Duke Nukem (2025 film)

Duke Nukem is a 2025 action/adventure film released by

Plot
[Insert plot here]

Cast
Jon St. John - Duke Nukem

[Insert cast here]

Production
Production for the Duke Nukem movie began Winter 2021. In April 2022, Good Universe, which would oversee the entire production under supervision of 3D Realms, made it very clear that they wanted the plot to stay as loyal to the games as possible.

Casting

Jon St. John was chosen reprise his role as Duke Nukem, who was the first voice for the character in Duke Nukem 3D.

Filming

Filming began in January of 2023 in Las Vegas. Other filming locations included San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto.

Tencent Pictures departure

Halfway through production, in August 2023, Tencent Pictures grew suspicious of Good Universe. In an interview with IGN, an anonymous representative from Tencent bashed Good Universe, accusing them of not crediting their staff in production and overall excluding them from filming. Good Universe, as well as Universal, would later on deny the claim, calling it absolutely ridiculous. IGN also reached out to Annapurna and United Artists about the claim, both companies would stay silent on the matter. Rumors began spreading that Comcast, owners of Universal Pictures, threatened United Artists, claiming that they would be stripped of the International Distribution rights if they spoke on the matter, Comcast would later on deny that claim. Fans weren't too happy about these rumors, many resorted to forming a boycott of not only the movie, but also Comcast itself. This lasted for several months until Tencent had enough, and on December 20th, 2023, Tencent Pictures announced they would be abandoning the project. The next day, Universal announced that production would continue as usual without them. Tencent would later go on to make a Fallout movie with Bethesda and Sony Pictures. That movie would be released the same day as Duke Nukem under the Tristar Pictures banner, with the intent of competing with Duke Nukem at the box office.

Music

In early 2023, Bobby Prince was asked to compose the original score for the Duke Nukem movie.

Release
Distribution Rights

Originally, Lionsgate, owners of Good Universe, was going to distribute Duke Nukem in North America, with Universal Pictures distributing the movie in other territories. However, in October of 2022, after fearing the movie would not do well at the box office, Lionsgate abandoned the project, leaving Universal, Good Universe, and Tencent Pictures. That same month, Universal decided that they will distribute the movie in North America, and find a bidder to distribute the movie in other regions. So in March 2023, Warner Bros, United Artists, Netflix, and Paramount Pictures entered a bidding war for the International rights to the film. For awhile, Netflix was the highest bidder for a long time, it was obvious that they wanted this film on their service. They even tried negotiating with Universal to try to buy out the North American rights from them, but Universal refused. Netflix pushed the hardest. In May 2023, Warner Bros dropped out simply because they knew they couldn't outbid Netflix. Paramount followed suit weeks later, leaving United Artist and Netflix. In the end, in June 2023, United Artists outbid Netflix at the last minute and secured the International distribution rights to the movie in for a total of $3.1 billion. Later that month, United Artists announced that the international version of Duke Nukem will be released under Annapurna Pictures. 6 months later, in December 2023, still wanting a piece of the pie, Netflix made an agreement with Universal to acquire the Japan, Australia, and New Zealand distribution rights from United Artists for an undisclosed amount. Part of the agreement states that the movie cannot be added onto the service during the theatrical run time, nor would they get a theatrical release in these territories, meaning these 3 countries would not get Duke Nukem until January 2026.

Release

The Duke Nukem movie was released worldwide on October 31st, 2025 except in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand due to the agreement between Netflix and Universal

Sequel
In November 2026, Good Universe approached both Universal and United Artists about making a sequel to Duke Nukem. Both companies declined the sequel. Still wanting to make the sequel, Good Universe would pitch the idea to other companies. In March 2027, Netflix picked up the distribution rights to the sequel. And in June 2027, Netflix announced that the Duke Nukem sequel, titled "Duke Nukem: THE BADAS* SEQUEL". The movie would be released on Netflix in August 2029.