James Wan signed on as the film's producer in August 2015.[16] Simon McQuoid was hired as director in November 2016, marking his feature directorial debut, with Greg Russo writing the script.[17][18] Russo tweeted in February 2019 that the film's script was complete.[18] In May 2019, it was announced that the film had entered pre-production and would be shot in South Australia,[19] with a release date of March 5, 2021.[20] Russo tweeted in July 2019 that the film would indeed have an R rating and that the games' Fatalities would "finally be on the big screen".[21]
