Summary
With the news about the new upcomingElden Ringmovie starting work, fans are wondering whether this will be the time when they get to see their favourite FromSoftware characters on the big screen for the first time, and speculation is rampant for who that could be.
For a game defined by a difficult and unforgiving world, the characters are its beating heart and souls, so the stakes are pretty high for getting it right. This list is ranked by how great each character would be in a film and how essential they would be to authentically tell the version ofElden Ring’s story found in the game.
8D, Hunter Of The Dead
The Slayer Of The Dead
Of the many early game characters players meet in the game, D is surely one of the most interesting, both in terms of story and visual design. The split twin of one whole, D is a hunter of Those Who Live In Death, undead who return to life without going through the Erdtree, making folks like D pretty mad about it.
D is a stoic and decent man, but his story is one of the most emotionally impactful as he comes to terms with whether his hunt of the dead is actually a kind of close-minded prejudice, making hima compelling counterpoint to Lautrec inDark Souls, one that culminates at the horrific source of all deathroot in The Lands Between.
7Patches
The Forever Trickster
While Patches isn’t critical to the overall story ofElden Ring, he is essential as a trademark of FromSoftware,appearing in almost all of their modern gamesas a squatting trickster who is delightfully devious in everything he does.
Patches, despite being a near-constant hindrance, are a reminder of the play inherent to the game and an ongoing relationship between developer and player. In the film, Patches’s inclusion would be a signal to the fans that that relationship remains, and it’ll undoubtedly lead to some delightful skulduggery.
6Miriel
The Turtle Pope
It’s the turtle pope, andfans love him. What else is there to say? Well, quite a lot in truth. Despite Miriel being literally a giant turtle wearing a pope hat, he is one of the most important characters in the entirety ofElden Ringin terms of getting tangible, firm lore, which is far from a given in a FromSoftware game.
Miriel is the primary source in the game for learning about the war between Leyndell and Raya Lucaria, as well as the marriage between Radagon and Rennala. Firm details about Radagon are incredibly important for the lore ofElden Ring, so Miriel is a delightfully strange source for learning about what truly happened in the history of The Lands Between. And who doesn’t want to see a turtle pope on screen?
5Vyke
The Frenzied Lordship Candidate
Of all the voiceless characters inElden Ringwho fade into the background of the complex lore, Vyke is easily the most tragic and compelling, so much so that it’s easy to imagine a version ofElden Ringadapting his storyas a cautionary tale that would appeal to the game’s core fans.
In lore, Vyke was a tarnished who came closest to being Elden Lord, but he refused to sacrifice his finger maiden to the kiln, burning her to a crisp to ascend. Instead, he sought the power of the Frenzied Flame as an alternative and suffered grievously for his heresy, condemned to a hellish prison purgatory forever. It’s a tragic story of love and demise that’s one of the best in the game.
4Melina
The Finger-Maiden
It’s frankly hard to imagine an adaptation ofElden Ringwithout the presence of Melina, the faithful finger maiden who accompanies the player throughout most of the game, providing level-ups, wisdom, cautionary words, and even the words of Marika herself at select sites of grace.
Yet, while Melina seems helpful on the surface, lore-heads know that she is actually a figure of far greater importance, perhaps being not just a daughter of Marika herself, but the fabled Gloam-Eyed Queen, implicating her in the plot of the Shattering. These lingering questions about Melina remain unanswered, so maybe a film can do what the game cannot.
3Gideon
The All-Knowing
In Roundtable Hold, the headquarters of the Tarnished, a warrior class who are uniquely able to ascend to the position of Elden Lord, all fall under the guidance and tutelage of Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing, a sage knight dominated by a motif of ears who seems to hoard knowledge like a pigeon.
While Gideon seems an ally on the surface, it becomes clear throughout the game that he’s actually spying on the player and knows far more than he lets on. His network of spies results in him standing in the player’s way to ascend to Elden Lord, showing his platitudes of comradeship were all a front for his ascent to power, making him a subtle but delightfully complex villain.
2Ranni
Herald of the Stars
Of all the characters inElden Ring, Ranni is undoubtedly a fan favorite and the breakout star. Ranni is one of the many children of Marika (it’s complicated), but unlike her other kids, who went to war with each other post-Shattering, Ranni sought not to reforge the Elden Ring as it was, but to forge a new path in the path of her mother Rennala, looking to the moon and stars as a guide.
Ranni is one of the few characters who seeks to meaningfully move The Lands Between past the orthodoxy of the Golden Order and towards something new. She’s willing to sacrifice everything to do it, even murdering her own half-brother, making her morally complex, but ideologically compelling potential consort to the future Elden Lord.
1Marika
Mother of Gold
Players never really get to see Marika truly, yet she is easily the most important character in the entire game. She is the God-Queen of the world who defied the Greater Will and shattered the Elden Ring for unknown reasons, causing the Shattering and the hellish landscape of The Lands Between that exists when the player first arrives.
She’s undoubtedly an evil character, but theShadow of the ErdtreeDLC gave her a whole new level of complexity and understanding for why she sought power so much. She’s an incredibly complex, inscrutable, but essential character toElden Ringthat absolutely needs to appear in the film version.
