Although he is not leaving the studio entirely, Vávra will no longer be involved in game development. Instead, he will be heading up a film project. What do we know about his two successors?
Yesterday, the news sparked reactions as mixed as the person it concerned: Daniel Vávra is no longer Game Director at Czech role-playing game masters Warhorse. Instead, he is turning his attention to a film project that is still shrouded in mystery.
His successor has already been confirmed, and in duplicate. The fact that he is being succeeded by two game directors naturally opens the door to speculation, which we will come to in a moment. Let’s first summarize what we know for sure.
Vávra is out, but not completely
As Warhorse boss Martin Frývaldský said in an interview with CzechCrunch, some restructuring has taken place. The following statement caused the most stir:
Dan has a new job. It’s creating the Kingdom Come movie.
This led to two exciting announcements, because we didn’t know that a film adaptation of the medieval brand was in the works. It could be an adaptation of the game story, in which case a specific canon would have to be chosen – something that is not necessarily popular with role-playing fans. Or it could be a different, complementary story. Internally, this has already been decided, says Frývaldský:
We have been developing the KCD brand away from video games for quite some time. So far, we’ve had comics, concerts, and tourism, but film interests us the most. That’s why Dan and I are working on bringing it to the screen or the big screen. There is already a draft script.
Frývaldský emphasizes that it is important to him to implement the project himself rather than selling the rights. The film is scheduled to be released “within the next few years.”
Vávra himself comments on his departure in classic Vávra style. On TX (formerly Twitter), he writes:
True. Gaming world is finally saved from my controversies! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/CKTJtThcAl
— Daniel Vávra ⚔ (@DanielVavra) February 24, 2026
Link to Twitter content
It’s true. The gaming world is finally saved from my controversies! 🙂
Why is Vávra considered a controversial figure? As a veteran of the gaming industry, he not only held a leading role in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but also worked as lead writer on the legendary Mafia trilogy. He likes to share his views on political issues and, more recently, on the use of generative AI on social media—and regularly attracts criticism from various camps as a result.
While he campaigned for the representation of homosexual people in the Middle Ages after the release of KCD2 (among other things, by bombarding critics at X with corresponding memes), he otherwise often publicly expresses conservative to right-wing political views, supported the GamerGate movement at the time, and does not shy away from publicly criticizing other developers. He expressed positive views on the use of AI in game and film development.
Successor from within the company
Warhorse is now filling the role of Game Director twice over, with Prokop Jirsa and Viktor Bocan. Both are already well known to KCD fans.
Jirsa played a key role in the success of KCD2 as lead designer and appeared in Warhorse’s regular announcement streams, mostly alongside Communications Director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling. He has been with the development studio since 2014.
Bocan was the design director of KCD2 and has been developing video games for over 30 years. He has also been a member of Warhorse since its founding. Among other things, he was responsible for game systems such as combat, role-playing mechanics, and the highly acclaimed open-world structure.
Two game directors = two games? This assumption is obvious, especially since Warhorse has grown significantly; additional positions are currently being advertised. Two creative directors working on the same game at the same time would be unusual, to say the least. It seems much more likely that two titles are being developed in parallel. The only official announcement so far is that the company wants to continue with immersive single-player role-playing games and that these will not necessarily have historical settings again. In addition, development is expected to proceed more quickly this time around.
Little is known about the future of Kingdom Come: Deliverance so far: Several events will take place at game locations throughout 2026, including the fan-organized event in June Rattay Tournament organized by fans in June and a Warhorse event in Maleshov in August.
Warhorse has not yet revealed whether there will be another game in the series. Although the ending of KCD2 theoretically leaves room for a direct sequel, statements from the developers so far suggest that they consider Heinrich’s story to be complete. But no one has ruled out a prequel or spin-off yet! So fans don’t have to bury their hopes just yet – KCD2 was a huge success, also in financial terms. It’s hard to imagine that they won’t build on that.
