Final Fantasy VII Rebirthis launching on PC via Steam on January 23. To promote and celebrate the anticipated port of one of 2024’s best games,YouTuber Danny Peña got to interviewdirector Naoki Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase, who revealed an interesting tidbit about a new cinematic adaptation.
Near the end of the interview, Peña asked them about a potential movie or TV series based onFinal Fantasy VIIand explained that “there are a lot of TV networks investing a lot of money in movies and TV series now.” Kitase answered that there’s nothing officially planned yet but that he would personally love to see that.
“I’ve seen and heard about various Hollywood directors and actors playingFinal Fantasy VII. Many creators also respect the title, and I’ve been hearing things about creators out there about who are very interested in the property and who love the FFVII universe. So, personally, I would love to see something come out of these creators in terms of a cinematic or some sort of visual piece,” said the game’s producer.
We are indeed going through a golden age of video game movies, with faithful and successful adaptations of classic games, like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the live-actionSonic the Hedgehogtrilogy, HBO’sThe Last of Us, Amazon’sFallout, and more. So now would be the perfect time to adapt a game as big and iconic asFinal Fantasy VII. However, I hope it would take the form of an animated production because Kitase mentioned that some “Hollywood directors and actors” played the game, and the idea of seeing stylized characters like Cloud Strife or Sephiroth in live-action is quite terrifying.
There is already a Final Fantasy VII movie, so what should Square Enix adapt next?
A feature film based on the world ofFFVIIalready exists:Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a 2005 animated movie that serves as a sequel to the story of the original PS1 game. Curiously enough, Yoshinori Kitase worked on Advent Children as a producer alongside director Tetsuya Nomura.
There are many directions for a potential cinematic project. It could be an actual-animated adaptation of the game’s events, which would work as a prequel toAdvent Childrenand share its high-quality animation. With the newFinal Fantasy VII Remakeproject, which already features beautiful and exciting animated cutscenes, Square Enix may deem this unnecessary and try to cover another part of this massive story instead.
The studio could also work on a cinematic adaptation based on other events from this world, likeCrisis Core, the prequel centered on Zack Fair,Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, which told the story of Vincent Valentine, or the obscure but relevant mobile game,Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII. The world ofFFVIIis rich and interesting, so Square Enix (and whatever production company it decides to team up with) definitely has a lot to choose from. I just really hope they don’t go the live-action route.
