It’s been a long road from “some talk” of an adaptation to a finished shoot. A24’s live-action Elden Ring, written and directed by Alex Garland, has wrapped filming, has a stacked cast, and is dated for March 2028. Here’s everything confirmed so far, and what’s still under wraps.
Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War, Warfare) is adapting FromSoftware’s dark fantasy blockbuster for A24 and Bandai Namco. Filming is reportedly complete, the movie was shot for IMAX, and it arrives in theaters on March 3, 2028.
The Notes
- Release date: March 3, 2028, in theaters and IMAX, as announced by A24 in April.
- Director: Garland wrote and is directing the film, and reportedly won over FromSoftware with a 160-page spec script before getting the deal.
- Cast: Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Ben Whishaw, Nick Offerman, Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Emma Laird, Peter Serafinowicz and Jonathan Pryce lead a 13-member ensemble. Character roles haven’t been revealed.
- Filming: Production began in April in the U.K., including Scotland and North Wales, with scenes shot in Iceland over the summer. It reportedly wrapped on July 30.
- Budget: The Wall Street Journal reports the production budget is nearly $200 million.
The story
How it got here. The project took shape quickly after Hidetaka Miyazaki said in 2024 that he was open to a “very strong partner” adapting the game. According to the reporting, Garland shared his love of the game with A24’s head of film, Noah Sacco, then wrote a long spec script with pages of reference imagery. Sacco flew him to Japan to close the deal with FromSoftware. A24 announced the project in May 2025, with Garland attached, and George R.R. Martin, who worked on the game’s lore, is a producer.
The cast. Connor, Spaeny and Whishaw were reported first and confirmed in April alongside the full ensemble. It’s an eclectic group, mixing Garland regulars with prestige character actors like Pryce and Offerman. A24 hasn’t said who plays whom, so every casting theory online is still a guess.
The shoot. Filming used real locations, including North Wales sites such as Dinorwic quarry, Dolbadarn Castle and Conwy Castle, with Iceland standing in for the harshest landscapes. The wrap news came from a prop artist’s now-deleted social media post, which showed a thank-you note signed by Garland and the producers. Outlets such as IGN reported it, but as of that coverage A24 and Bandai Namco hadn’t issued a formal statement, so treat the wrap as reported but not officially announced.
Why it matters. A $200 million budget would make this one of the most expensive films in A24’s history, and it’s the studio’s first film shot for IMAX. For a studio known for lean, atmospheric genre films, that’s a big swing. It’s also a rare chance for the game’s brutal, melancholy world to land on screen with a director known for unsettling, cerebral genre work.
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| June 2024 | Miyazaki says he’s open to a “very strong partner” adapting the game |
| May 2025 | A24 announces Alex Garland will write and direct |
| April 2026 | Cast and March 3, 2028 release date announced; production begins |
| May to summer 2026 | Filming in North Wales, Scotland and Iceland |
| July 30, 2026 | Filming reportedly wraps |
| October 2026 | The Wall Street Journal reports a budget of nearly $200 million |
| March 3, 2028 | Scheduled release in theaters and IMAX |
What we still don’t know
- Who each actor is playing
- Which part of the Lands Between’s story the film will tell, and whether it adapts the game’s plot or invents a new one
- When the first trailer or official first-look image will arrive
- Whether the film will carry an R rating, which would fit a game this violent
With a release date still a year and a half away and the film now in post-production, expect the first real footage to be months off. We’ll update this post when A24 shares more.
More context
- Deadline: Alex Garland’s Elden Ring sets March 2028 release ↗
- The Hollywood Reporter: Cast additions as production begins ↗
- IGN: Elden Ring movie wraps filming ↗
Sources & further reading
- Deadline: release date and cast announcement (April 2026)
- The Hollywood Reporter: cast additions and production start
- Deadline: Garland set to direct (May 2025)
- IGN: filming wraps (July 30, 2026)
- Polygon: production milestone
- Screen Daily: filming in the U.K.
- The Wall Street Journal: A24 playbook and Elden Ring budget (paywalled)
- JoBlo: IMAX, cast and release date
- TBreak: wrap report and the deleted post
- Wikipedia: Elden Ring (film) production summary
Last updated October 26, 2026.