EXCLUSIVE: Jake Gyllenhaal may not be gearing up for The Division any time soon.
Developed under the Tom Clancy brand of games at Ubisoft, the sub-franchise launched in 2016 with the open-world shooter game in which players were put into Manhattan, New York following a viral epidemic causing massive chaos and casualties in the metropolis, and having to investigate the cause of the virus. The Division broke various records upon its release, including becoming Ubisoft’s best-selling game at the time, launching a similarly successful sequel in 2019 and having a threequel on the way.
Before any further games came out, however, Ubisoft began setting their sights on a Division film adaptation, with Gyllenhaal joining as star and co-producer in 2016, and being joined by Jessica Chastain shortly thereafter. Though the film gained steady steam in the years that followed, with David Leitch initially coming onboard to direct and produce, until Rawson Marshall Thurber took over due to his schedule on Bullet Train, and Netflix acquiring the rights in 2019, the film would quietly find itself paused in late 2022.
Now, in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns for the trailer launch of Violent Night 2, Kelly McCormick has offered the first status update on The Division in four years. When asked about any hopeful movement on the film, McCormick, who was attached to produce the Clancy adaptation with Leitch, her husband, through their 87North banner, revealed that it won’t be “with us at this time,” sharing that she, Leitch and their team have “a bunch of things that we are circling and excited about“:
Kelly McCormick: But that’s not one that we’ve thought about in a bit. But I love it. The imagery of that movie is so compelling and powerful, and I do feel like we lived through it a little bit, and I don’t know if we’ll ever forget the COVID experience, or our next one of those is a little scarier, because of what we experienced in COVID. [Chuckles] But I wish it well, wherever it is, and I’m sure the movie will be incredibly successful.
While McCormick’s new comments align with her 2022 update on COVID-19 having a negative impact on their involvement in the film, this does appear to be a proper cementing that she and Leitch are no longer directly attached to The Division. Previously, the producer’s verbiage did seem to say that 87North had “left” the Gyllenhaal-starring adaptation, though had sounded more open to the possibility of returning.
In the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns, it’s hard to deny that filmmakers have been very cautious in their approach to pandemic-based storytelling. Many have sought to instead put any kind of pandemic as a background element to their films, or at the very least find a way to make humor out of it, as evidenced by everything from Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to Shudder’s wildly acclaimed horror effort Host. As such, it could be argued that The Division‘s quiet delays and 87North seemingly pulling out of it may be a lack of desire to tackle such a story.
It’s also worth noting that, much to McCormick’s point, 87North has found themselves increasingly busy in recent years. Shortly after departing The Division as director to focus on Bullet Train, Leitch went on to helm the acclaimed Ryan Gosling adaptation of The Fall Guy and the star-studded heist action film How to Rob a Bank, which releases this November. He’s also currently in production on the uniquely meta action comedy Jason Statham Stole My Bike, while 87North has a variety of new projects in various stages of development.
Even if McCormick, Leitch and 87North are no longer properly attached to Gyllenhaal’s The Division adaptation, that doesn’t entirely mean the film itself is dead. Netflix already has a strong relationship with Ubisoft thanks to everything from the acclaimed Splinter Cell: Deathwatch to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed live-action series, but as both proper Clancy adaptations and the various name-branded games remain as popular as ever, the streamer will likely strive to find a way to keep the project alive.