Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40K Show Is Happening

Long rumoured, the Henry Cavill fronted Warhammer 40K TV show is apparently officially a go at Amazon.

Amazon acquired the rights 2 years ago to produce a TV show based on Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 game. Deadline is reporting, and Cavill himself confirming, that the series is now officially in production.

WH40K is the most popular miniature wargame in the world. Originally published in 1987, it is on its 10th edition. Set in the far future, it mixes fantasy tropes with sci-fi in a grim, dark universe. It has spawned multiple tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and more, the current lineup being publishing by Cubicle 7.

According to the deal made 2 yeasr ago, Amazon had until December 2024 to mutually agree on “creative guidelines for the films and television series to be developed by Amazon”. There is no showrunner yet. The show will also be produced by Vertigo Entertainment.

To celebrate some Warhammer news, I decided to make a pilgrimage to the very first place I bought Warhammer models over 30 years ago....the Little Shop, on my home island of Jersey!

My incredible team and I, alongside the brilliant minds at Games Workshop, have been working away in concept rooms, breaking down approaches to the enormity and magnificence of the Warhammer world. Together, we've been sifting through the plethora of incredible characters and poring over old tomes and texts. Our combined efforts have led us to a fantastic place to start our Universe, which has been agreed upon by those up on high at both Amazon and Games Workshop. That starting place shall, for now, remain a secret. Watch this space, though—more to come in time!

- Henry Cavill​

 

[MGibster]

What books are you reading?

I've read exactly one 40k book, one of the Gaunt's Ghost books by Dan Abnett, who is supposed to be one of the better writers, and while it wasn't the worst book I've ever read, it didn't inspire me to read more. i.e. I've got better things to do with my time. It isn't that the books aren't grim darkity dark, dark enough, it's that there's a disconnect between a lot of the 40k setting lore and how Space Marines and even Sisters of Battle are presented as heroic paragons of virtue to make sure parents are comfortable with their adolescent boys spending their allowances on 40k.

 

[Scribe]

I've read exactly one 40k book, one of the Gaunt's Ghost books by Dan Abnett, who is supposed to be one of the better writers, and while it wasn't the worst book I've ever read, it didn't inspire me to read more. i.e. I've got better things to do with my time. It isn't that the books aren't grim darkity dark, dark enough, it's that there's a disconnect between a lot of the 40k setting lore and how Space Marines and even Sisters of Battle are presented as heroic paragons of virtue to make sure parents are comfortable with their adolescent boys spending their allowances on 40k.

 

[Gradine]

I thought we were done talking about D&D movies...

 

[payn]

I thought we were done talking about D&D movies...

 

[Scribe]

I thought we were done talking about D&D movies...

I didnt watch it. Looked fine enough for a take on D&D.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I really really really dont care to see 40K shift.

It's very funny that you're saying this to someone who has seen 40K "shift" several times, including into being actual Nazi-bait, which it was in the 4th through 6th era. Which was frankly a far worse shift than anything you're probably forseeing.

It's like complaining to a completely bald guy that your hairline is receding very slightly and saying being bald is totally horrific and you never want it to happen to you. Like, yeah, okay, thanks mate.

Also, assuming you started sometime in the 3rd to 7th era, you've seen it shift already - from the more humourless, narrower, and frankly more badly-written 3rd to 7th era, to the 8th onwards era, where humour was gradually reintroduced and the game got broader and more hopeful (hope was absolutely a thing in 2E, note, it was only the ill-advised decision to go "full grimdark" ("never go full grimdark") that took it away.

I couldn't hear you over the sounds of all the battle noises I'm making while having my Imperial Knights crush those darned, dirty Orks. This is obviously a very series game for very serious adults.

That's what blew my mind. I'd been playing 40K for a decade by 1998, and doing ork/grot voices, making shuriken catapult noises, and so on the whole time - because who didn't? I loved the Squats because they were cool and fun, and I loved just how chaotic 2E was, and how insane the Imperium was and so on.

Then 3E comes along and it's like "No we're all going to be serious now! Stop giggling in the back!!!" but like, 100% seriously, zero irony, and it was demented. Especially when they added space undead and BDSM elves as noted. I feel like if GW of that era thought they could have got away with deleting Orks, they'd 100% have done it, because they were inherently too silly for the new image the game wanted.

And what killed me is it wasn't a one-off - they kept that tone up for well over a decade before the façade kind of began to collapse.

But with the fiction side of their business become so important to their bottom line, it's tough to sell those Space Marines as a bunch of jerks when you want to make them look good and heroic to sell those books.

Yeah it's funny to see 40K described as "consistent" when in fact there are so many elements of dissonance like this. Even aesthetically the level of gothic-ness and body-horror and so on varies wildly, and sometimes gets into the fundamentally silly. The reality is as they go truly mass-media it's going to crystalize down what the setting is in the minds a lot of people, including some existing players, and if it's some paean to the bloody awful Space Marines I'm going to be pretty sad.

 

[Gradine]

I didnt watch it. Looked fine enough for a take on D&D.

I mean the first 3-4 are bog-standard street racing crime movies of wildly varying degrees of quality, but eventually they turn into D&D except the magic is cars and the weapons are cars and the dragons are cars

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean the first 3-4 are bog-standard street racing crime movies of wildly varying degrees of quality, but eventually they turn into D&D except the magic is cars and the weapons are cars and the dragons are cars

This is a pretty damn accurate summary of F&F, I must admit. They even clearly level up in the terms of the level of car-magic that they can do.

 

[Scribe]

It's very funny that you're saying this to someone who has seen 40K "shift" several times, including into being actual Nazi-bait, which it was in the 4th through 6th era. Which was frankly a far worse shift than anything you're probably forseeing.

I was there, I dont agree. I've been in the hobby (way too much) since 98.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I was there, I dont agree. I've been in the hobby (way too much) since 98.

If you can't see a tonal difference between 3rd and 10th, then that's on you. It's a fact, and it's something GW themselves have actually alluded to.

Starting with 3rd does explain why you seem to be completely unaware 2nd even existed though!