"Almost anything can and has been adapted into a movie: video games, true crime stories, comics, Twitter threads, and memes are all old hat when it comes to source material. Even a doll can inspire a cinematic blockbuster. So what could possibly be left? Well, over the last year, Netflix has been committing to a new strategy. Is this the next adaptation frontier, or did the streamer buy a ticket to doom?"
"Is this the next adaptation frontier, or did the streamer buy a ticket to doom? According to , Netflix has optioned the rights to the board game Ticket to Ride, and is developing a movie written by Ben Mekler and Chris Amick. The hit board game has players take charge of their own railways as they plan routes from city to city on various maps. The movie will presumably be about more than that."
"Ticket to Ride is a global board game sensation, with versions for various geographic regions. Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock This is only the latest of several board game acquisitions by Netflix. In April 2025, Netflix acquired the rights to develop into a game show. And in October 2025, Netflix announced a competition series based on the whodunit game as well as multiple scripted and unscripted projects based on Settlers of Catan."
"It's a big bet on an unproven formula. There aren't many adaptations of board games at all, save for the disastrous 2012 movie Battleship. There are some tangential cases, like Clue's parody movie, Jumanji being centered around a fictional board game, the upcoming turning Hungry Hungry Hippos into a horror movie, or the various movies focused on Ouija boards, which were packaged as board games when first released."
Netflix has optioned the rights to the board game Ticket to Ride and is developing a film written by Ben Mekler and Chris Amick. Ticket to Ride players build railways and plan routes across various regional maps. Netflix has also acquired rights for multiple other board-game properties, including a game show adaptation announced in April 2025 and a competition series plus scripted and unscripted Settlers of Catan projects announced in October 2025. Board-game adaptations have a poor mainstream track record, with Battleship (2012) widely viewed as a failure and classic adaptations rarely achieving commercial success. The move tests an unproven adaptation formula.
Read at Inverse
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