When it comes to movies like the upcoming Borderlands film, the team behind it, both director/writer Eli Roth and the game developer Gearbox Software, had a certain challenge that went into making the picture. Specifically, they needed to figure out how to take the legendary looter shooter and turn it into a bite-size film production. One of the problems with that is that across the series’ numerous games, multiple characters have taken center stage and have been fan favorites. Within the movie, there are several both main and supporting characters that show up, but not all of them made the cut.
In a chat with GamesRadar+,Gearbox Entertainment CEO Randy Pitchford talked about what it took to find the “heart” of the film, and how that turned out to be Lillith, played by Cate Blanchett.
“We took a lot of turns in the earliest development of this, but you can tell from the video games that Lilith is the center of the universe.”
Other characters that appear in the film include Claptrap, Mad Moxii, Tiny Tina, Rolan and more. However, as diehard fans know, there are MANY other characters that could’ve taken center stage. So, why didn’t they appear? Pitchford gave this explanation for that:
“These video games are massive, taking tens of hours of content. So we’ve created dozens and dozens and dozens of amazing characters that we love. And we want to find a place for all of them, and everyone has their favorites. And it’s kind of like the same problem that Marvel has, right? How do you put everyone’s favorite characters in one movie?”
Indeed, that is a problem that Marvel has both had and continues to have with its productions. The CEO did promise, though, that many of the “OG characters” that fans grew up on are a part of this universe and could possibly show up in the future if the film does well.
Whether it does well is the question, though. You see, the movie has been in the works for a long time, and not in a good way. Then, when they did start showing trailers, it felt less like a true recreation of Borderlands but a rather Marvel-style interpretation of it. In this case, Lillith is bringing together a team of outcasts to try to get a treasure on the planet Pandora.
Many have questioned the casting done and the overall tone of the film’s trailers. We’ll find out soon how it does.
