The Division Movie Might Be on the Backburner Following Director’s Departure

It’s been six years and a half since Variety first reported that a The Division movie was in production starring renowned actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, Prisoners Nightcrawler, Southpaw, Nocturnal Animals, Spider-Man: Far from Home). Gyllenhaal was also set to produce.

Just one month later, we learned that Jessica Chastain (Interstellar, The Martian, Zero Dark Thirty, The Help, Miss Sloane, Molly’s Game, Ava, The Nurse) would co-star in The Division movie alongside Gyllenhaal. In early 2017, Ubisoft said the film adaptation would be written and directed by Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Gold, Syriana), though that changed in 2018 when Variety said The Division movie would be directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw, Bullet Train).

It’s late 2022 now, though, and the film is still nowhere to be seen. The reason was discussed by Kelly McCormick (wife and partner of David Leitch at 87North Productions) in a new interview with Discussing Film.

To be honest, when COVID hit, we left The Division movie because it felt like it was a documentary. You know, in the sense that the story deals with this outbreak that happens in real-time, the dangers that occur, and the anxiety that it creates. It was like, “Whoa, this is no longer fun.” Like, we literally all just had to go through this in real life. I think we could find love for it again. It’s such a cool property and what you could do with the imagery of a team of agents coming in with that kind of post-apocalyptic prospect is really amazing, but we actually did end up letting it go because we got moved away by COVID. I heard that it was sort of on the back burner, but I don’t know for sure.

We actually already know that Rawson Marshall Thurber (Skyscraper, Red Notice) is the next director picked by Netflix for the project following Leitch’s departure. However, Leitch was originally supposed to stay as a producer. Moreover, the director might already be busy with other projects, including back-to-back sequels of the highly successful Red Notice, spearheading a Dungeons and Dragons TV series, and also directing a live-action Voltron film.

The status of The Division movie remains unclear at a time when video game adaptations are on the rise. Ubisoft is also working on TV series based on Assassin’s Creed, Driver, and Skull & Bones.