Call of Duty: Peter Berg On Tapping Into The "Soul" of The Games

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Call of Duty: Peter Berg On Tapping Into The "Soul" of The Games

The director of the Call of Duty film, Peter Berg, has said there is "a real soul to the Modern Warfare universe" that he wants to explore.

Published Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:46:09 -0500
by Kaitlyn Booth
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Article Summary

  • Peter Berg says the Call of Duty movie will tap into the “soul” of Modern Warfare and the human cost of war.
  • Berg points to characters like Captain Price, Soap, Ghost, and Alex as proof Call of Duty has depth beyond action.
  • The Call of Duty film is set for June 30, 2028, with Berg indicating it could be his next movie after The Mosquito Bowl.
  • After years in development, the Call of Duty movie is finally moving forward as video game adaptations keep surging.

Almost a year ago, another video game movie that spent a long time in development hell finally emerged and made its way into development purgatory. Word came down that the Call of Duty movie was in the works with Peter Berg set to direct and Taylor Sheridan set to write and produce. However, the rest of the creative team was a bit busy with other projects, so there wasn't much movement on it. We did find out that the film would draw inspiration from the Modern Warfare line of games, so if anyone was looking forward to another World War II movie, you're out of luck. Berg is currently doing press for his new film, The Mosquito Bowl, but was asked by ComicBook.com how his previous experiences in other war movies, like Lone Survivor, were helping him with Call of Duty. 

"So modern warfare, if you really look at the missions, and the storylines, and the characters – like Captain Price, and Soap, and Ghost, and Alex – these are complicated humans," Berg explained. "These are not – and no disrespect – cartoon characters or comic books. These are very nuanced storylines; like, there's a real soul to the Modern Warfare universe… And, yes, there's violence, and there's hardware, and equipment, and there's killing – but underneath it I think the game, and the craters of the game, are really looking at the cost of war, the cost of having to be a warrior who's, for whatever reason, chosen to put himself between real danger and the rest of us, and the burden that these guys carry. … And that's real stuff, this is not just 'Hey, let's shoot them all up and shoot popcorn!' Like, there's a soul underneath it, that I understand that Taylor Sheridan understands, and I think probably not quite as graphically violent as Mosquito Bowl, but there will be a very strong soul, and consequence of war within the film, called 'duty.'"

L-R: Taylor Sheridan Photo Credit: Emerson Miller | Peter Berg Photo Credit: Daniel McFadden | Credit: Activision

Berg also seemed to confirm that Call of Duty was the next film he would work on. At the time of writing, the Call of Duty movie has a release date of June 30, 2028. That would line up if they enter pre-production sometime late this year or early next year, with filming potentially starting after the holidays in 2027, though that is just speculation.

Call of Duty Is Another Video Game Franchise Emerging From Development Hell

Much like other video game franchises that exploded in the early 2000s and 2010s, a Call of Duty movie has been in the works for some time. It is one of the rare projects that seemed very close to getting off the ground, but circumstances were what kneecapped this production. In late November 2007, Activision released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the franchise hasn't been the same since. It's the kind of hit that studios dream of, and while the exact number is a bit murky, some sources say it has sold $15 million in copies six years after its initial release. It changed multiplayer gaming as we know it and was revolutionary in that it managed to break the franchise out of its World War II setting. The franchise as a whole has sold over $500 million copies.

So a Call of Duty movie has been hanging around in varying stages of development since at least 2015, but one can assume Activision started thinking about it long before. While the story of these days is something people have praised for some [but not all] of the many installments, it was the interactive aspects of this game that made it such a cultural zeitgeist. The film got some momentum in early 2018, but by the time everything seemed to be coming together, it didn't film in 2019 as initially planned, and we all know what happened in 2020. Video game adaptations are having their moment, for what feels like the first time, from the animated Mario movies to The Last of Us on HBO. Call of Duty, joining the ranks of Uncharted, BioShock, and many others, is finally making its way to the big screen, an ongoing pattern that doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

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