019s about time or maybe a bit late in the franchise\u2019s life, Saber\u2019s take is coming at a broadly good moment where more IPs are making the jump to games as their own substantial offerings<\/a> instead of just being additive to Fortnite. And whenever this game comes, it\u2019ll arrive with what\u2019s quietly become the series\u2019 baggage of already having one foot in video games before the medium was ever part of its equation.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0John Wick 2\u00a0up to 2025\u2019s\u00a0Ballerina,\u00a0these films have incorporate games in various ways, whether it\u2019s Wick 2\u2019s\u00a0\u201cHere\u2019s a scenario, here\u2019s a miniboss\u201d structure or Wick 4\u00a0and\u00a0Ballerina\u00a0having power weapons like flamethrowers and supporting characters with proficiencies that wouldn\u2019t go amiss in a hero shooter. (Shamier Anderson\u2019s Tracker is the most blatant example of this, since he often deploys his dog like it\u2019s his Special.) In the same way you can see how Indiana Jones & the Great Circle<\/a> could only have come in the shadow of Uncharted and Tomb Raider, it makes sense the Wick films go from evoking gaminess to wanting to stand alongside some of the biggest, most prestigious games around.<\/p>\n

Saber\u2019s John Wick game\u00a0exists as an interesting contrast to Castlevania: Belmont\u2019s Curse<\/a>,\u00a0another big reveal at the event. Along with celebrating the franchise\u2019s 40th anniversary this year, it\u2019s also the first fully new entry in the series in over a decade after 2014\u2019s\u00a0Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2\u00a0and the first game to arrive in the wake of the franchise\u2019s pivot to animation<\/a>. When Konami revealed in 2022 it was looking to revive its older franchises with remakes and new installments, fans hoped Castlevania\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be far behind\u00a0Silent Hill\u00a0and\u00a0Metal Gear Solid. In fact, one could argue it should\u2019ve been first on the agenda given Powerhouse\u2019s two Netflix series helped keep the franchise in people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n

When Belmont\u2019s Curse\u00a0releases later this year, it\u2019ll provide another window into how game adaptations affect their source material. Series like Arcane\u00a0and\u00a0Fallout<\/a>\u00a0have been successful in getting players to check out or rejoin prior games in a franchise, but how does this phenomenon look when it comes to a wholly new game? For every handful of stories where game sales and player numbers have spiked after an adaptation, there\u2019s also been instances where nothing much happened at all. Prime Video\u2019s Secret Level adapted several games in 2024, and it didn\u2019t seem to much of a tangible impact, good or bad, on the franchises it tackled: Bandai Namco was already going to make its dark Pac-Man\u00a0game; Amazon was probably already considering pulling the plug on New World<\/a>\u00a0by then; and The Outer Worlds 2<\/a>\u00a0came out with such bigger controversies<\/a> surrounding it that its own episode probably isn\u2019t remembered.<\/p>\n

John Wick and Castlevania are entering new territory with these games;\u00a0Wick has to show its world is as fun to play as it is to watch, and Castlevania must prove it\u2019s still got the juice and can stand next to those who\u2019ve adopted its tricks in the years since its hiatus. There\u2019s a certain amount of pressure on them, given the state of the industry, but they both have some cushion\u2014namely, that Konami\u2019s already confirmed it has multiple Castlevania products beyond Belmont\u2019s Curse<\/a> and there are more\u00a0Wick\u00a0movies<\/a> in the near future. The fate of these IPs doesn\u2019t rest entirely on these two games\u2019 shoulders, but it\u2019d clearly be nice if they were good and sold well in a day and age where it\u2019s more vital than ever<\/a> for that to be the case.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the PlayStation State of Play event on Thursday, viewers learned it was finally happening: the\u00a0John Wick\u00a0franchise was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,191986,193010,75,25228],"class_list":{"0":"post-475475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-castlevania","11":"tag-castlevania-nocturne","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-john-wick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}