Four years later, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Netflix video game action film breaks its silence

Here we go again: Jake Gyllenhaal's long-promised crack at a big video game adaptation, The Division, has finally surfaced for air after being AWOL for years—only for the latest update to confirm what most of us had already guessed. This one hasn't exactly been steaming ahead.

Producer Kelly McCormick, speaking in a promo interview for Violent Night 2, admitted bluntly: 'But that's not one that we've thought about in a bit. I wish it well, wherever it is, and I'm sure the movie will be incredibly successful.'

For context, Gyllenhaal jumped on board as both star and co-producer nine—yes, nine—years ago, back in 2016. Soon after, Jessica Chastain climbed aboard the cast as well. The original director was David Leitch (the bloke behind the likes of Bullet Train), and then, out of nowhere, Rawson Marshall Thurber (he did Red Notice for Netflix) replaced him. Netflix snapped up the rights for the adaptation in 2019.

Then the pandemic hit, and as producer Kelly McCormick explained a while back, COVID-19 didn’t do their momentum any favours. There's irony here since The Division itself is all about a viral catastrophe ripping through Manhattan. After enduring an actual pandemic, Hollywood's appetite for pandemic stories cooled rapidly. Most filmmakers—understandably—started treating them as passing gags or skipping them entirely, probably to avoid reminding everyone what a mess the last few years have been.

The project officially slid into a 'quiet pause' around late 2022, and the 87North team (McCormick and Leitch's banner) haven't been thinking about it since. In McCormick's own words: 'We’ve got a bunch of things that we are circling and excited about.'

Who’s Actually Left on This?

So, with the 87North lot moving on—Leitch now busy with The Fall Guy, the heist flick How to Rob a Bank, and something wonderfully titled Jason Statham Stole My Bike—the fate of The Division looks shaky. The only stable element now is Netflix’s relationship with Ubisoft, which isn't entirely worthless: they’ve still got Splinter Cell: Deathwatch in the pipeline and that long-rumoured live-action Assassin’s Creed series supposedly brewing.

• 2016: Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain sign on for The Division.
• David Leitch attached to direct, later replaced by Rawson Marshall Thurber.
• 2019: Netflix acquires streaming rights.
• COVID-19 delays and lack of enthusiasm for more pandemic-adjacent films.
• Project put on hold by late 2022; 87North quietly drops involvement.
• Netflix and Ubisoft still in partnership—other game adaptations remain in play.

At this point, The Division is sitting quietly on the Netflix shelf, no active creative team and no sign of rapid progress. But technically, the film isn’t dead—just waiting for someone mad or brave enough to try and resurrect it, assuming audiences want another pandemic story dropped into their laps.

The Division adaptation entered development hell a decade ago and has spent the past four years in complete limbo, with 87North exiting the project in 2022.