Iron Lung received a notable surge in popularity in June 2023 following the disappearance and implosion of the Titan submersible with five people on-board. Some have compared certain aspects of the game to the circumstances of those on-board the Titan, namely the inability to open the submersible from the inside. The game's creator, David Szymanski, expressed discomfort over this through a series of tweets, the first of which included a weekly sales chart from Steam with the words "This feels so wrong." He then remarked:

On February 16, 2023, the game's creator David Szymanski jokingly announced on Twitter that a film based on Iron Lung was in development, starring YouTubers Markiplier (real name Mark Fischbach) as "John Iron Lung" and Jacksepticeye (Seán McLoughlin) as "The Fish", with a soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult. On March 8, Fischbach revealed that he would be directing, writing, and acting in a film, but did not specify what it was. On April 21, it was revealed to be film adaptation of Iron Lung, with Hulshult doing the film's music. Finally, on May 7, McLoughlin revealed on Twitter that he would appear in the film as well, bringing the original joke tweet full circle.