About

Warhammer 40,000 TV Series refers to a yet unnamed live-action adaptation of the miniature science fiction wargame and franchise Warhammer 40,000 produced by Amazon Studios. The series will star actor Henry Cavill, a long-time fan of the franchise and tabletop game, who is also attached as the executive producer. The project was announced by Cavill in December 2022, following his departure from The Witcher Netflix series and his role as Superman in DC Comics cinematic universe.

History

On December 15th, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter^[1] reported that actor Henry Cavill was attached to star and executive produce a series adaptation of Warhammer 40,000, a well-known science-fiction miniature wargame, which has also produced numerous video games, books, comics and more. On that day, Twitter^[2][3] accounts for Culture Crave and Discussing Film both made tweets sharing the news, with the Discussing Film post gaining over 5,200 retweets and 68,000 likes in one day (shown below).

The announcement notably arrived one day after it was revealed that Cavill would not be returning to his role of Superman and the earlier announcement that the actor will be stepping down from the Netflix series adaptation of The Witcher.

On December 16th, 2022, Cavill then shared a teaser for the series on his Instagram^[4] account. The post, in which he talked about being a Warhammer 40,000 fan for 30 years and promised to "bring something familiar" to the fans, was comprised of a simple animation with an Aquila symbol (a two-headed eagle sigil that represents the Imperium of Man within the universe). The post (shown below) received over a million views in three hours.

Also on December 16th, Games Workshop^[7] announced via a blog post on its Warhammer Community website, titled "Warhammer – starring Henry Cavill," that the series starring and being produced by Cavill was official. The post also confirmed that Amazon Studios had secured the rights to "a universe of Warhammer programming across multiple Amazon entertainment businesses."

Online Reactions

The announcement became a viral topic of discussion on social media in mid-December 2022, with posts made after the news of Cavill leaving Superman but before the announcement going viral due to timing. For example, on December 14th, 2022, a tweet^[5] by actor Rahul Kohli suggesting a Warhammer 40,000 movie be made gained over 10,900 retweets and 174,500 likes in two days (shown below, left). On December 16th, Twitter user @SnipeTheSorrow shared a tweet mocking cover images of news articles seemingly combining the image of Cavill with hastily Googled Warhammer 40,000 images. The tweet^[6] received over 650 likes in less than one day (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References