The Just Cause movie is moving forward (again)

thesixthaxis.com:

Stop me if you have heard this one before, there is going to be a Just Cause movie! Blue Beetle director Ángel Manuel Soto is set to helm the project for Universal Pictures with Kelly McCormick and David Leitch’s 87North production company, who are behind The Fall Guy, are also involved.

The Just Cause series began in 2006 with the last game, Just Cause 4, landing in 2018. It is famous for it’s over the top action as well as giving players innovative ways to blow things or just generally be silly, such as attaching large balloons to cows and watching them float in to the sky. The protagonist is Rico Rodriguez, a secret agent who originally hails from the fictional nation of Medici.

A Just Cause movie was announced well over ten years ago by Constantin Film, the people behind the Resident Evil films, but after many attempts including one with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad the license for the game lapsed and Universal snapped up the project. There was even a plan for an MCU style Square Enix shared universe in which Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief, Just Cause and Tomb Raider would all co-exist. Obviously that never happened and given that many of those games are now owned by other companies, probably for the best.

Back in June 2022 Square Enix casually announced that Just Cause 5 is in development. They published the ‘Outline of Financial Results Briefing by SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS held on May 13, 2022’ which contained the following text.

We especially revisited our studio and title portfolios from the perspective of stepping up our offering of online titles that we develop for the North American and the European market. We want to focus on creating new titles that align with our strategy, including ones that leverage new IP. The JUST CAUSE franchise will remain our IP, and we are at work developing a new title in the franchise.

Source: THR