Paramount has set a June 30, 2028 release date for its live-action Call of Duty movie, co-written by Taylor Sheridan and Peter Berg, with Berg also directing. The studio made the announcement at its CinemaCon presentation in April 2026, ending a decade of starts and stops on the long-planned adaptation of Activision’s flagship first-person-shooter franchise. The film is the studio’s bet on one of the biggest gaming IPs of all time, and the only feature Sheridan has on the books at the studio before he moves to NBCUniversal.
The deal closed the same week news broke that Sheridan, the Yellowstone creator, was leaving Paramount for NBCUniversal under a billion-dollar overall pact. He will start a film deal at NBCUniversal next year and a television deal at the end of 2028, per the trade reports. Call of Duty is the only feature film on the books at the studio that built most of his recent television slate around him. Both Sheridan and Berg will produce it, alongside David Glasser of 101 Studios and Rob Kostich, the head of Activision, the Microsoft-owned publisher of the franchise.
Sheridan and Berg Are Co-Writing Call of Duty
The Hollywood Reporter first reported on October 30, 2025, that Sheridan had closed a deal to write the adaptation, with Peter Berg closing on the same day to direct and co-write (the October 2025 deal that brought Berg in). Variety confirmed the pair would share writing credit, with David Glasser of 101 Studios and Rob Kostich, head of Activision, producing (the original deal close that named the producers). Paramount then set the release date for June 30, 2028, at its CinemaCon presentation in April 2026 (the April 2026 CinemaCon release date announcement).
The plot is under wraps and no cast has been announced. The story will draw from a franchise that has historically covered wars from World War II and Vietnam to the present day and into the future. The September 2025 Paramount-Activision deal was structured to allow expansion across film and TV beyond the first feature, sources told Variety, and Paramount is publicly framing the project as a flagship for the new David Ellison-owned regime’s effort to bulk up its franchise slate.
Activision is now owned by Microsoft, and the company first filed a trademark for a film version of the property in 2009.
- 500 million copies sold globally
- No. 1 bestselling U.S. game franchise for 16 consecutive years
- 30+ mainline games released since 2003
- $35 billion lifetime revenue, 1 billion players worldwide
- June 30, 2028 theatrical release
Why the Pairing Fits the Material
Sheridan and Berg are longtime friends, and they have shared the page before. They co-wrote the 2016 heist thriller Hell or High Water, which earned four Oscar nominations including best picture and best screenplay, and Sheridan wrote the 2017 Wyoming mystery Wind River, which Berg produced. The pair sell the same kind of American grit: Berg on Lone Survivor, Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, and Mile 22, and Sheridan on Sicario, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and Without Remorse. Both men have said they are aiming for what Berg called, at the CinemaCon presentation, authenticity with “really big scope” among special operations soldiers.
That shared ground matters because the franchise’s center of gravity is the special operations community. The game franchise has spent two decades dramatizing elite units in real and imagined theaters, and Sheridan’s Paramount+ series Lioness is built around a similar premise, as is the Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse, which Sheridan wrote. Kostich, the Activision producer, said at CinemaCon that the studio wants to capture that authenticity on a human level and “infuse that with epic scope.” Both men have written and directed war-adjacent features, and they have never worked on a franchise that has sold 500 million copies.
A Decade of False Starts on the Call of Duty Film
A live-action Call of Duty film has been “in development” at one studio or another for roughly a decade, with more restarts than finished scripts. IGN laid out the long trail of starts, stops, and resets when the Sheridan deal was first reported, and the Sollima chapter alone ran from 2018 to 2020 before falling apart (the project’s long history of false starts).
The IGN report credits Stefano Sollima, director of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, with being attached in 2018, with a sequel already in development and Black Panther’s Joe Robert Cole scripting. Sollima said in a 2020 interview that the films were “no longer a priority” for Activision, the strongest public signal yet that the publisher had walked away. Activision’s then-CEO Bobby Kotick had already poured cold water on the idea in 2013, telling reporters that “movies based on video games rarely please devoted fans and could taint the brand.” Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision in 2023, and the new ownership reset the conversation.
- 2009: Activision files a trademark for a Call of Duty film
- 2013: CEO Bobby Kotick tells reporters video-game movies “could taint the brand”
- 2016: Activision Blizzard Studios formed to seed a CoD cinematic universe
- 2018: Stefano Sollima attached to direct; Joe Robert Cole scripting a sequel
- 2020: Sollima says the films are “no longer a priority” for Activision
- 2023: Microsoft closes its acquisition of Activision
- September 2025: Paramount and Activision announce a film partnership
- October 2025: Sheridan and Berg close to write and direct
- April 2026: June 30, 2028 release date set at CinemaCon
The tone for the new push was set by Kostich at CinemaCon:
I told everyone we were only going to make a movie if it’s right. In David Ellison, we found that partnership.
Kostich is the head of Activision, the Microsoft-owned publisher of the franchise. He spoke to theater owners at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas in April 2026.
Sheridan’s Last Big Project at Paramount
The deal closed the same week news broke that Sheridan was leaving Paramount for NBCUniversal under a billion-dollar overall pact. He will start a film deal at NBCUniversal next year and a television deal at the end of 2028, per the trade reports. Call of Duty is, in practice, his last feature project at the studio that built most of his recent television slate around him.
The new David Ellison-owned Paramount is keeping Sheridan in the fold for one more swing, and it is swinging with him. The studio is publicly framing the project as a flagship for the regime’s effort to bulk up its franchise slate. The arrangement carries a built-in expiration: by the time the film hits theaters in 2028, Sheridan will already be a year into his television deal elsewhere. Paramount’s bet is that one Sheridan-led feature is enough to anchor a multi-year gaming-IP push.
What the Film Has to Become
The franchise has spent two decades as a first-person-shooter military series spanning multiple wars and a near-future theater. It encompasses more than 30 mainline games released since the original Call of Duty debuted in 2003, and the games have moved between settings as different as World War II boot-camp drills, Cold War espionage, modern special operations, and a future soldier storyline. The 2018 plans called for a Marvel-style CoD cinematic universe, with Sollima attached for the first film and Cole scripting a sequel, and that universe never materialized.
The film is also riding a wave of successful video-game adaptations. Paramount turned Sonic the Hedgehog into a major film and streaming franchise, and other recent gaming adaptations like Super Mario Bros. and A Minecraft Movie have also performed strongly at the box office.
The games the studio can draw on for source material include:
- World War II (the original Call of Duty, 2003)
- Cold War espionage (the Black Ops sub-series)
- Vietnam-era operations (Black Ops Cold War, 2020)
- Present-day special operations (the Modern Warfare sub-series)
- Near-future soldier storyline (Advanced Warfare, Infinite Warfare, Black Ops III)
Mark Wahlberg, the Cast, and the Tone
Mark Wahlberg is reportedly a top choice for the lead, per multiple outlets. He has worked with Peter Berg on five films over a decade, and he is the only actor in Berg’s recent career to land that many pairings with him. The list tilts heavily toward action and military stories. The CinemaCon sizzle reel showed almost no live-action footage, leaning instead on game imagery cut to The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” (the CinemaCon sizzle reel reveal). Berg said in a video message that he and Sheridan are “deeply connected to the special operations community” and want the film to capture that “on a human level” while also bringing “amazing scale.”
- Lone Survivor (2013)
- Deepwater Horizon (2016)
- Patriots Day (2016)
- Mile 22 (2018)
- Spenser Confidential (2020)
Kostich told the CinemaCon audience that the studio wants to make sure the authenticity is captured on a human level and “infuse that with epic scope.” Plot details remain under wraps, the script is being written, and no casting has been announced. Berg’s prior war-movie credits include The Kingdom, Battleship, Lone Survivor, Patriots Day, and Mile 22, and his recent work on the frontier drama American Primeval has put him in the same tonal neighborhood a Call of Duty adaptation would lean on. F.A.S.T., Sheridan’s other current feature, is set for release on April 23, 2027 from Warner Bros. with Brandon Sklenar starring, per a Variety report, and Call of Duty will land at Paramount just over a year later.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Call of Duty movie come out?
Paramount has set the live-action Call of Duty movie for a June 30, 2028 theatrical release, announced at the studio’s CinemaCon presentation in April 2026.
Who is directing and writing it?
Peter Berg is directing and co-writing, Taylor Sheridan is co-writing, and both are producing. David Glasser of 101 Studios and Rob Kostich, head of Activision, are also producing.
What game is the Call of Duty movie based on?
No specific game has been named, and the plot has not been disclosed. The franchise has historically been a first-person-shooter military series spanning more than 30 mainline games from 2003 onward, with settings that have ranged from World War II to the Cold War, Vietnam, present-day special operations, and a near-future soldier storyline.
Who is cast in the Call of Duty movie?
No official casting has been announced. Mark Wahlberg is reportedly a top choice for the lead, and he has worked with Peter Berg on five films from 2013 to 2020.
