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​

 

[Ruin Explorer]

There is no 'peacefully co-existing' human empire along side the Imperium

Yes, solely because the Imperium won't allow it. However there have been and still are non-Imperium human civilizations - the Leagues of Votann, for example. However, canonically, the Votann do exist relatively peacefully with the Imperium. There are few and mostly minor canon examples of them actually fighting the Imperium. But others, most of whom I forget, the Imperium has annihilated, or forced to flee, or occasionally "merely" conquered.

Not that I’m defending anything that would show the Imperium as the “good guys” in a fictional show. I’m just pointing out that humans, as a species, do and will continue to do anything to avoid extinction. As will any species.

The issue is that you're misreading the Imperium of Man as representing "humanity" and misunderstanding its behaviour as "avoiding extinction" for humanity rather than itself. Most of what the Imperium of Man does is push the humanity under its control towards extinction, in large part because as a whole, the Imperium places absolutely no value on human life as human life, only in how much it helps the Imperium. It'd be easily true to say the Imperium values humans less than the T'au value humans.

The Imperium is fundamentally decaying, it won't permit change (or "heresy" as it calls it), it won't permit improvement ("heresy") is hopelessly oligarchical (democracy and indeed all non-totalitarian, non-dictatorial government is heresy, because it doesn't ultimately come from the false creed of the "Will of the Emperor"), prone to schisms and civil wars (even without the influence of outsiders), and doesn't seek to better the lives of the people under it, or even to really protect them, but rather just to protect and perpetuate itself at all costs. The Imperium is the organism fighting for its own survival here. Not humanity - humanity is just a species that it's parasitized as it were. If the Imperium could somehow exist without humanity, it absolutely would destroy them.

Further, the Imperium is a theocracy dedicated to the worship of a man who, to his dying breath was like "DO NOT MAKE A RELIGION OUT OF ME!!!" and indeed spent his life destroying human religions/gods (including nice ones) to try and create a rational (in his view) and secular future for humanity. So it's based on the most pernicious of lies.

When people say an organization is "institutionally X" (usually racist, sexist, or w/e) that doesn't preclude individuals within it, even the majority of them, being individually good or even heroic. It means that the way it operates overall is harmful. And that's the Imperium. It's the ultimate institutionally screwed organisation.

As an aside, the relatively recent retcons re: the Space Marines definitely suggest to me that GW wants it to be possible to see Space Marines as "heroic" and "fighting the good fight" (including against the retrograde elements of the Imperium, to some extent), albeit trapped within this decaying system (this is particularly true of the Ultramarines and Salamanders, consistently the two most "good guy" Legions, and less true of say, the Black Templars, who are, unlike other Marines, "true believers").

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Yes, solely because the Imperium won't allow it. However there have been and still are non-Imperium human civilizations - the Leagues of Votann, for example. However, canonically, the Votann do exist relatively peacefully with the Imperium. There are few and mostly minor canon examples of them actually fighting the Imperium. But others, most of whom I forget, the Imperium has annihilated, or forced to flee, or occasionally "merely" conquered.


The issue is that you're misreading the Imperium of Man as representing "humanity" and misunderstanding its behaviour as "avoiding extinction" for humanity rather than itself. Most of what the Imperium of Man does is push the humanity under its control towards extinction, in large part because as a whole, the Imperium places absolutely no value on human life as human life, only in how much it helps the Imperium. It'd be easily true to say the Imperium values humans less than the T'au value humans.

The Imperium is fundamentally decaying, it won't permit change (or "heresy" as it calls it), it won't permit improvement ("heresy") is hopelessly oligarchical (democracy and indeed all non-totalitarian, non-dictatorial government is heresy, because it doesn't ultimately come from the false creed of the "Will of the Emperor"), prone to schisms and civil wars (even without the influence of outsiders), and doesn't seek to better the lives of the people under it, or even to really protect them, but rather just to protect and perpetuate itself at all costs. The Imperium is the organism fighting for its own survival here. Not humanity - humanity is just a species that it's parasitized as it were. If the Imperium could somehow exist without humanity, it absolutely would destroy them.

Further, the Imperium is a theocracy dedicated to the worship of a man who, to his dying breath was like "DO NOT MAKE A RELIGION OUT OF ME!!!" and indeed spent his life destroying human religions/gods (including nice ones) to try and create a rational (in his view) and secular future for humanity. So it's based on the most pernicious of lies.

When people say an organization is "institutionally X" (usually racist, sexist, or w/e) that doesn't preclude individuals within it, even the majority of them, being individually good or even heroic. It means that the way it operates overall is harmful. And that's the Imperium. It's the ultimate institutionally screwed organisation.

As an aside, the relatively recent retcons re: the Space Marines definitely suggest to me that GW wants it to be possible to see Space Marines as "heroic" and "fighting the good fight" (including against the retrograde elements of the Imperium, to some extent), albeit trapped within this decaying system (this is particularly true of the Ultramarines and Salamanders, consistently the two most "good guy" Legions, and less true of say, the Black Templars, who are, unlike other Marines, "true believers").

I’m not misreading the imperium. I was making a comment on someone else’s post regarding the nature of evil and the survival of a real world species. But thanks for the synopsis.

 

[cbaratz]

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.

Yeah, he would definitely need some personal attachment to take on that kind of project but I think his style could work nicely.

 

[Seaweed42]

I hope this means they're not changing the lore

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I hope this means they're not changing the lore

40K's lore continually changes. Literally every time a new piece of 40K media comes out, you can guarantee it contradicts or retcons or differently understands 40K lore. Entire races get added or completely reworked, for goodness sake. This absolutely includes the highest-profile official books, i.e. the 40K Codexes and more important 30K/40K novels. The recent The End and Death Vol. III by Dan Abnett, for example, contains some huge changes to how we understand how the Horus Heresy ended, right down to who did what, who was there, and so on.

So the question is, what lore, specifically, is it that you don't want changed or are worried about being changed? If you can't answer that, then you're being a bit silly.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have a feeling this TV show will be a bit of a Dune knockoff, given the recent successful movies, and the fact that Dune was a big influence on 40K in the first place.

I think it will be darkly cynical, but not comedic.

 

[Scribe]

The recent The End and Death Vol. III by Dan Abnett, for example, contains some huge changes to how we understand how the Horus Heresy ended, right down to who did what, who was there, and so on.

Man, what a pile of word vomit those 3 volumes were.