It’s Been a Minute, But Here’s Why I Still Believe in Amazon’s Warhammer 40K Show

This summer, GW told investors that Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40K project for Amazon Prime is still a go. After all this time, I still think Amazon could get it right.

Late last year the world, or at least a very nerdy part of it, was shocked by some major news. Amazon, Henry Cavill and Games Workshop were teaming up. The goal is to bring us some kind of 40K streaming content. Movies, streaming shows, a live stream of Cavill reacting to memes–we don’t know. Some nine months later, we still don’t have any details. GW’s annual report issued in July noted that talks were ongoing. But at some time, something is maybe, probably coming. The announcement was met with a lot of excitement and speculation. It was also met in some circles with a lot of worry. Will Amazon screw this up?

Why People Are Worried – Amazon Fantasy

The general worry about how Amazon will do with 40K comes from some of their recent shows. Amazon has within the last couple of years adapted two major and beloved fantasy epics into shows. Both The Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power were major Amazon productions with a ton of budget. However, both shows ultimately left viewers divided. Many people hated the adaptations. Maybe an even greater number were simply left a bit lukewarm.

Ultimately neither show really lived up to their potential. The shows were not major critical hits and it’s unknown how much money they made or lost. Given the somewhat poor performance of these shows, it makes sense that people would be worried about Amazon adapting another one of their beloved IPs. However, the situation here is pretty different.

Amazon Does Sci-Fi Better

Both The Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power were major fantasy shows. Amazon stumbled with both. However, the studio has had a lot better success with adapting Sci-Fi shows. Take the later season of The Expanse which Amazon took over. Or look at The Boys or Invincible. All of these shows were very well received, both by fans of the original works and new fans. While Amazon is a little hit or miss with fantasy, with Sci-Fi, which 40K falls into, they are on pretty solid ground. This isn’t all that rare either, a lot of studios struggle with fantasy shows. Game of Thrones is actually an exception, not the norm. 40K being Sci-Fi is I think pretty hopeful sign for how well it could do.

It May Not Be an Adaptation

Adaptations are hard. They lead to a lot of pitfalls and will pretty much always piss someone off. Wheel of Time in particular annoyed fans for being a poor adaptation. 40K however is not a specific story, but rather a massive setting and idea. The Amazon projects won’t necessarily adapt a specific story. They may well tell a brand new story. Or they could talk about events we already know about, but from different angles. This gives the projects a lot more freedom and makes them a lot less likely to annoy existing fans by “messing stuff up”.

The Lack of Truth

Even if they do decide to adapt a story or deal with major events, that’s okay as well. The lack of truth is something that’s very ingrained into 40K. The entire universe is the definition of an unreliable narrator. No story is true, it’s someone’s propaganda. Everything is 40K is a lie to someone. Chaos corrupts and changes the past, present, and future. Any adaptation won’t be getting things wrong, it will just be giving you a different truth. So much of 40K is legends and lies that I think fans will respond better to any “changes”.

People Who Really Care

via Games Workshop

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, is the fact that there are people involved with the project who really care about it. Both The Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power were headed by people who seemingly did not care a lot about the source material. They were shows that seemed kind of cynically picked to fill a market niche and make money. Now Amazon and GW obviously both want to make money here, but it also seems like people care a bit more. Henry Cavil seems to really like and care about 40K. His involvement is a really good sign.

GW also has a very active stake it protecting their IP. And GW is still “living”. The authors of the source material for both The Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power have passed away and those IPs are effectively complete. GW is very much an ongoing concern and 40K is a living setting. I think all this means that a lot of the people involved are both passionate about 40K and care about protecting it’s image and feeling. All of this speaks to a greater likelihood of success.

At the end of the day, I can’t say that the 40K show will be good or a success (or even happen).  However, it does seem like comparing them to WoT and RoP isn’t very fair. There are a lot of signs to point to why 40K shows could be a success and for now, I chose to be quite optimistic about it.

Let us know if you think the shows will be good, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.