Confusion reigns as report of an A24 Elden Ring movie emerges, disappears, and emerges again

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC screenshot — (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Hoo, boy. Alright, let's see here.

Yesterday, an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday rapidly became confusing for Elden Ring-heads and people looking at particular corners of the internet when Nexus Point News, an entertainment news site, published an article claiming that Annihilation and Civil War director Alex Garland is set to direct an Elden Ring film adaptation for production company A24.

Though it probably goes without saying, the story seemed peculiar—and not just because Nexus Point News isn't exactly a household name in entertainment coverage. Less than an hour after the story was published, Nexus Point News retracted the report.

The story, which is still readable through the Wayback Machine, said that "Elden Ring is expected to be Garland’s next film and is expected to begin shooting in 2026."

Alex Garland attends the Los Angeles premiere of A24's &quot;Civil War&quot; at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 02, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. — Alex Garland at the Los Angeles premiere of A24's Civil War in April 2024. (Image credit: Getty Images/Aliah Anderson/FilmMagic)

During its brief lifespan, the story had been shared on ResetEra in a now-closed thread, earning immediate and understandable replies of "What." It was then boosted by a tweet from well-known videogame news and deal aggregator Wario64, whose 1.1 million X followers accelerated its exposure with the intensity of a deeply confused centrifuge. While that tweet's also been deleted, it was like a flashbang exploding in thousands of minds at once: Were we supposed to look into this at all, or collectively agree that it was a very strange dream?

For our part, we reached out to A24 for a statement and didn't receive an official response. We also contacted Nexus Point, who said "I am sorry, we can't comment on this at the moment."

Things took an interesting turn, however, when we also reached out to a Bandai Namco PR representative, who replied with "This was a fun thing to land to after my PAX flight!" and nothing else. Not a confirmation, but not not a confirmation. The plot thickens! I think!

An additional wrinkle occurred this morning when Jeff Sneider, a self-described "Hollywood rule breaker" with a seemingly mixed hit rate on entertainment leaks, tweeted that "Alex Garland IS in negotiations to direct Elden Ring for A24."

So where does that leave us? According to 80 Level, Nexus Point might deserve more credibility than it received. In September, Nexus Point broke news that Luca Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes were working on the now-cancelled Sgt. Rock adaptation. Guadagnino previously directed the A24 film Queer, giving some indication that Nexus Point might, in fact, have a connection to a source at the studio—but at this point, we're stacking speculation on speculation.

It is worth noting, however, that Garland is a self-reported Elden Ring sicko. Last month, Garland said in a Reddit AMA for A24's upcoming movie Warfare that he was currently playing Elden Ring on NG+6, which—I'll be honest—scares me. If A24 was pursuing an Elden Ring movie, it's got an obvious director pick on deck. And after the 2023 announcement of its partnership with Kojima Productions on a Death Stranding adaptation, it wouldn't be the studio's first foray into a videogame setting.

Still, until an official confirmation, best to continue prescribing yourself some healthy grains of salt. I have to wonder though: What would the plot of an Elden Ring movie even be when it communicates most of its fiction through item descriptions? Maybe a Marika-focused prequel, or a Ken Burns-style documentary of the war between Radahn and Malenia. A Boc biopic, perhaps? That'd be nice.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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