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Since its early access release in 2014, Subnautica has evolved from a game with a cult following to one of the most beloved survival titles on the entire planet. It has almost 275,000 positive reviews on Steam, with thousands of players diving in daily for their dose of underwater exploration. It has drawn comparisons to Hello Games' No Man's Sky for its longevity, evolution, and its almost alien-like world.

As with most things these days, if your IP is big enough, cross-media expansion becomes inevitable, and new comments from Subnautica 2's creative lead certainly suggest we'll get a silver-screen spin-off of the franchise at some point in the future.

During a discussion in the official Subnautica Discord, Subnautica 2's design lead, Anthony Gallegos, shared details of what original Subnautica director Charlie Cleveland was up to now, potentially revealing the company's future plans. He said, "I believe Charlie's official title now is like director of Subnautica brand development, since he's pursuing the film production right now."

Naturally, this bombshell led to questions from the game's community, with one member asking, "There's a Subnautica film?!" To which Gallegos responded, "Not yet, but maybe someday."

Following further investigation, it turns out that Unknown Worlds is really serious about expanding the Subnautica IP. According to the company founder and franchise creative director's LinkedIn profile, Cleveland is "Exploring TV and film opportunities for Subnautica and our other game worlds. Making creative decisions to decide what the film and/or series will contain, keeping their themes, stories, characters, and world aligned with the games and ensuring that the franchise is expanded in ways our fans will love."

Evidently, Unknown Worlds is not only looking to capitalize on Subnautica's popularity but also seems committed to ensuring that any spin-off, whether TV or movie, is perfectly integrated with the games.

It's unclear how much of a priority a Subnautica adaptation is for Unknown Worlds right now, though, with the game's sequel set for an early access launch later this year. While the title is surrounded by excitement, the development team is having to stave off issues, telling players that "asking for 30 hours of story content is extreme" and that "the point of Subnautica is not to kill everything".

Teeming with potential, Subnautica would be far from the first video game to jump into the world of TV or movies. Over the last few years, we've had successful adaptations of both The Last of Us and Fallout for TV, and the likes of Uncharted, Minecraft, and Super Mario on the silver screen. It certainly seems the tide is turning on adaptations that used to make a mockery of the medium.