Spider-Man director heads to the high seas with a pirate video game movie

Here we go again: another blockbuster video game is setting sail for the big screen. This time it's Sea of Thieves, the piratey free-for-all from Rare where you and a group of mates can team up to hunt treasure, sink rival ships, and generally live out your best Jack Sparrow impression. The game’s been afloat since 2018, dropping anchor on Windows and Xbox One, and pretty much hasn’t stopped adding new tricks since. But can you really turn a game like this—where the main 'storyline' is basically whatever chaos you and your pals dream up—into a proper film? Xbox reckons you can.

Plot? Who Needs a Plot?

Unlike adaptations with obvious narratives to pick apart, Sea of Thieves doesn’t exactly provide a handy script. There are story bits scattered about, sure, but the main appeal is letting players muck about in the open seas. And Matt Booty—yes, that is genuinely his name—who runs things over at Xbox these days, is oddly relaxed about the whole ‘no plot’ problem.

'The main character of a Sea of Thieves game is actually the player and the community,' Booty explained. 'If you sit down to think about Sea of Thieves, it’s not, "Who are the main characters? What’s the plot?" It’s a super social game, but there’s a tone to Sea of Thieves. It’s built on a very cooperative community, so you can start to sense what that’s going to be like.'

So, not much to go on in terms of a hero’s journey, but apparently they’ll wing it. To be fair, Xbox has done this dance before: Minecraft managed to become a mainstream film without a typical plot to follow, then promptly smashed box office records in 2025. Not bad for a franchise where the most common crisis is running out of digital bricks.

Destin Daniel Cretton Signs On (Sort Of)

No word on a director yet, but they’ve already landed Destin Daniel Cretton as producer. The guy knows his way around a tentpole flick—he directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, plus there’s an upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day on his to-do list.

Xbox Game Adaptations: Suddenly Trendy

It wasn’t that long ago that game adaptations were the Hollywood equivalent of year-old milk in the back of the fridge—best left ignored. But that’s all changed now. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was the first to cross the $1 billion mark, The Last of Us is winning Emmys over on HBO, and there’s plenty more where that came from. Clearly, Xbox wants a slice.

• Right now, according to Entertainment Weekly, more than a dozen Xbox game adaptations are cooking away in various stages of development.
• So far, only eight of those projects have been officially revealed. What are the rest? Your guess is as good as mine.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma summed up the strategy like this: 'You won’t see us try to become the biggest linear provider in the world or anything like that, but I think great games are culture, and culture is entertainment. If you think about it, we’ve got the number two show of all time on Amazon [Fallout], Minecraft was top 5 in 2025, Call of Duty is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it all measures. [There’s] more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before.'

So, When Can You Watch It?

No date yet for Sea of Thieves: The Movie. Still very much early days, but judging from the way studios are scrambling for game franchises, expect more pirates (and more Xbox IPs) making their way to a cinema or streaming service in the near future.