Daniel Vavra, an industry veteran known for the Mafia and Kingdom Come franchises, has announced he is changing roles at his company, Warhorse Studios, and will now focus on helping to make a Kingdom Come film.
Following Czech media reports, Vavra himself confirmed that the news is true. He jokingly added that the “gaming world is finally saved from my controversies.” That is likely a reference to Vavra’s comments in the past about GamerGate and “historical accuracy” in video games with respect to depictions of diversity. More recently, Vavra spoke enthusiastically about generative AI, which led to further controversy.
Warhorse CEO Martin Frývaldský told CzechCrunch that Vavra “made three games that were a global success; he has been wanting to try something different for a long time.”
Vavra’s new role will see him working on “transmedia opportunities” for Warhorse, a spokesperson confirmed to PCGamesN, and this will include a Kingdom Come movie.
“We have been moving the Kingdom Come brand away from video games for some time now,” Frývaldský said. “So far we have been in comics, concerts, and tourism, but the film has attracted us the most. That is why Dan and I are working on getting it onto the screen or the big screen. There is also a draft script.”
The CEO added that the aim is for the Kingdom Come movie to be released “in the next few years.” There is no word yet on a director or cast, but presumably the story would focus on something in the medieval period.
“You won’t see [Vavra] in the office every day anymore, but in a broader sense he is still part of Warhorse,” Frývaldský said.
Warhorse is still making games, of course, and these projects will be led by Warhorse veterans Prokop Jirsa and Viktor Bocan; they are becoming the studio’s new creative directors.
Vavra leaving his post in game development to focus on filmmaking is not a total shock. After all, he said in 2025 that he was very annoyed that making games takes so much time. He said he has “more ideas than I have time,” and that’s part of the reason why he said he was optimistic about the “AI revolution” helping developers to make games “easier and faster.”
Vavra got his start in gaming at Illusion Softworks, where he worked on 1999’s Hidden & Dangerous. He would find more success with 2002’s Mafia, for which he was the writer and director. He then worked on Mafia II as its designer and writer, before splitting off and starting his own studio, Warhorse. The original Kingdom Come came out in 2018, with the sequel released in 2025. The second game was a bigger success than the first, selling more than 5 million copies in a year.
An enhanced version of the original Kingdom Come shadowdropped recently. Warhorse does not have any future games in the works that have been announced. The studio is owned by Embracer.