It’s been quite some time since the Borderlands film was originally announced (nine years ago!), but production has been going smoothly enough. People Magazine has published two photos from the film that give us a look at some iconic characters. Obviously, the highest profile of these characters is Lilith, played by Cate Blanchett in the film. There is some uncanny valley going on, but she looks relatively faithful.
The second photo gives us a glimpse of Clap-Trap (Jack Black), Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), Roland (Kevin Hart), Krieg (Florian Munteanu), and Lilith looking down a hole. Again, they all resemble their in-game counterparts well. It’s a bit off-putting to see the cel-shading give way to realism, but then I don’t believe rotoscoping the film would have changed much of anything. It would still be strange-looking.
What about a trailer?
While People’s coverage didn’t include any footage, IGN’s Fan Fest 2024 has debuted an exclusive preview trailer and a first look at the poster for the film. The debut trailer will be revealed tomorrow, but in the nine-second clip, we get an idea of the tone of the film along with seeing Blanchett firing a gun, Hart using a mounted turret, and Clap-Trap saying, “Uh-oh.”
For all intents and purposes, this looks about what you’d expect a Borderlands film to look like. So far, nothing egregious stands out other than the shift to live-action. Since the series is known for not taking itself all too seriously, there will probably be some joke about how everyone is acting like a cartoon character while existing in the real world.
When does the film release?
Currently, the Borderlands film is set to release on August 9th, 2024. Lionsgate will be handling distribution, so you can expect a pretty hefty marketing push in the coming months. Technically, we caught a behind-the-scenes look at Lilith a couple of years ago. Jamie Lee Curtis posted a black-and-white picture of Lilith to her Instagram account that had a bunch of hyped-up words about Blanchett’s inclusion. To my knowledge, that’s the extent of what we’ve seen from this film barring the weird promo Randy Pitchford did in 2021.
Watch the first official Borderlands trailer
Update: February 22, 2024
Just days after our first look at the character through two photos, we’ve been treated to the first official Borderlands trailer from Lionsgate. Have a look at Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and the crew in action!
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
