We’ve learned that Iron Lung, Markiplier’s film adaptation of a horror video game, will finally get a digital release before the end of May. Fittingly, it will be a YouTube exclusive.
Deadline reports that Mark Fischbach, best known by his online pseudonym Markiplier, revealed during a Cannes Film Festival panel that the digital release on YouTube will happen on May 31. As for why it’s a YouTube exclusive, Fischbach said he’s “pretty loyal” to the platform.
While Markiplier’s videos are typically free to watch, this will be a paid release on YouTube’s Movies & TV storefront. Its price has not been revealed yet, but new movies typically cost between $19.99 and $29.99 around the time of their digital release. Iron Lung will also get a physical release, but no further details have been shared since it was first teased in February.
Iron Lung is based on a short horror game launched by Dusk developer David Szymanski in 2022. In it, players control a convict piloting a submarine stuck in an ocean of blood on an alien moon as increasingly unsettling events occur. The movie is very faithful to that premise, with Markiplier himself playing the main character, Simon. He also directed, wrote, and self-funded Iron Lung.
It became a surprise box office hit after its theatrical release on January 30, ultimately grossing over $50 million on a budget of around $3 to $4 million. Movies made by YouTubers have a mixed track record, but Iron Lung received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. Polygon previously praised Iron Lung as frighteningly “claustrophobic” and “immersive” and argued that the rest of the film industry should take note of its subversive box-office success.
If you missed Iron Lung in theaters, you’ll finally have a chance to watch it when it arrives on YouTube on May 31. Markiplier isn’t done making movies yet, either, teasing at Cannes that he will start “working on something” in 2027.
