The Division – Picture: Ubisoft
One of the long-stagnant projects in Netflix’s upcoming movie lineup is an adaptation of the Ubisoft game franchise, The Division, which adapts Tom Clancy’s works. What happened to the movie on Netflix? Here’s what we know.
For those who missed it, Netflix first announced in the summer of 2019 that they had acquired the rights to adapt The Division into a feature-length film. The project had been in the works before it landed at Netflix with Stephen Gaghan attached. Once it jumped to Netflix, David Leitch was on board to direct, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain leading the cast and the duo serving as producers. Rafe Judkins was on script duties.
We didn’t hear much about the movie’s future over the next couple of years. We knew Leitch had dropped out from the project in early 2021, with Rawson Marshal Thurber (best known for Red Notice) taking his spot and reworking the script, although Leitch would remain a producer. A few months later, in June 2021, scooper Daniel Richtman posted that filming would begin in November of that year. Of course, that ultimately didn’t happen.
The last real update we got was courtesy of an interview with Kelly McCormick (founder of 87North Productions), who spoke to DiscussingFilm (the viral Twitter/X entertainment news aggregator) about numerous projects, including what was happening with The Division. Confirming the project was “on the back burner”, McCormick said:
“To be honest, when COVID hit, we left The Division 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.”
Picture: Ubisoft
Since that interview, we’ve heard of no further developments, and as of 2024, we hear the project is now permanently inactive.
Although it would appear that The Division is not in the works, several other Ubisoft adaptations were on Netflix. Many equally look like they may not be moving forward, with very few developments in recent years.
Of course, this happens with titles in development all the time. Not helped by numerous key executives from Ubisoft and Netflix have now changed over, priorities within divisions can change, talent can become uninterested, scripts don’t get approved, plus many other factors can mean a project never gets off the ground. As a general rule of thumb, we’ve found that if a project goes without major updates four years after its announcement, it’s often considered shelved.
For more on Netflix’s upcoming video game adaptations, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix.
Are you disappointed The Division won’t ever see the light of day? Let us know in the comments.