In the world of video games there’s been a company lurking around for decades called From Software. We’ll talk more about their history later, but they’re 2022 hit video game, “Elden Ring” is making the news again thanks to a new released downloadable expansion, “Shadow of the Erdtree.” One of the men responsible for helping to build and shape the world of the game is noted author George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones). Apparently when he’s not writing the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, he’s busy helping construct entire worlds.
And as it turns out, he may know something about “Elden Ring” expanding beyond the scope of video games.
Just for a little background, let’s take a quick look at From Software. Though they’ve been making games for ages and had some success with their “Armored Core” series, they didn’t truly rise to fame until “Dark Souls.” The 2011 title was a successor to “Demon’s Souls” that helped establish the intensely challenging and cryptic framework that From Software games are now known for. Series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki drew a lot of influence from the dark fantasy worlds of a previous From Software franchise, “King’s Field,” and increased the amount of action and storytelling through environmental details.
In 2022 the “Dark Souls” formula was combined with an expansive open world and environment to create a vastly larger game than any of the previous Miyazaki titles. In order to craft a story for this world, George R. R. Martin was brought in to help build it. How much of the title’s environment comes from him versus Miyazaki has never been fully disclosed, As Martin puts it in his blog, “I did the worldbuilding for that project; Hidetaka Miyazaka and his team did all the rest.” It’s a bit vague and there are certainly a lot of Miyazaki elements in the world as well, but “Elden Ring” does feel a bit different than “Dark Souls” in multiple ways.
That’s not all Martin had to say in his recent blog post. He also said this, “Oh, and about those rumors you may have heard about a feature film or television series based on ELDEN RING… I have nothing to say. Not a word, nope, not a thing, I know nothing, you never heard a peep from me, mum mum mum.” What rumor?” What rumor indeed, George? Since the phenomenal success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” video game based films and series are becoming more and more of a prized asset with higher qualities projects like “Fallout“ and “The Last of Us“ being critically and commercially successful.
Could we see an “Elden Ring” film or series? It’s possible Miyazaki has stated that he would be open to seeing the game interpreted in a new way. However, he also acknowledges the limitations of this team and how they would not be able to tackle such a project; they’d need a partner to do so. Well, given the success of “Elden Ring” and its DLC, it’s hard to imagine a production company not wanting to partner with From Software to get this kind of project going. HBO can’t count on its “Game of Thrones” spin-offs forever, right? But that doesn’t mean they have to stop tapping the R. R. Martin well just yet.
If Martin’s rumors come to fruition we’ll let you know. Of course if he’s the one writing the project, we’ll probably be coming back around to update this sometime around 2040.
