Just over a year after Amazon Studios secured the rights to the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, Games Workshop has provided an update to say that the full agreement between it and Amazon has been signed, meaning work can officially begin.
Plans for Amazon to adapt Warhammer for movie/television were formally announced last December, but there must have been more details to iron out between Amazon and Games Workshop before either side could fully commit to the deal.
In a blog post shared on Dec. 18, Games Workshop says the “next stage can begin” on the first Amazon-made Warhammer project. Unfortunately, exact details remain scarce. From the sound of it, a first script hasn’t even been written yet, and it’s undecided whether to kick off the new partnership with a movie, TV show, or both.
“All we can tell you right now is that an elite band of screenwriters, each with their own particular passion for Warhammer, is being assembled to help bring the setting and characters you love to the screen,” the blog post reads. It also reminds fans that film star and self-admitted Warhammer nerd Henry Cavill is helping lead the charge as an executive producer, though he’s expected to star in the project as well.
If the gears are only just beginning to turn, fans will need to exercise patience. There’s unlikely to be any further updates, let alone anything meaningful, for a very long time, which is something Games Workshop stresses in the blog post: “TV and film production is a mammoth undertaking. It’s not unusual for projects to take two to three years from this point before something arrives on screen. Still, things are now properly rolling, and you can bet we’ll bring you all the latest updates and cool snippets as soon as we’re able.”
In the meantime, fans do have a new Warhammer video game to look forward to, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. The long-awaited sequel to the 2011 original is still quite a way off—September 2024, to be exact—but that’s certainly sooner than whatever Amazon winds up making.
