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[Draugoth]

Amazon to make Warhammer 40,000 shows and movies

The streaming platform will have exclusive rights to make content based on Games Workshop's popular brand.

www.bbc.com

The maker of Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop, has finalised a deal with Amazon to bring the characters and stories to the big screen.

The British actor Henry Cavill - best known for playing Superman - will be an executive producer and has signed up to appear in the project.
Warhammer simulates battles between armies of miniature painted models.

The deal gives Amazon the rights to hire talent, and to make film and TV projects.

"Now comes the fun part: working out all the creative details with our partners and getting the first script written and into production. What Warhammer 40,000 stories should we tell first? Should we kick off with a movie or a TV show? Both?!"

Games Workshop has enjoyed continued success after the pandemic, which saw sales of its toy figurines surge. Shares in the company rose after the deal was confirmed.


The announcement comes a year after the Nottingham-based company first said it was in talks to team up with Amazon's Prime Video service, also known for the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, based on the fantasy novels of JRR Tolkien.
A team of screenwriters is currently being put together to bring the Warhammer universe to the screen, the company said on its community website.
The first Games Workshop store opened in Hammersmith in 1978 and began producing miniature wargaming models.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Henry Cavill will be an executive producer

Henry to netflix:

 

[KrakenIPA]

Some people are saying that it can't be done. I feel like it can be done.

 

[Gp1]

Can someone make Henry Cavill interested in Battletech now?

 

[sankt-Antonio]

[...] The deal gives Amazon the rights to hire talent [...]

That fucking sucks ass.

 

[DKehoe]

Really curious to see what they go with first. Something like Eisenhorn could be a good starting point.

 

[Garibaldi]

This is gonna cost so much if it's gonna be any good. So many good stories to do from the Black Library.

 

[ManaByte]

Some people are saying that it can't be done. I feel like it can be done.

There’s no way Current Year will allow an accurate 40K show. Look at what happened to Witcher. It’ll look awesome but be off the rails woke.

 

[Nester99]

This could be awesome with the right vision and budget. so far so good !

 

[Trogdor1123]

There’s no way Current Year will allow an accurate 40K show. Look at what happened to Witcher. It’ll look awesome but be off the rails woke.

Not sure how they can have that. The tag for the show is to forget progress lol. There will likely be angles were the extreme persecution will demonized though. That makes sense though as the imperium is the darkest future for man kind. It should be critical of it.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

Not sure how they can have that. The tag for the show is to forget progress lol. There will likely be angles were the extreme persecution will demonized though. That makes sense though as the imperium is the darkest future for man kind. It should be critical of it.

It shouldn't be "critical" of anything, they just need to show 40k as it is. We don't need some token character crying about muh Space Marine oppression.

 

[newtypepilot]

let's hope amazon won't ruin this one

 

[Trogdor1123]

It shouldn't be "critical" of anything, they just need to show 40k as it is. We don't need some token character crying about muh Space Marine oppression.

I don’t agree, they should absolutely show how oppressive it is.

 

[Fbh]

Having a fan of the franchise like Cavill as executive producers gives me some hope this could be cool, but it's Amazon so I'll keep my expectations low.

 

[FunkMiller]

It shouldn't be "critical" of anything, they just need to show 40k as it is. We don't need some token character crying about muh Space Marine oppression.

You don’t think 40K is critical? The whole damn thing is one giant critical satire.

And you don’t think people should say the Astartes are oppressive?

Honest to god, I don’t think some of you actually know what 40K is beyond big, beefy space marines.

If you’re not prepared for some very obvious political allegories and messaging about oppressive right wing authoritarian governments, then don’t watch the show. There’s going to be A LOT of it… because there always has been in 40K, from day one.

 

[Trogdor1123]

You don’t think 40K is critical? The whole damn thing is one giant critical satire.

And you don’t think people should say the Astartes are oppressive?

Honest to god, I don’t think some of you actually know what 40K is beyond big, beefy space marines.

If you’re not prepared for some very obvious political allegories and messaging about oppressive right wing authoritarian governments, then don’t watch the show. There’s going to be A LOT of it… because there always has been in 40K, from day one.

It’s true, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first scene will be some kind of celebration at the genocide of an alien race for being xenos.

 

[FunkMiller]

It’s true, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first scene will be some kind of celebration at the genocide of an alien race for being xenos.

Exactly. And that’s exactly how it should be. The Imperium is a fascist dictatorship run by ultra religious zealots, who despise anything different, and anyone who doesn’t conform to their authoritarian ideology.

What do people actually fucking think a 40K series is going to be about?

 

[jason10mm]

Exactly. And that’s exactly how it should be. The Imperium is a fascist dictatorship run by ultra religious zealots, who despise anything different, and anyone who doesn’t conform to their authoritarian ideology.

What do people actually fucking think a 40K series is going to be about?

I better be seeing hot ass hermaphroditic disciples of Slaanesh....

And he need to get Gina Careno back into shape as a Battle Sister

 

[Trilobit]

As a complete noob in the Warhammer space, what kind of atmosphere should the show have? I've mostly seen over the top gifs of something called space marines that have humorous undertones. Then again some say that it's more like Event Horizon, which I only saw the beginning of since it became too dark for me.

But I like the idea of a ruthless cutthroat universe that takes no prisoners and doesn't give room for overly sensitive woke people.

 

[jason10mm]

In a nutshell there are several races constantly at war over planets, plus a corrupting extradimensional force of Chaos, filled with malevolent deities remininescent of the Four Horsemen, who perpetually try to infect and subvert humanity. The bulk of chaos is held at bay by the psychic powers of the Emporer, who must be fed 50k (I think) human sacrifices PER DAY to keep up a protective shield around human space. There is the Onquisition, always on the look out for Choas influences affecting humanity, and the Space Marines, the premier human fighting force keeping the aliens at bay. Most of the rest of humanity is fodder keeping the war industry running as civilization is slowly grinding down and losing progress.

So the show will most likely revolve around the Inquisition so it can focus on normal humans. Probably a heavily serialized show about resisting chaos but also trying to live life under the thumb of the Imperium. Anything with aliens, chaos, or space marines would be VERY expensive to do right, though TBH the Farscape show for a while back was kinda close to how a WK40k could be.

 

[violence]

It's still funny how nerdy this guy is. It's legit.

 

[FeralEcho]

[...] The deal gives Amazon the rights to hire talent [...]

That fucking sucks ass.

Prepare for wokehammer....Hopefully Henry can keep these clueless suits in check.

 

[IDKFA]

I'm not convinced Amazon or anyone else can do justice to 40K. The lore is just too dark and too epic to be adapted for the masses. They wouldn't be able to comprehend the biblical scale. People would pass out and have convolsions just trying to wrap their heads around what they're seeing.

Also, if this is live action it would need to be the most expensive show in history to do it right. A budget that makes Rings of Power look like pocket money.

 

[Faust]

You don’t think 40K is critical? The whole damn thing is one giant critical satire.

And you don’t think people should say the Astartes are oppressive?

Honest to god, I don’t think some of you actually know what 40K is beyond big, beefy space marines.

If you’re not prepared for some very obvious political allegories and messaging about oppressive right wing authoritarian governments, then don’t watch the show. There’s going to be A LOT of it… because there always has been in 40K, from day one.

You are giving far too much thought into 40K. It isn't critical. Its just a giant edgelord piece of being as grimdark and edgy as possible for fun battles and cool miniatures.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

WH40K is just about the unwokest thing imaginable. How Amazon is going to figure out how to insert wokeness into this is going to be amusing to find out.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

You don’t think 40K is critical? The whole damn thing is one giant critical satire.

That's my point, show, don't preach.

I don’t agree, they should absolutely show how oppressive it is.

I never said they shouldn't. Just spare me the blatant pandering. Is reading comprehension down on NeoGAF or something?

 

[KyoZz]

I would love to see a few seasons dedicated to The Primarchs, so many cool stories. Also I can't wait to see The Warp, Cavill I trust you don't disappoint!

As a complete noob in the Warhammer space, what kind of atmosphere should the show have?

You can watch this to get an idea of what the universe is like

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Some people are saying that it can't be done. I feel like it can be done.

Of course it can be done. The issue is if they will make it 'vanilla' or stick to the original theme, because this is one wild ride.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I would be prepared to see some woke crap in it. One of the new Warhammer 40,000 RPG books (Imperium Maledictum) already showed a fat woman as a character. So even the game is slowly starting to become that.

 

[Hudo]

As a complete noob in the Warhammer space, what kind of atmosphere should the show have? I've mostly seen over the top gifs of something called space marines that have humorous undertones. Then again some say that it's more like Event Horizon, which I only saw the beginning of since it became too dark for me.

But I like the idea of a ruthless cutthroat universe that takes no prisoners and doesn't give room for overly sensitive woke people.

Warhammer 40k specifically popularized the term "grimdark", which essentially has become the descriptor for the kind of atmosphere. It's essentially describing a dystopian world/universe where every faction is bad in their own way, where war and general violence are a common, every-day occurrence. Where there is never almost never a "happy end". And everything is over-the-top and brutal.

That being said, Games Workshop already "toned it down" by purposefully not getting too much into stuff like slavery (which realistically would be a common occurrence in a setting like this) and racism (which is also a common occurrence and one of the motivations for humanity to battle other factions, i.e. "xenos"). These things exist but aren't explicitly mentioned (anymore?).

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Warhammer is very confusing to me.

Let's say I wanted to get into that whole "Star Wars" thing... I'd probably start with the movie called "Star Wars".

If I wanted to get into Harry Potter I would read HP and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone.

If I wanted to get into Warhammer I would... ? Is there an actual start point, or not so much since it's about painting little space army guys and playing a tabletop game (tabletop gaming ain't happening for me at this point)?

Regular Warhammer is like grimdark Lord of the Rings and 40k is like grimdark Star Trek or Star Wars?

Are Warcraft and Starcraft ripoffs of Warhammer and 40k respectively?

Would one start with regular Warhammer and graduate to 40k or does it not matter?

Do I just wait for the Amazon shows/movies and hope it isn't shit and serves as a good jumping off point for the Warhammer universe?

 

[FunkMiller]

You are giving far too much thought into 40K. It isn't critical. Its just a giant edgelord piece of being as grimdark and edgy as possible for fun battles and cool miniatures.

No. That’s one aspect of it. But the actual lore is steeped in very deliberate satire. It’s incredibly grimdark and edgelord, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but neither should people be dismissing the politics of it just because they might not like the kinds of themes the Amazon show will include.

Just trying to preempt the inevitable amount of whining that will go on when people realise the kinds of things 40K gets into about politics, religion and government.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Warhammer is very confusing to me.

Let's say I wanted to get into that whole "Star Wars" thing... I'd probably start with the movie called "Star Wars".

If I wanted to get into Harry Potter I would read HP and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone.

If I wanted to get into Warhammer I would... ? Is there an actual start point, or not so much since it's about painting little space army guys and playing a tabletop game (tabletop gaming ain't happening for me at this point)?

Regular Warhammer is like grimdark Lord of the Rings and 40k is like grimdark Star Trek or Star Wars?

Are Warcraft and Starcraft ripoffs of Warhammer and 40k respectively?

Would one start with regular Warhammer and graduate to 40k or does it not matter?

Do I just wait for the Amazon shows/movies and hope it isn't shit and serves as a good jumping off point for the Warhammer universe?

Literally the best thing to do is pick up the latest 10th edition rule book. It pretty much fills you in on most of the universe of course in a condensed manner.

Rogue Trader ttrpg was one of my first experiences with it and it's still one of my favorite aspects of Warhammer 40,000.

 

[FunkMiller]

Warhammer is very confusing to me.

Let's say I wanted to get into that whole "Star Wars" thing... I'd probably start with the movie called "Star Wars".

If I wanted to get into Harry Potter I would read HP and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone.

If I wanted to get into Warhammer I would... ? Is there an actual start point, or not so much since it's about painting little space army guys and playing a tabletop game (tabletop gaming ain't happening for me at this point)?

Regular Warhammer is like grimdark Lord of the Rings and 40k is like grimdark Star Trek or Star Wars?

Are Warcraft and Starcraft ripoffs of Warhammer and 40k respectively?

Would one start with regular Warhammer and graduate to 40k or does it not matter?

Do I just wait for the Amazon shows/movies and hope it isn't shit and serves as a good jumping off point for the Warhammer universe?

Don’t compare Warhammer 40K to things like Star Wars. It’s not a franchise with one main story or group of characters. It’s a setting designed to provide a backdrop for the gaming side of things. Theres no real starting point into it because it’s far, far bigger than anything else out there. It spans the whole galaxy. Takes place over tens of thousands of years. Thousands upon thousands of characters. Dozens of factions.

It’s kind of the absolute peak of nerdery

And it’s waaaaay more grimdark than anything else, as well. There’s some truly horrific shit. It can be hilariously overblown, and deeply serious, all depending on who’s writing. There are over 500 novels.

The Amazon show could be anything from a space battle opera, to a grotesque small scale horror. War films like Saving Private Ryan and horror movies like Hellraiser could easily exist together and be canon accurate. You could have a Blade Runner style dark noir sci-fi show (Eisenhorn), or a Blackadder style comedy show (Caiphas Cain).

 

[Hudo]

As a complete noob in the Warhammer space, what kind of atmosphere should the show have? I've mostly seen over the top gifs of something called space marines that have humorous undertones. Then again some say that it's more like Event Horizon, which I only saw the beginning of since it became too dark for me.

But I like the idea of a ruthless cutthroat universe that takes no prisoners and doesn't give room for overly sensitive woke people.

In any case, maybe, to get into Warhammer 40k, you could play some of the games (there are a handful of good ones, imho) to get a feel for it. I can recommend:

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (RTS),
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II (Real-Time tactics)
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine (Character action game)
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun ("old-school style" FPS)
Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus (Turn-based strategy like XCOM, but the game is centered around the conflict of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necrons, maybe not the best "first" game...)

 

[Faust]

Warhammer is very confusing to me.

Let's say I wanted to get into that whole "Star Wars" thing... I'd probably start with the movie called "Star Wars".

If I wanted to get into Harry Potter I would read HP and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone.

If I wanted to get into Warhammer I would... ? Is there an actual start point, or not so much since it's about painting little space army guys and playing a tabletop game (tabletop gaming ain't happening for me at this point)?

Regular Warhammer is like grimdark Lord of the Rings and 40k is like grimdark Star Trek or Star Wars?

Are Warcraft and Starcraft ripoffs of Warhammer and 40k respectively?

Would one start with regular Warhammer and graduate to 40k or does it not matter?

Do I just wait for the Amazon shows/movies and hope it isn't shit and serves as a good jumping off point for the Warhammer universe?

Best thing to do to start out is find a race/faction that interests you and then watch the adepts ridiculous podcasts involving them. That is what I did. Then I read some books, played some games, then sold my soul for plastic crack.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

No. That’s one aspect of it. But the actual lore is steeped in very deliberate satire. It’s incredibly grimdark and edgelord, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but neither should people be dismissing the politics of it just because they might not like the kinds of themes the Amazon show will include.

Just trying to preempt the inevitable amount of whining that will go on when people realise the kinds of things 40K gets into about politics, religion and government.

No one, not the average Joe nor the hardcore fan, is going to whine about story beats dealing with politics, religion or government.
GoT made itself into a world wide phenomenon almost exclusivity dealing with these topics.

Its everything else that will make this a classic Amazon shitshow. As per OP, Amazon gets to select writers and showrunners, not GW.

 

[jason10mm]

I think the best intro, other than just getting one of the rule books, would be the novels. Dan Abnett in particular, with the Eisenhorn trilogy, is probably as easy an intro as you are gonna get.

The setting isn't the product of a singular mind so there is a LOT of variety within it. You could run a Firefly style space rogue campaign, urban crime, heavy religious themes with the Inquisition, corporate espionage, straight gore/slasher with tentacle assault and body horror, Band of Brothers style grunt combat with the militias, all the way up to insane giant mecha combat and full on space battles that make the best of Star Wars and Trek seem like rural skirmishes. There is a heavy dose of brit dry humor and a lot of poking fun at various aspects of brit politics.

 

[Trogdor1123]

That's my point, show, don't preach.

I never said they shouldn't. Just spare me the blatant pandering. Is reading comprehension down on NeoGAF or something?

You literally said it shouldn’t be critical and never said preach. It should absolutely 100% be critical of the darkest possible future for humanity.

Anyways, I think we both want it to be a great show and are generally in agreement that it should be extremely dark.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I think the best intro, other than just getting one of the rule books, would be the novels. Dan Abnett in particular, with the Eisenhorn trilogy, is probably as easy an intro as you are gonna get.

The setting isn't the product of a singular mind so there is a LOT of variety within it. You could run a Firefly style space rogue campaign, urban crime, heavy religious themes with the Inquisition, corporate espionage, straight gore/slasher with tentacle assault and body horror, Band of Brothers style grunt combat with the militias, all the way up to insane giant mecha combat and full on space battles that make the best of Star Wars and Trek seem like rural skirmishes. There is a heavy dose of brit dry humor and a lot of poking fun at various aspects of brit politics.

Those are pretty great. Personally, I’d recommend the first 5 books of the heresy to get people going. Then some Ciaphus Cain books, during all that I’d work in some of the YouTube lore of luetin, Wes, and Majorkill.

Personally, I’d avoid the indomintious stuff till becoming a bit more familiar with the universe.

That will get most people up to speed.

 

[FunkMiller]

Those are pretty great. Personally, I’d recommend the first 5 books of the heresy to get people going. Then some Ciaphus Cain books, during all that I’d work in some of the YouTube lore of luetin, Wes, and Majorkill.

Personally, I’d avoid the indomintious stuff till becoming a bit more familiar with the universe.

That will get most people up to speed.

I love the heresy, but I tend to avoid telling people to read it first, as it doesn’t give an accurate overview of what the 41st millennium is like. The heresy still has people with good intentions

 

[Trogdor1123]

I love the heresy, but I tend to avoid telling people to read it first, as it doesn’t give an accurate overview of what the 41st millennium is like. The heresy still has people with good intentions

It’s true, I just like how it lays out the stuff that is to come. There is so much reference to it in the other content it’s a bit tough to follow it a bit imo.

 

[Party McHardy]

I read rumours the deal fell through so this is a surprise. It’s a brilliant setting for storytelling, I just hope the combination of Cavil (whom is a legit fan) and Amazon money equals quality.

 

[bajouras]

I really hope they just go with Eisenhorn for starters. I fing it being the perfect place for anyone to get introduced into the lore. And if everything goes super well, they could just continue with Ravenor and Bequin afterwards. One can dream...

 

[Vlodril]

In any case, maybe, to get into Warhammer 40k, you could play some of the games (there are a handful of good ones, imho) to get a feel for it. I can recommend:

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (RTS),
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II (Real-Time tactics)
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine (Character action game)
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun ("old-school style" FPS)
Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus (Turn-based strategy like XCOM, but the game is centered around the conflict of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necrons, maybe not the best "first" game...)

Rogue trader jut came out and it is pretty good. I feel probably my favorite of the W40k games i have tried.

 

[Hudo]

Rogue trader jut came out and it is pretty good. I feel probably my favorite of the W40k games i have tried.

I hear good things about that as well! (I haven't played it yet, so I can't really recommend it)

So yeah, Rogue Trader might be worth looking into @OP!

 

[FunkMiller]

I really hope they just go with Eisenhorn for starters. I fing it being the perfect place for anyone to get introduced into the lore. And if everything goes super well, they could just continue with Ravenor and Bequin afterwards. One can dream...

Dan Abnett is pretty much guaranteed to be on the writing team, so Eisenhorn is a realistic option. Probably the best one too. The character is amazing, and his stories are good ways of easing people into the lore without throwing too much at them. They can even tell a brand new Eisenhorn story, given how long he’s been alive.

 

[DKehoe]

Dan Abnett is pretty much guaranteed to be on the writing team, so Eisenhorn is a realistic option. Probably the best one too. The character is amazing, and his stories are good ways of easing people into the lore without throwing too much at them. They can even tell a brand new Eisenhorn story, given how long he’s been alive.

I think Eisenhorn would be a good entry point because it's a bit more "ground level" so like you say it eases people into the universe and lore better. They can use that to establish things and then start going grander in scale. Space Marines are the most iconic aspect of 40k so I could understand the temptation to lean right into that. But throwing people right into a story that's all about that stuff might be too much to begin with.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I really hope they just go with Eisenhorn for starters. I fing it being the perfect place for anyone to get introduced into the lore. And if everything goes super well, they could just continue with Ravenor and Bequin afterwards. One can dream...

If they start with show and not a movie, then they will have to deal with TV budgets, and Eisenhorn can be easily adapted into a police procedural which are relatively cheap. At least compared to anything else in the setting.

 

[Krappadizzle]