The Henry Cavill ‘Warhammer 40,000’ films and TV programs may be in risk. Amazon and Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40K projects are at a critical juncture in discussions, with the project at risk of cancellation if a contract is not reached by December.
The Henry Cavill-led Warhammer 40,000 productions that are planned to be produced by Amazon’s Prime Video, both feature films and TV shows, are at risk of never starting production should they not reach an agreement with Games Workshop about “creative guidelines” by December 2024.
This revelation comes from Games Workshop’s annual financial report, in which the company detailed the current deal that grants them exclusivity to the rights of any and all films and television series produced by Amazon regarding the Warhammer 40K universe. This would also allow for an option for Amazon to license the same rights to the base Warhammer fantasy universe after they released the first W40K production, and could lead to an extremely expansive body of works from which to make new productions in future years.
However, Games Workshop is known for their iron hand when it comes to protecting their Intellectual Property, and this is no exception. The UK company has been working with Amazon since December 2023 “to agree creative guidelines for the films and television series to be developed by Amazon.” They have already seen the results of carelessly handing off their license to a myriad of video game studios that resulted in a period of time where games about the Warhammer universes were dime-a-dozen, and it appears that they don’t plan to repeat the same thing when it comes to expanding to TV and Movies.
“The agreement will only proceed if the creative guidelines are mutually agreed between Games Workshop and Amazon. We will update you accordingly,” said the company. What this means is that should both corporations fail to come to an agreement on how to present the Warhammer 40K world on both the small and large screens, it is entirely possible that the project could come to a sudden halt, even with Henry Cavill fully involved.
In the grim dark future, there are only corporate contracts
It’s been a few years since the first rumblings of this multimedia project began to take hold of the internet, but just last year we finally got confirmation that Warhammer super fan and “person who definitely deserves to be treated fairly”, Henry Cavill, was set to spearhead the cinematic universe of the Grim Dark future.
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” wrote Games Workshop in a blog post.
With no further developments since then, fans have been praying to the Omnissiah for some sort of official communication from anyone involved, but we also understood that these things take time. However, as the clock ticks down and time runs out fans continue to get more and more uneasy about the entire situation. We can only hope for some sort of announcement about the project to calm down the masses. We’ll even accept Cavill announcing whatever his newest army is that he’s building and painting.
