With the genre seeing an adaptation of a similar viral release, Tim Sweeney has weighed in on the rumors of a Fortnite movie adaptation. Developed by Sweeney’s Epic Games, the online battle royale has been one of the most successful titles of the past decade, pitting players against one another in a variety of game modes, typically those of a third-person shooter persuasion. Even with the game having reportedly earned upwards of $40 billion since its 2017 launch, Fortnite has yet to expand to other mediums.
Recently, however, rumors have swirled that a Fortnite movie adaptation is in the works, albeit with no creative figures attached, and some studios having reportedly passed on the project. One such person to report on these rumors was Twitter user @ShiinaBR, who reports on the game and is partnered with Epic Games, though Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney quickly responded with a blunt statement calling the rumors “false”. Check out their posts below:

What This Means For The Fortnite Movie

The Adaptation Isn’t Coming Anytime Soon

Considering the ongoing success of both the genre and the game itself, it makes sense why rumblings of a Fortnite movie adaptation would be arising. One of the more notable reasons for it would be the recent release of A Minecraft Movie, a similarly online-driven game with over a decade of success and the need for a filmmaking team to craft an original story. While the Minecraft adaptation hasn’t landed great reviews, it is off to a strong start at the box office, surpassing Five Nights at Freddy’s for best Thursday night previews for a video game adaptation.

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Interestingly, while Sweeney is disproving the rumors for now, should a Fortnite movie enter development, it wouldn’t be the first Epic Games title to have a screen treatment in the works. A Gears of War movie adaptation has been in development hell for the better part of the past two decades, with the most recent update coming in late 2022 when Netflix and The Coalition teamed to develop both a movie and animated TV show. If the publisher gets confidence in the world of adaptations through Gears of War, they may consider it with Fortnite.
The one thing that might prove troublesome for getting a Fortnite movie off the ground is how Epic would share the rights to the property with a studio. Across its seven-plus-year lifecycle, the game has featured character skins from nearly every franchise and studio in Hollywood, with everything from Star Wars to Stranger Things characters and NFL players being playable. While the movie adaptation could simply leave out any skins that risk copyright issues, the creative team may still try to find a way to recreate this with whatever properties the studio they team with has.
Our Take On A Fortnite Movie Adaptation

Much Tougher To Crack Than Minecraft

While they have a similar challenge to overcome in their lack of a base story, a Fortnite adaptation seems like an even trickier game to crack translating to the screen than Minecraft in its lack of any real lore or foundation to develop a story from. The general concept of a group of people surviving on an island by fighting each other has been explored before on screen, though the toxic blue storm would be interesting to see in film. However, I also feel like deciding what audience to target will give a Fortnite movie some problems.
Source: @ShiinaBR/Twitter

Systems

Released

September 26, 2017

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

ESRB

T for Teen – Violence

PC Release Date

September 26, 2017

Xbox Series X|S Release Date

November 10, 2020

PS5 Release Date

November 12, 2020

Nintendo Switch Release Date

June 12, 2018

Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date

June 5, 2025

X|S Optimized

YES

Metascore

78

Number of Players

1-4 (online)

Local Co-Op Support

1-4 Players

Cross-Platform Play

Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

Expand