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​

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

That's a left-field idea but I think he'd do a great job if he has any interest in 40K at all, he definitely would get the religious and cultic aspects, as well as being incredibly good at the horror and characters.

I think it would be cool if they got the writer from Penny Arcade, Jerry Holkins, to help write the series. I'm pretty sure he's ultra steeped in 40k lore, he understands satire and is a good writer.

Edit

Olfactorum - Penny Arcade

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

www.penny-arcade.com

Venerator - Penny Arcade

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

www.penny-arcade.com

 

[soviet]

They're not going to get an outsider to write it. This is going to be either an adaptation of an existing GW novel line or an original work written or outlined by one of their biggest writers.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Answered in my previous post. There is an existential threat.

Being evil is worse than being extinct. There is NO argument that justifies genocide.

 

[MoFoCThat]

Don't know why we're arguing about who is evil or not. In 40k, no one is good, every faction thinks that their group, and only them, are right and 'justified' in the wars. Most of the fiction that doesn't suck can be boiled down as 'we know we're bad, but those guys are worse so let's kill them.' I just want a practical suit for the close up shots man. I don't care if the full army shots are CGI like the clone troopers, I want Cavill in that glorious armor.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Don't know why we're arguing about who is evil or not.

I’m concerned that if the Imperium isn’t clearly presented as evil the show could be a propaganda engine for the far right.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Being evil is worse than being extinct. There is NO argument that justifies genocide.

That's exactly what a heretic would say

 

[TheSword]

Being evil is worse than being extinct. There is NO argument that justifies genocide.

That just isn’t true because you are using that term in a human being vs human conflict. We just haven’t seen real world threats significant enough to justify it yet.

If we take Genestealers for instance - a parasitic DNA that brainwashes people who are infected, corrupts their physical bodies and offspring, ultimately with the aim of creating guerilla terrorist organization to call a life ending plague of organisms to destroy entire planetary systems. In those circumstances genocide probably is justified against Genestealers.

 

[TheSword]

No, there is still right and wrong, there is still 'good' and 'evil' and by any definition the Imperium is the most evil, why?

Because its Humanity, subjecting itself, knowingly, willfully, to the same or worse than any other faction in the setting.

Of course there is right and wrong. Stealing someone’s belongings is wrong. It doesn’t make it evil. Evil is either used in the transcendent religious/mythological way. Else it is used in a hyperbolic way to say something is really really bad. Any neurologist or psychologist will tell you how unhelpful the word evil is.

Why is humanity willingly subjecting itself? Most people don’t have easy choices. The galaxy is caught up in the self generating need to provide for a war that spans the entire galaxy.

What do you think the imperium is? Who is the imperium? Who has the opportunity to change these circumstances? You talk about the imperium like folks in it can chose to do something else without the drastic consequences that would follow.

 

[TheSword]

I’m concerned that if the Imperium isn’t clearly presented as evil the show could be a propaganda engine for the far right.

Why can’t it just be portrayed as bleak, unpleasant, unfair and horrible? Is that not sufficient?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That just isn’t true because you are using that term in a human being vs human conflict

To kill some else in order to save your own life is absolutely an evil act. That’s even more true on a species level.

I can think of at least one current real world situation where “existential threat” is being used as an excuse for genocide.

If you disagree on that, we have very different moral codes and we are never going to agree. I just hope the people making this show don’t agree with you, since it would toxify all 40 years of the WH40K hobby.