Director Peter Berg Once Brutally Criticized ‘Call Of Duty’ Fanbase As “Pathetic” & “Weak” With “Keyboard Courage”

Well, it looks like “Call of Duty” director Peter Berg has really stepped in it after some odd comments have resurfaced, with him taking huge swings at gamers, who happen to enjoy playing military games (like the “COD” fanbase), calling them “weak” and “pathetic.”

An interview at Esquire Magazine from 2013 (spotted by World of Reel), the director of Paramount Skydance‘s “Call of Duty” movie made some extremely scathing critcisms of gamers, specifically of those who play military video games like the one he’s about to adapt and could put the filmmaker on shakey ground with an very passionate group of fans that he’d have to win over (many have YouTube channels with millions of subscribers/viwers).

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“Pathetic. Pathetic. Keyboard courage. Can’t stand it. The only people that I give a ‘Call of Duty’ get-out-of-jail-free card to is the military. They’re out there serving, and they’re bored, and they want to entertain themselves? Okay, maybe. Kids? Uh-uh,” Berg told Esquire while promoting his Navy SEAL flick “Lone Survivor” starring Mark Wahlberg.

When pressed about soldiers also playing those games, Berg responded to that fair point by stating, “Some of them do. But I tell them I think it’s pathetic. I think anyone that sits around playing video games for four hours…It’s weak. Get out, do something.”

Basically, from these comments, it sounds like Berg is upset these gamers aren’t serving in the military and are just lazy. Mind you, Berg has never served himself, but this isn’t the first time he’s said something odd in an interview concerning the military. He once ambushed an Israeli interviewer with a rant about the threat of Iran and questioned their military service during his press tour for “Battleship,” which was beyond distasteful and shocking at the time it went viral.

It’s certainly weird that Berg would jump on board with a “Call of Duty” film, given what sounds like his particular disdain for the people who made the IP successful and his would-be audience. However, he did end up directing a bunch of the “COD” live-action commercials for Activision (See below) with an overload of celebrity cameos (Jonah Hill, Sam Worthington, Danny McBride, Taylor Kitsch, and more), so the sentiment is hard to really understand.

The big difference with games like “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield” (Christopher McQuarrie and Michael B. Jordan turning the main competitor to “COD” into their own movie, which is going to the auction process), there is a HUGE e-Sports community connected to them and a rather large online footprint (some YouTube channels, Twitch streams, and social media accounts covering “COD” content have followers in the millions). Basically, these harsh comments from Berg may bite him in the ass even before the casting process has started, and nudge the studio (which will need the massive audience reach of professional gamers to give them free marketing) to consider other options to avoid predictable headaches with the “Call of Duty” fanbase.

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With “Sicario” screenwriter Taylor Sheridan providing the script, there is a hypothetical possibility that he might just end up directing himself after tackling thrillers like “Wind River” and “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” In the end, we have no clue whether these old comments are really going to harm Berg’s participation or not. Paramount has set the release date of “Call of Duty” for June 30, 2028, and could signal a production start in 2027.