While TV has been doing a pretty good job of adapting video games into movies without much criticism lately, the film industry has been waiting for a The Last of Us-like smash. Can Gearbox’s upcoming Borderlands movie fill that role? Probably not, but if you’re looking for colorful chaos, you can expect it based on the newly released “final” trailer – ahead of the movie’s August release.
Of course, the Borderlands movie has been in the works for a long time; it was first announced in 2015, with Saw and Insidious co-creator Leigh Whannell reportedly attached to direct. Then, just when it seemed like the project had been shelved, it suddenly resurfaced in February 2020, this time with Hostel director Eli Roth at the helm.
Since then, we’ve seen a series of surprise casting announcements – with Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gina Gershwin and Jack Black joining – along with some behind-the-scenes changes, with new writers joining and Eli Roth temporarily leaving during reshoots.
And now, following the release of the first trailer for Borderlands in February, distributor Lionsgate has shared a “final” trailer ahead of the film’s release. If you’ve seen the first trailer, this latest one will be familiar – the car exploding in a monster’s mouth and the pee in the mouth scene are both back – but there’s a bit of new content, too.
Borderlands – which Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford has been quick to call the start of a “Borderlands Cinematic Universe” – sees Blanchett’s infamous criminal Lilith return to the planet Pandora in search of a missing girl. Along the way, she teams up with former mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart), teenage bomb disposal expert Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), vigilante Krieg (Florian Munteanu), archaeologist Padorian Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis) and robot Claptrap (Jack Black), discovering an “unimaginable power.” If that sounds like a fun way to spend 100 minutes, Borderlands hits theaters on August 9th.
