Well, this news warrants another special edition of the newsletter, I reckon: Henry Cavill has announced that he’s to star in and produce a newly-created Warhammer 40,000 cinematic universe at Amazon. This comes a day after breaking the news that he won’t be returning as Superman in the DCU1. In his announcement Cavill, who is a self-proclaimed Warhammer 40K fan and owns and paints miniatures, talked directly to the fans:
For 30 years I have dreamt of seeing a Warhammer universe in live action. Now, after 22 years of experience in this industry, I finally feel that I have the skill set and experience to guide a Warhammer Cinematic Universe into life.
To all of you Warhammer fans out there, I promise to respect this IP that we love. I promise to bring you something familiar. And I endeavour to bring you something fantastic that is, as of yet, unseen.
Coming from Henry Cavill, this means something. The guy isn’t your run-of-the-mill Hollywood celebrity. He is very engaged with fans and always makes a big deal about respecting the source material he’s involved with. Before donning Geralt of Rivia’s white wig, he talked about how much of a Witcher fan he is. How he played through The Witcher 3 several times and has read Andrzej Sapkowski’s works. As rumour has it, he quit Netflix’ Witcher series because, in his opinion, it started to diverge too much from the source material. With a writer on the show saying things like this, the theory sounds reasonable:
"I've been on a show – namely Witcher – where some of the writers were not or actively disliked the books and games (even actively mocking the source material). It's a recipe for disaster and bad morale. Fandom as a litmus test checks egos, and makes all the long nights worth it. You have to respect the work before you're allowed to add to its legacy."
Cavill will not only be starring in the new Warhammer project, he’s also responsible for getting the film rights to Amazon in the first place.
Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Natalie Viscuso (Barbarian, The Lego franchise, the It films, The Departed) partnered with Henry Cavill early on to secure the coveted IP and deliver it to Amazon Studios.
Which explains why Cavill visited Games Workshop HQ in Nottingham in February. I knew he was a Warhammer fan and had the sneaking suspicion back then that he was cooking up a film role with GW, but dismissed him as out of their price range. But with Games Workshop now being the most profitable company in the UK, I should have seen this coming. Cavill is also slated to function as an executive producer on the project. On the Games Workshop side, he will be joined by Andy Smillie, who’s written about a dozen 40K books for Black Library, Games Workshop’s publishing arm.
Amazon seems like a natural fit to bring Warhammer 40,000 to the big screen. There are 35 years of stories to exploit and while 40K has had numerous best-selling books and audio books, as well as a whole host of successful (and not so successful) video games, a faithful live action 40K movie or TV show was always judged an impossibility by most fans. Mostly because of the awesome scale of the universe. To do this scale justice in a movie or TV show, the CGI budget would have to rival that of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. With Amazon Studios, who have proven with The Rings of Power that money truly isn’t an issue for them, this has now become a possibility.
I have to admit, I’m excited. I am a huge fan of Henry Cavill’s acting and of him as a human being. The first season of Netflix’ The Witcher was the best new TV show since The Expanse2, in my opinion. Bringing Warhammer 40K to life on TV will be a monumental task. But I like that GW is taking a big gamble on this and is partnering with a huge star and the biggest spender in the streaming space at the moment. Losing Cavill on The Witcher and now seeing him score the Warhammer IP for Amazon must be a huge disappointment for Netflix.
The DC Cinematic Universe is that comic book publisher’s response to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that started with Iron Man in 2008 and has bestowed untold riches upon Marvel and Disney. Cavill has starred in five DCU films as Superman since first appearing in its first film, 2013’s Man of Steel.
I was very sad when The Expanse ended as it did.