Henry Cavill’s certainly had an up-and-down-and-up-and-oh-my-god few months, but the former Superman and about-to-be-former Witcher star might be about to land another dream role: the lead in a series adaptation of the world of Warhammer 40,000.
The Hollywood Reporter has word that Amazon is closing in on a deal to acquire the rights to Games Workshop’s massively popular sci-fi wargame, and while no writers or showrunners are attached, Cavill is purportedly already on board to star and executive produce the series.
Warhammer 40,000, which started in 1987, is set in the far future of the 41st millennium, in a galaxy torn apart by perpetual war. The Imperium of Man, a theological autocracy ruled by the decaying body of a millennia-old God-Emperor and defended by the genetically enhanced, power-armour-laden chapters of the Space Marines, attempts to safeguard its worlds and peoples against a host of alien and demonic threats, from the corrupted forces of Chaos, to the mech-piloting hegemony of the Tau Empire, to the swarming hordes of the Tyranid hives. It’s a world that spawned the term “grimdark” for its love of over the top excess in gore, action, and the amount of spikes you can fit onto someone’s shoulders.
Cavill has made it known many a time that he is an avowed fan of the setting and the tabletop game itself, painting his own army of Adeptus Custodes — the golden-plated personal guards of the Imperium’s Emperor. This is also not the first time we’ve heard of plans for a Warhammer 40,000 TV show, either: Games Workshop themselves previously announced they were planning on developing a series around the Imperial Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, a character from the company’s “Black Library” fiction range who hunts down alien and demonic threats against the Imperium, but this is presumably a different idea in the works.
We’ll bring you more on Amazon, and Henry Cavill’s, plans for Warhammer 40,000 as and when we learn them.
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Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.