Activision seems confident that they're going to be able to turn Call of Duty into a successful movie franchise, as they're already working on a sequel to the upcoming movie adaptation of their popular video game series. Sequels are pretty commonplace in Hollywood these days. That's not at all strange. What is a bit strange is that the first movie hasn't even entered production yet, nor have they announced any cast members for the first installment. Yet, the studio has commissioned a script for Call of Duty 2.

According to a new report, Joe Robert Cole, the writer behind Marvel's Black Panther, has been hired by Activision Blizzard Studios to pen a Call of Duty sequel. Word is the studio wants a script ready to go for a follow-up as soon as the first movie enters production. This is highly unusual for what seems like it's going to be a massive production, given the nature of the game series, which have always centered on war, be it of the past or the future.

Joe Robert Cole is at least in part responsible for one of the biggest superhero movies ever, as Black Panther made $1.3 billion at the global box office and could be the first comic book movie to ever score a Best Picture nomination. So it's not as though they've tapped some scrappy up-and-comer for this project. This is an in-demand writer. As for the first Call of Duty movie, Stefano Sollima (Sicario 2) has been attached to direct. Writer Kiernan Fitzgerald recently indicated that they're shooting for an early 2019 shoot.

Another element well-worth mentioning is that video game movies, up to this point, have been a tricky thing for Hollywood to crack. Few ever become huge hits and virtually none ever do very well with critics. But as far as video game franchises go, it doesn't get much bigger than Call of Duty, so if anything has a shot at breaking the curse and becoming a big franchise, this may be it. Still, this feels like a bullish move. Especially considering that the gaming company, who launched their own movie and TV studio to develop these projects, hasn't partnered with a major studio yet for distribution. It just feels like there are a lot of pieces of this puzzle that haven't yet fallen into place for one movie, let alone a sequel to that movie.

The Call of Duty games have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide, meaning that there is a potentially massive audience to tap into for these movies. At the present time, there is no indication on who could wind up in the director's chair for the sequel, should it actually move forward. But Joe Robert Cole did just direct All Day and a Night for Netflix, so maybe he could take a crack at it if all goes well? Just a thought. Neither of the movies have release dates set at this time. We'll be sure to keep you posted as more details on the projects are made available. This news was first reported by Variety.