For some time, we expected video game adaptations to be bad. But in recent years, we’ve seen an influx of movies and TV shows based on video game franchises that are changing the tide on its perception in Hollywood. From The Last Of Us becoming a critically-acclaimed hit, to Amazon Prime’s Fallout gaining major traction, game-specific details and all, studios can more confidently bank on a popular property nowadays. With that in mind, news has just come in that Legendary is developing a movie version of a popular survival horror game.
Following Five Nights At Freddy’s crossing major box office milestones with its 2023 spooky season release, Legendary is now working on making a live-action version of the Mob Entertainment franchise Poppy Playtime. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has closed an “aggressive” deal with its creators to bring Huggy Wuggy to the big screen. Here’s the Huggy Wuggy in question…
Terrifying, right? Not unlike the premise of Five Nights At Freddy’s, Poppy Playtime is about monstrous things that are supposed to be for kids, but have become something else over time. In the case of Poppy Playtime, which is set in the year 2005, a former employee (whom players play as) is enticed via a letter back into the facilities of a toy brand that has now been abandoned. There they find out the toys have since come to life and must use their problem-solving skills to escape the creepy facility unscathed.
The game came from humble beginnings, with it coming from an independent developer to earning 12 million players in just a few years. It was initially made for Steam and Microsoft Window, but now can also be played as a mobile game on Android and iOS along with being available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Oddly enough, despite how terrifying its main monster is, Poppy Playtime Huggy Wuggy plushies have also become rather popular among fans.
Surely the success of Five Nights At Freddy’s, which was produced by Blumhouse and Universal, had an effect on Poppy Playtime’s development. Although the horror movie was panned by critics, it became a huge success considering it earned $297 million worldwide against a production budget of $20 million. Many fans of the video game franchise, which has been producing video game installments since 2014, were into the movie version of Five Nights At Freddy’s.
Legendary Pictures has had past success with video game adaptations, including 2019’s Detective Pikachu, which made $450 million worldwide when it was released. While we wait for more details about both Poppy Playtime and the Five Nights At Freddy’s sequel, you can check out what upcoming horror movies are on the way.