Volunteer Team Debuts Hour-Long Helldivers 2 Fan Film

The Helldivers 2 community marks a milestone today with the release of For Liberty, a fan-made animated film produced by the YouTube group Plot Coalition. The project, created without formal involvement from Sony or Arrowhead, has drawn unusual anticipation for a volunteer effort. Its final runtime approaches an hour, making it the longest Helldivers-focused production to date.

The film adopts the visual tone and irreverent energy of Helldivers 2, the cooperative shooter that remains one of the year’s most active live-service titles. Plot Coalition’s team animated the story in the game’s distinctive aesthetic, centering on a squad of Super Earth soldiers navigating the threats that define the series. The cast includes six voice actors, several of whom previously appeared in other Plot Coalition projects.

Momentum built throughout the fall as the film’s trailers circulated widely. The most recent preview passed roughly 300,000 views in a little over a month, signaling an audience far beyond the core subscriber base of the creators’ channel. Community posts on social platforms and Discord servers amplified the attention, driven by curiosity about how far a fan team could stretch the game’s tone and world-building.

Actor Kevin Lauer, who voices the Veteran, spoke this week about joining the project. He had not followed the series closely until the film’s early production stages and described how playing Helldivers 2 helped him understand the material.

“I didn't play Helldivers until it launched on Xbox earlier this year, so at first I was guided by the director,” Lauer stated.

“Then when I played the game I was like: ‘oh, that makes sense, I understand that reference now!’

“I would say it is pretty accurate. It's not as humorous as some people think. There are three trailers: one's very liberty, democratic. Another is quite solemn and dark, and the last trailer is in the middle ground. It does have that humour, and there are a lot of things in there I think a lot of fans will recognise. This is made by fans of Helldivers, and I think that will definitely show through.” — Kevin Lauer

His character reflects the community’s running mythology around the archetypal Helldiver, a figure often portrayed by players as the ideal frontline soldier. Lauer noted that reception to the trailers and behind-the-scenes material has been unusually positive for a YouTube project of this scale, with comment sections leaning heavily toward encouragement and curiosity rather than criticism.

Lauer said that Arrowhead reached out after early trailers gained traction and plans to hold an internal watch party for the premiere.

“After the first trailer in February or March, they reached out and they thought it was really cool. I heard there's going to be a watch party for it at Arrowhead, and I think it's really cool that the developers are so engaged with the community.” — Kevin Lauer

Fan production around the game has accelerated throughout the year. While For Liberty stands out for its duration and polish, many smaller animation and machinima projects have circulated as Helldivers 2 continues to roll out updates and new fronts in its ongoing Galactic War. The game’s structure encourages emergent storytelling, and players routinely turn in-game moments into short clips, comics, and miniature narratives.

Lauer attributes that output to the tone of the game and the attitude of its player base.

“One thing I've learned as a new fan is everyone is in on the joke, everyone is ‘brainwashed’,” he said. “If one of my friends in-game is like, that's a dumb thing, I'll shoot him in the head because it's like, don't question democracy. Don't do that, and they'll do it to me! I think it's just a fun simple game, personally I feel there's a need for cooperative games, and it just works. It's nice, it's crazy, and you can just be ridiculous! It's goofy, and it plays well.” — Kevin Lauer

Helldivers 2 remains a fixture of the live-service landscape with consistent balance updates, rotating campaigns, and seasonal enemy pushes. The steady cadence has kept players active long after launch, giving fan creators ample material to draw from and helping large-scale projects like For Liberty find an audience.

Read also, Helldivers 2 cross-progression remains off the table as Arrowhead confirmed the feature is not planned.