Henry Cavill’s seemingly innocuous image exhibiting his leg harm sustained whereas coaching for the Highlander reboot has despatched Warhammer 40,000 followers right into a frenzy after hypothesis the previous Superman actor’s social media put up incorporates three(!) separate nods to his upcoming — and tremendous secret — Amazon challenge.
Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe, the results of a deal struck between Video games Workshop and Amazon for Prime Video films and TV exhibits primarily based on the well-known grimdark setting, is shrouded in thriller. Whereas it’s vastly thrilling for followers, particularly given Cavill’s well-documented love of Warhammer 40,000, we have no idea which character he’s set to play, and even which story the preliminary challenge will inform. We don’t even know which period of Warhammer, particularly, we will anticipate to see in dwell motion type.
Cavill has chosen his phrases fastidiously every time he’s requested about Warhammer 40,000 in interviews. In June, Cavill touched on the “complexity” and “trickiness” of adapting the Warhammer 40,000 IP. However, he insisted, he was loving the problem.
Bringing Warhammer to life “is a dream come true,” Cavill mentioned, “nevertheless it’s totally different from what I’ve finished earlier than, within the sense I have not had my hand on the tiller of issues earlier than. It is fantastic doing that. It’s a difficult IP, and a really advanced IP, and that is what I like about it. The challenges that include placing this on the web page in a manner that’s doing justice to that complexity, that trickiness, and that nuance, is a problem I am having fun with enormously.”
However may Cavill’s social media put up trace at what to anticipate from his Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe? Some followers assume so.
The obvious tease right here is within the second image, which exhibits books for the Horus Heresy tabletop sport strewn about on Cavill’s desk. For the uninitiated, the Horus Heresy is the Area Marine civil conflict that happened 10,000 years earlier than the present Warhammer 40,000 setting. It’s the basis of 40K’s grimdark universe, and divulges how the carrion Emperor ended up on the Golden Throne.
If this photograph is certainly a tease for an adaptation of the Horus Heresy, it might be a major enterprise for Amazon. The galaxy-spanning conflict was epic in scale, concerned planet-cracking battles, huge tremendous troopers, and all kinds of mind-bending area magic. Delivering the Horus Heresy as a TV present, whereas thrilling, can be a vastly costly proposition if finished on the scale steered by the Black Library books. We’re speaking The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy manufacturing values right here, maybe even larger.
However the Horus Heresy isn’t the one tease in Cavill’s photograph. Squint on the first image, the one with Cavill’s rugged face and his canine, and also you’ll see within the background, simply above his head, the Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan field set sat on a shelf.
That is the present setting for Warhammer 40,000, which revolves across the Ultramarines chapter of Area Marines defending the Imperium towards the terrifying Tyranid risk. It additionally simply occurs to be the premise of the vastly profitable Area Marine 2, which launched to huge gross sales this time final 12 months.
Might this be a enjoyable Cavill tease for his Amazon present? Maybe it’s set to adapt The First Tyrannic Battle, throughout which the Imperium makes first contact with the Tyranid race and all hell breaks free?
However there’s extra! Cavill posted his pics alongside a poem, Invictus by William Ernest Henley. Invictus, you say? Effectively, he’s solely probably the most well-known Ultramarines there ever was, and a hero within the conflict towards the… Tyranids.
Certainly, Saul Invictus (now deceased within the official timeline) was the Captain of the Ultramarines Area Marine Chapter’s elite 1st Firm. He was killed defending his chapter homeworld of Macragge by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth in the course of the First Tyrannic Battle.
Let’s go over that final a part of the poem:
It issues not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I’m the grasp of my destiny,
I’m the captain of my soul.
Is Cavill set to play Captain Invictus in an adaptation of the First Tyrannic Battle? Some Warhammer 40,000 followers assume so, merely because of the poem lining up with the Leviathan field set.
In fact, all of the Warhammer fine details in Cavill’s photos could be harmless window dressing and imply completely nothing. And it is price noting one character who’s usually talked about by followers as an excellent match for Cavill — Eisenhorn, from Black Library creator Dan Abnett’s saga of the identical title — will not be teased right here. At the least, not that we will see. An adaptation of Abnett’s much-loved Eisenhorn collection would maybe be a extra lifelike proposition for Amazon, not least as a result of its fundamental characters (Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor) are human inquisitors, not hulking Area Marines, and their story is extra grounded.
In July, Video games Workshop mentioned in a monetary report that followers shouldn’t anticipate any vital information on the Amazon work any time quickly — and that it might be “a number of years” earlier than something comes of it.
“On 10 December 2024 we introduced the conclusions of our negotiations with Amazon for the variation of Video games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe into movies and tv collection, along with related merchandising rights,” Video games Workshop mentioned.
“The challenge continues in step with our contractual settlement with Amazon. This similar contract prohibits us from sharing any particular particulars or industrial phrases.
“We have now nice companions who proceed to show their dedication to current Warhammer authentically and on the scope and scale befitting our fantastical setting. This can be a long-term partnership with Amazon and there gained’t be any vital information within the brief time period — these items take a number of years to deliver to market.”
So we’re left with scraps to mull over, similar to current feedback from Dan Abnett about NDAs and upcoming books.
Within the meantime, Video games Workshop pointed to the well-received Warhammer 40,000 episode on Amazon Prime’s animation present Secret Degree, which it described as “a taster of Warhammer IP in digital type on the small display screen.”
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].