Reacher star Alan Ritchson wants in on the Call of Duty movie — and he wants Zombies

Alan Ritchson — best known as Jack Reacher in the Prime Video series — has gone on record saying Call of Duty is his favorite video game and that he'd be open to a role in the upcoming Call of Duty film, provided the story is right.

Ritchson made the comments on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he also shared some skepticism about video game adaptations in general. He said they "scare me a little bit" because "so few work," pointing to 2024's Borderlands as a cautionary tale. His theory on what makes them succeed: aim for fun over self-seriousness. "If you make it for kids first, or it's fun... or self-aware, they tend to work. But ones that take themselves too seriously... it has to know what it is and it has to be ready to have a good time." He cited Minecraft as a recent example that got it right. On the Call of Duty movie specifically, he pushed for Zombies to be part of it — calling it the best part of the franchise — even though the film is set in the Modern Warfare universe, which has no canonical connection to the Zombies mode.

The Call of Duty movie is currently in development at Paramount, with Peter Berg — director of Lone Survivor — behind the camera and Taylor Sheridan, the writer behind Sicario, handling the script. No casting has been confirmed yet. On the game side, Modern Warfare 4 is the next entry in the series, arriving this October, with a free multiplayer beta scheduled for August.

Ritchson has the physical presence and action-hero credibility to fit the Call of Duty world, so his interest will likely get some attention from fans. Whether Zombies actually makes it into a Modern Warfare-set film is a long shot, but stranger things have happened in Hollywood adaptations.