Tom Blyth, who has a role in Ubisoft’s long in development Watch Dogs movie, says recent reshoots have changed the film and that it “doesn’t feel like they’ve tried to copy and paste the game onto the screen.” The comment comes as production reports indicate filming is essentially finished, though no release date has been announced.
The Watch Dogs movie was first announced in 2013 and took years to move forward. Filming was confirmed to be underway last year, and Blyth told Screen Rant that the production recently went back for reshoots. He described the changes as positive, saying the additional work “made it even better.”
On how the film relates to the games, Blyth said, “It’s not the game. It is very different. They’ve done an amazing job of making… I don’t want to spoil too much. I’m trying to pick my words carefully, but they’ve done an amazing job of making the game into a film.” He added, “It doesn’t feel like they’ve tried to copy and paste the game onto the screen. It feels like its own thing, and it feels like the beginning of a world-building exercise.”
Reshoots are common in post-production, so their presence alone does not mean trouble. Still, Blyth’s phrasing suggests the adaptation will lean into original storytelling rather than a scene-for-scene recreation. That could leave fans who want direct callbacks to the games hoping for familiar elements, such as the series’ trademark phone hacking and open-world antics.
The most recent mainline game, Watch Dogs: Legion, was released in 2020, so the movie will arrive in a different cultural moment than when the franchise first launched. The film’s evolution may broaden its audience, or it may distance players who hoped to see a closer translation of the source material.
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