Henry Cavill's Warhammer project is going ahead with Amazon

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**beast_gts**

From his FB:

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!

#Warhammer
@PrimeVideo
@AmazonMGMStudios
@WarhammerOfficial

Spoiler:

And GW's official statement - Major update on Amazon Studios Warhammer stories:

It’s official - Games Workshop and Amazon Studios have finalised their deal - the creative guidelines are nailed down, and we’re all set to bring Warhammer to the screen. For those of you so inclined, you can read the super jazzy legal announcement here.

But what does that actually mean?

Well, it means we now have synopsis and ordering for the stories we’re going to tell... yep, we said stories! It might have taken a year but it was a year well spent! And what fun - sifting through the enormity of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, debating characters, story arcs and the thematic grit that underpins it all.

So, what’s next? When will the first project hit screens?

It'll be some years. Project One* is about to go into development proper. So, next up is the script/s that will form the basis of everything else to come.

Of course, as with all carefully crafted things, this all takes time... and trust us when we say, everyone involved is las-focused on getting it all just right.

As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know!

In the meantime, don’t forget the Warhammer 40,000 episode of Secret Level is available to watch over on Amazon Prime Video from the 10th December.

* This secret is guarded as tightly as the Golden Throne itself... feel free to speculate along with us on social.

**RexHavoc**

Really, just another nothingburger update that's just going give 'big' youtubers another 3 months of non stop click bait rubbish content, and even lower tier copycat youtubers another 6 months of clickbait.

This might as well just say: 'It's still might be going ahead- unless something changes between now and completion of filming'.

What happened to the Eisenhorn show that was announced on Warhammer community? Is that still going ahead as announced?

Really, until there is a trailer and a release date its not worth the updates other than to keep people vaguely interested to show the amazon suits there is an interest with stats from all the clickbait rubbish we are going to get spam posted on forums for another 6 months.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Not a nothing burger at all.

The last we heard from proper channels? The parties had until December (so, now) to agree everything, or the deal (at least as it stood, I can’t imagine there wouldn’t be some mutually agreeable extension clause) would be off.

This is the confirmation it’s all been hammered out

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and Secret Level is out today. Coincidence? I think not.

**xttz**

Yeah the project has passed another milestone, and probably the one that was most likely to cause it to fail.

From this point the main concern is going to be the quality of what is produced, rather than if they produce it.

**schoon**

I'd say this is great news. Getting all the contacts settled is a big deal.

Does it mean we'll see anything in the next year or two? No. Production timelines are long and they clearly haven't started yet.

**MJRyder**

This is big news. As others have said, there was a danger of the whole thing collapsing if Amazon and GW couldn't reach agreement by December. Thanks for sharing.

**Pacific**

Excellent news! Thanks for sharing.

Has there been any news on who will be involved with script writing and the show running? As that will give us an idea of what to expect.

I had read that some of the people from the later seasons of the Expanse were going to be involved - have absolutely no way to verify but would be great news if true, as that series was extremely well made.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

I'll agree too, major news that GW and Amazon have managed to agree,

i think there was a real chance that one or other of them might have walked away because they didn't get enough control so a mutually agreeable solution is big news

but we are probably 2-3 years away from seeing anything

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

I do wonder if it’s slightly further ahead than we might think. Part of the hashing things out likely involved at least some storyboarding and that, and draft scripts.

Nothing close to “and now we move straight to production”, but not a standing start either?

**Flinty**

Contract being properly signed seems to be an important milestone to me. Great news

**Overread**

Yeah this is solid good news on the production front! These things take time and this is a little like the Old World announcements in that we are getting this info much earlier than we normally would have for most shows unless you were a die-hard fan really hunting for the info from every scrap of paper.

So yeah there's still a long road to go ahead, but this is a very significant milestone in the process.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

And if anyone is nervous about 40K being toned down?

I’d recommend watching the Secret Level episode.

**Scottywan82**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And if anyone is nervous about 40K being toned down?

I’d recommend watching the Secret Level episode.

Seriously. I was shocked how far it went. In a good way! But a surprised one.

**Lathe Biosas**

Anyone else notice the bit about different projects?

I wonder what they are going to be.

**warboss**

Glad to hear it! I hope they don't mess up the grimdark with modern audience bs.

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Scottywan82 wrote:
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And if anyone is nervous about 40K being toned down?

I’d recommend watching the Secret Level episode.

Seriously. I was shocked how far it went. In a good way! But a surprised one.

I'll have to check that out. I heard they were releasing it episodically and wasn't sure when the 40k episode would come out so figured I'd wait until the end.

**Pacific**

As much as I liked the Secret Level episode (incredibly stylish and the animation was top notch) it felt like just a very good intro section of the Space Marine game.

I know Eisenhorn has been mentioned as one possibility, think it would be a great intro the 40k universe without it just being marines firing boltguns and stylishly walking away from explosions.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

To introduce The Imperium, I think I’d start super zoomed in. Perhaps a Hive Ganger or similar. From there, progress things when say, an Inquisitor turns up, takes them on as an Acolyte (perhaps after taking down a rogue psyker), and introduce them, and the audience, to just how much worse it gets.

**Overread**

As a live action production Eisenhorn or another Inquisition based series has the bonus that they don't have to build multiple space marine suits and such. As its the first production and its not Lord of the Ring getting millions upon millions to spend; I'd fully expect them to go for something that can be grown from.

Inquisition they can keep everyone a human in the setting for a huge saving right on the start - with perhaps an Eldar kicking around here and there if they want a xenos

**StudentOfEtherium**

i think a straight adaptation of any existing stories would be doomed to folly, at least as their first major outing. too many expectations in a straight adaptation, too many people with their own idea of what the text should be. easier to do something original in the setting. we're probably going to get a fully new cast in some previously undefined corner of the galaxy

inquisitors would be pretty easy for that, tho, i agree

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

An Inqusitorial acolyte is also an efficient way to do a Hero’s Journey, only a darker one as we see them sacrifice ever more of their humanity to Get The Job Done, and eventually become The Inquisitor.

From there, go the Eisenhorn/Ravenor route of puritan or radical.

**Lathe Biosas**

They could always start with some poor shlub being "recruited" into the Guard, and seeing some horrific warzones before being elevated by a patron...

**Overread**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
They could always start with some poor shlub being "recruited" into the Guard, and seeing some horrific warzones before being elevated by a patron...

I just can't see them doing full warzones for liveaction at this stage.
There's way too much work to create actual live-action sets for that and if you go full CGI you end up with live-action a bit like the Warcraft film where its super easy for it to feel disjointed because everything is CGI barring human faces on one or two people.

**Gallahad**

Whatever they do I just hope they don't do the thousandth "The guys intolerant of literal space demons are the real bad guys" style story.

"Why can't you just live and let live with guys who look a little different than you and literally want to peel the flesh from your bones???"

**Lathe Biosas**

Overread wrote:
Lathe Biosas wrote:
They could always start with some poor shlub being "recruited" into the Guard, and seeing some horrific warzones before being elevated by a patron...

I just can't see them doing full warzones for liveaction at this stage.
There's way too much work to create actual live-action sets for that and if you go full CGI you end up with live-action a bit like the Warcraft film where its super easy for it to feel disjointed because everything is CGI barring human faces on one or two people.

You could do the warzone feel like they did for the movie Solo, where a lot of the battle is hidden in the fog of war, and and very chaotic.

Heck, HALO, did a decent job of what combat could look like in 40k.

**Lord Damocles**

We'll have to wait and see. Neither GW or Cavill have great track records with regards to the quality of the writing in their projects, unfortunately.

**StudentOfEtherium**

Gallahad wrote:
Whatever they do I just hope they don't do the thousandth "The guys intolerant of literal space demons are the real bad guys" style story.

"Why can't you just live and let live with guys who look a little different than you and literally want to peel the flesh from your bones???"

i mean, inquisitors and space marines have been the bad guys from the start. both are responsible for killing millions upon millions of innocent civilians. you're not supposed to think they're the good guys! 40k has always been about how humans are the real monsters

**Flinty**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
They could always start with some poor shlub being "recruited" into a genestealer cult and seeing some horrific warzones before being elevated by a patron...

Fixed it for you

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Guard doesn’t have to be massed battles. I mean even if they literally stole word for word scripts from Space Above and Beyond I would watch it. They would have to move away from the fighter pilot part, but the rest would work.

Even Firefly managed to get the flavour of large battles across with minimal use of actors.

Sometimes it’s just you and your squad, in a dark hole filled with things that want to eat your face off. Can’t be that hard to build suspense.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

There’s a number of ways to view the Imperium. For me?

It does fight the good fight, and given the sheer number of hostile species out there, its existence as an organised front is necessary. Because unlike real world Awfuls? The threats it claims do exist, and many of them absolutely do want to kill you.

But it needs to be tempered by just how hideous life is for the average Imperial Citizen, because it’s all on a constant war footing, and has been since its founding, and the reason for the fighting (make it all safe and secure for humanity) has been lost entirely, and it now simply survives so it can fight tomorrow.

And in 10,000 years, everything got progressively worse in terms of threads and the life of its citizenry.

**Flinty**

If they want an easy and relatable win they could just film Double Eagle. It’s a WW2 blitz parable wrapped with laser guns. It doesn’t go too extreme with the body horror, and the mass battles are all aerial that they could probably animate in War Thunder and get a decent result.

**LunarSol**

The most sensible thing to go for is a pretty grounded Inquisitor encounters signs of and slowly uncovers a Chaos conspiracy. Mostly set in human worlds involving human characters that are managed mostly with makeup. Spend a lot of money on a final psychic battle with daemon possessing the villain where you get to see it as a monster.

I don't think we'll see any Xenos elements initially. Maybe something like introduce the Inquisitor walking through a battlefield where there's some downed Necrons or something, but I doubt we'll see anything Tyranid or Ork or anything for a while. At best maybe a rogue Aeldari agent or something like that.