Dragami Games confirmed at Tokyo Game Show 2026 that Lollipop Chainsaw is heading to the screen as a live-action feature, describing it as an R-rated action comedy set before the events of the cult 2012 zombie slasher game.
The film reportedly follows Juliet Starling, the chainsaw-wielding cheerleader from a family of professional zombie hunters, during her stretch at San Romero High School, in the years before the outbreak that made her a horror icon. No director, screenwriter or cast has been named, and Dragami has not set a release window.
Behind the announcement is a notably international producing group: Joe Teng of Nada Holdings, Robert Franke of Orange Chariot (formerly drama chief at ZDF Studios), Takafumi Yuki of Throne Inc, Kirk Shaw of Ambitious Entertainment and Patricio Rabuffetti of Non Stop TV. Franke offered the only public comment so far, saying the goal is “a film that entertains audiences everywhere, whether they’ve played the game or not.”
The original Lollipop Chainsaw came from director Suda51 (Goichi Suda) and developer Grasshopper Manufacture, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, with a screenplay co-written by James Gunn years before he became a superhero franchise fixture. It paired candy coloured high school satire with cartoonish gore and never sold especially well, but it built a stubborn cult following that has spent over a decade wondering if a movie would happen. Whether Gunn or Suda51 have any hand in this version is unclear; neither was attached to the 2022 remake of the game either.
The announcement lands alongside word of Lollipop Chainsaw 2: Back2Back, a sequel game due on PlayStation 5 in 2027, and an animated series in development, suggesting Dragami is aiming for a full franchise relaunch rather than a single cash-in. As with most projects still this far from a soundstage, how much of this survives to an actual release date is anyone’s guess.
