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From Superman to... a Primarch? The Emperor himself?

From THR:

Henry Cavill’s Next Play: ‘Warhammer 40,000’ Series for Amazon
The streaming giant is in the process of closing the rights to the miniature wargame.

Henry Cavill may not be donning a red cape, but he does have a cool new gig.

The actor, who Wednesday officially hung up his Man of Steel cape after Warner Bros. announced it is going in a new Superman direction thanks to DC Studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, is attached to star and executive produce a series adaptation of Warhammer 40,000, the popular science-fiction fantasy miniature wargame that is set up at Amazon.

Amazon is in final talks for the rights to the game, produced by Games Workshop, after months of negotiations and fending off rival companies that also sought the rights.

Bit more at the link above.

In before it's an absolute gak show of a... gak.... show....

He's a huge Custodes fan, so I would look for that to be in play.

Tyranids are right out unless they're cutting Ridley Scott a check, lol.

I want to be hopeful, but Amazon has killed way too many licensed properties, I don't want a teenage rom-com set in the 40k universe where a Tau and Ogryn fall in love. Henry Cavill was part of the attraction for Witcher and it sounded like he tried to keep it aligned with the lore but it ends with what the studio wants.

 TalonZahn wrote:
Tyranids are right out unless they're cutting Ridley Scott a check, lol.

Nah man. Tyranids are 100% original, just like everything GW does, with no outside influences or inspiration whatsoever. They said so in court.

I can’t imagine a massive war based series, too expensive as a starter. I’d expect a more Inquisitorial feel to the series. It also opens up the diversity opportunities that modern streaming studios desire. Aeldari female ranger? Easy 40K is a super diverse arena that really has no limits. They could do this right without “forcing” it, and let’s hope it’s just the first of many adaptations.

Would this be the long-gestating Eisenhorn series?

I'd want Mark Strong to play Eisenhorn. I'd also want Mark Strong to play Gulliman.

Basically cast Mark Strong for every character except whomever Cavill is playing.

Hope for the best, expect the worst. That's the safe mindset to take.

Amazon is real hit/miss. The Expanse was good, but Amazon only bought that show to save/finish it anyway. The LOTR show is hot trash. A lot of it is really going to depend on how well they respect the source material.

Cavill took The Witcher out back and shot it in the head, nobody is going to make him executive producer on a show where he doesn't have say and is happy with the direction of the story. Also, Amazon is not a little company, it's not the same people who make everything there. That's why series and movies are often very different from each other.

 frankelee wrote:
Cavill took The Witcher out back and shot it in the head...

The people in charge of that show shot The Witcher in the head. Cavill just dutifully fulfilled his 3 year contract and decided that he wouldn't renew. So now The Witcher get Mr. Charisma himself in his place, and Amazon get newly unemployed Cavill for their 40k project.

Does Vertigo Entertainment have a solid reputation?

And yet they still can't pack something without destroying my taco shells. Amazon can't even put in a cardboard insert to keep stuff from sloshing around?

Good for him. We'll see what actually becomes of it, of course. I agree that something more intimate like Eisenhorn would be a good place to start. Make the story work on its own without all the 40K stuff and they'll be fine.

 gorgon wrote:
Good for him. We'll see what actually becomes of it, of course. I agree that something more intimate like Eisenhorn would be a good place to start. Make the story work on its own without all the 40K stuff and they'll be fine.

Tastes vary of course but I liked the slow burn of the Andor series.

If anything it proved what a good fx team could do to sci fi up some UK location shooting.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Would this be the long-gestating Eisenhorn series?

I'd want Mark Strong to play Eisenhorn. I'd also want Mark Strong to play Gulliman.

Basically cast Mark Strong for every character except whomever Cavill is playing.

Figure out how to squeeze in Karl Urban and we have a deal.

 TalonZahn wrote:
He's a huge Custodes fan, so I would look for that to be in play.

Tyranids are right out unless they're cutting Ridley Scott a check, lol.

That’s ridiculous. Genestealers look more like Stan Winston’s Pumpkinhead than any xenomorph. The gants and warriors in their modern form owe as much to Contra, Starcraft and starship troopers as they do Alien.

Mmm let's get some of that Rings of Power quality.

Oh, wait, no.

I have zero trust in Amazon either making a 40k show or owning the rights to the franchise.

I might need to buy some models I have been planning to get early before it all goes under.

So this is how 40k dies, not with a bang but with fresh out of college (if that) writers who have zero knowledge of the setting and were just given a bullet point list of character names to insert into the unrelated fanfic they wrote in high school because Amazon isn't paying them enough to actually do work on the project.

 KingGarland wrote:
I have zero trust in Amazon either making a 40k show or owning the rights to the franchise.

This is GW we're talking about here. They aren't selling the rights to anything. They'll license them out, as they do with everything, but they'll remain theirs and theirs alone.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
Mmm let's get some of that Rings of Power quality.

You know they've made far more than just Rings of Fanfiction, right?

 lord_blackfang wrote:
So this is how 40k dies, not with a bang but with fresh out of college (if that) writers who have zero knowledge of the setting and were just given a bullet point list of character names to insert into the unrelated fanfic they wrote in high school because Amazon isn't paying them enough to actually do work on the project.

Why would you say that? Why would you instantly assume this? Because Rings of Power is a terrible show that wastes the audience's time with non-mysteries and obvious conclusions with endless scenes of faffing about? That's one production by one group. Amazon make plenty more.

And again, it's GW. You don't think they're going to have a vice-like grip on what gets made like they do with everything they have ever licensed out?

I hope it's good, but I doubt it will be.

 ced1106 wrote:
And yet they still can't pack something without destroying my taco shells. Amazon can't even put in a cardboard insert to keep stuff from sloshing around?

It's cheaper to refund the broken stuff than pack everything properly...

I mean it’s fun to get a live action 40k show but my expectations are very very low.

To be honest I would be happy with something like this

Hasn't there been an Eisenhorn show in development for a few years now, by the creators of Man in the High Castle (which was on Amazon)? So possibly related to that. Could certainly see Cavill as the younger Eisenhorn.

I'm tentatively hyped?

40k doesn't need particularly good writing to be good, it needs epicness to the point of absurdity, but writing? I mean it is hard to be afraid that Amazon is going to feth up the lore when 40k has never been able to agree with itself on its own lore.

Tavis75 wrote:
Hasn't there been an Eisenhorn show in development for a few years now, by the creators of Man in the High Castle (which was on Amazon)? So possibly related to that. Could certainly see Cavill as the younger Eisenhorn.

Yup. Eisenhorn is also a decent way to introduce people to the setting. Being “just a man” you get a smaller scale tale, which can overtime be built up to show the bigger picture.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Tavis75 wrote:
Hasn't there been an Eisenhorn show in development for a few years now, by the creators of Man in the High Castle (which was on Amazon)? So possibly related to that. Could certainly see Cavill as the younger Eisenhorn.

Yup. Eisenhorn is also a decent way to introduce people to the setting. Being “just a man” you get a smaller scale tale, which can overtime be built up to show the bigger picture.

Yes, Eisenhorn or similar Inquisitor based series has always seemed the perfect intro, it has a fairly relatable characters and the fairly common, "small group of specialists" idea making it fairly accessible, but then it can go pretty much anywhere in the 40k universe, with small scale human stories or stuff going on around some huge conflict, so incredibly versatile.

Inquisitors in particular, thanks to their sheer authority can do Police Procedural, Political Thriller, Expendables Type Combat Nonsense. All sorts. And it needn’t be one thing during a given episode.

The risk there of course is the whole of the thing becomes an incoherent mishmash of tropes over genre. But it could be made to work really well.

I think I’ve read one Eisenhorn book, and don’t really remember it that well. So those more versed in those specific stories can say more.

He once said he would like to play a Custodian, probably even Valoris if I remember correctly so who knows?