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Video games have become the Hollywood gold rush du jour, with Mortal Kombat 2 and Street Fighter still to come this year, after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie already bounced through the box office. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is up for a silver screen version too, but voice actor Ben Starr believes the medium is more than capable of standing on its own, without validation from TV or film producers.
He spoke about the subject to Dexerto at this year's BAFTA Games Awards. "I don't think video games need adaptations to justify them," Starr begins. "I think it's exciting, I think it's a testament to the power of video games that we're having so many people want to go to the well of games."
He mentions how powerful game franchises have become to production companies. "We've got so many strong IPs, you're already seeing God of War, we're seeing Assassin's Creed," he states. "Good luck to them. I don't think we need them. I think TV needs us, I think film needs us."
Expedition 33's Ben Starr says that video games don't need live action adaptations pic.twitter.com/9dZQRelKSuApril 26, 2026
He then clarifies it's not us vs them, because he and his fellow voice actors will work in other mediums too, but the point stands. The God of War show from Amazon and Netflix's new Assassin's Creed adaptation wouldn't be happening unless there was some perceived value in their fanbases. They and many like them are overflowing with ideas that other creative teams could explore to everyone's benefit.
"It's nice because it allows games to expand beyond the remit of gamers," Starr muses. "We saw that happen with The Last of Us, it was amazing, we're seeing that with Fallout, people revisiting Fallout 4, and it's nice to get more people into those."
That's what's worth celebrating, he believes, over video games crossing some imaginary threshold of legitimacy. "If it means that more people can play video games, the better," he adds. "But I don't think video games need to justify their existence by being TV shows. They are great because they are games."
