You might remember a certain cheerleader with a chainsaw for her weapon and an obsession with baseball bats. Lollipop Chainsaw — the cult classic hack-and-slash zombie game from Grasshopper Manufacture — just got something nobody saw coming: a live-action Hollywood film.
The announcement dropped on Saturday at Tokyo Game Show 2026 during the livestreamed “Lollipop Chainsaw New Project” presentation. If you blinked, you missed history. The franchise that originally launched on PlayStation 3 in 2012 with Juliet Starling at the helm is finally getting its big-screen moment.
Who Is Making This Movie?
This is not some indie team with a dream. Ambitious Entertainment producer Kirk Shaw — best known as associate producer on The Hurt Locker — is on board as producer alongside Robert Franke, former vice president of drama at ZDF Studios (Concordia, Benidorm Is Murder). They have explicitly stated their intent to make a genuine “Hollywood” film designed for a worldwide audience, not some niche anime adaptation.
Ambitious Entertainment is the production company behind some major theatrical releases, and having Shaw attached signals serious ambition for this project. This is not a cheap cash grab — at least, that is what they want us to believe.
Why Should You Care About Juliet Starling?
If Lollipop Chainsaw sounds unfamiliar, here is your quick origin story. The original game was created by legendary game designer Masahiro Yuki — his real name — who wrote every word of its delightfully unhinged screenplay. Character designer Nekoshowgun gave Juliet Starling her iconic look: the cheerleader outfit, the pink hair, and yes, the giant electrocute-chainsaw she uses to dispatch waves of undead zombies.
The game launched in June 2012 for the PlayStation 3 in North America and Japan, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Kadokawa Games. It became a cult favourite almost immediately thanks to its over-the-top action sequences, dark comedy tone, and soundtrack featuring Tetsuya Shibata that mixed pop covers with rock arrangements. Despite receiving mixed critical reviews for its gameplay mechanics, the game was praised for its unique art direction and humour — and it sold enough copies to stay relevant long after release.
There Is Also a New Game Coming
Here is where things get even more interesting. At the same TGS 2026 event, Taiwan-based Nada Holdings and developer Dragami Games announced Lollipop Chainsaw 2 Back2Back — a completely new sequel game launching for PlayStation 5 in 2027. The project is being directed by Hajime Tabata, the Final Fantasy XV director behind his own studio JP Universe.
Masahiro Yuki is writing the story for the new game, and Nekoshowgun is back as character designer too. Nada Holdings had previously noted in July 2025 that the new game will not impose excessive creative restrictions — which, depending on your perspective, either sounds refreshing or terrifying.
The original Lollipop Chainsaw received a remaster called Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP which launched digitally in September 2024 across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC via Steam. The Switch 2 version followed on May 28, 2026, proving there is still genuine demand for this bizarre zombie cheerleader experience.
What Comes Next?
Nada Holdings originally announced in July 2025 that their partnership with Dragami Games would produce both a new game and an anime adaptation. The live-action film announcement today is clearly part of a broader franchise revival strategy that spans multiple media formats simultaneously.
No casting details have been revealed yet. No director has been named for the film. No release window beyond “it is happening” has been confirmed. But the mere fact that a film of this nature exists now, produced by a real Hollywood-level production team, represents one of the most unexpected franchise resurrections we have seen in recent gaming and entertainment news.
Lollipop Chainsaw fans — both the hardcore veterans who remember playing through Juliet’s story in 2012 and the newcomers who discovered the game through RePOP — now have two reasons to be excited. A new game. A live-action movie. Both from people who actually understand why this franchise works.
Watch this space. The Zombie Cheerleader Revolution is coming.
What Do You Think?
Should Juliet Starling finally get her Hollywood moment? Who would you cast as Juliet in a live-action film? And are you more excited about the new game or the movie first? Drop your thoughts in the comments below — let’s talk!
