Warhammer 40K: What Era Should Amazon Pick For A Warhammer Show?
Henry Cavill and Amazon are moving Warhammer 40,000 from the tabletop to the TV Screen. Which era would be the best fit?
With the ink drying on the deal with Games Workshop and Amazon we’re getting a Warhammer show! We also know that Henry Cavill will be taking a role as executive producer. That said, everyone’s got a lot of thoughts about the new Warhammer show that will eventually be coming from Amazon and Henry Cavill. Abe already talked about 5 shows they could do earlier. However, I want to take a step back and talk about which era the show could be set in.
What Even Is Time, Anyway?
Does it really matter when the show is set? Absolutely! You can’t really do a Horus Heresy show set in the most current timeline of 40k, can you? There’s like …10,000 years to cover there. So picking an era, I think, would be one of the most important decisions Amazon and Cavill could make. In my mind, there are a handful to choose from.
Pre-Heresy Era – The Emperor is collecting the Primarchs and unifying the known galaxy. This era is all about Space Marines and the armies of the Imperium marching out to conquer.
Horus Heresy Era – Horus has launched his rebellion and half of the Space Marine Legions are fighting the other half. There’s a book series…it’s kind of a thing.
Post-Heresy Era – This Era is the 10,000 years between the Horus Heresy and up to the “modern” 40k era. There’s lots of stuff that’s happened in this time period from the second foundings to various Primarchs dying and Abaddon’s 13 Black Crusades.
Warhammer 40k ‘Propper’ Era – This is the year 39,999 and the Galaxy is perpetually 1 minute away from then end of the millennium. Basically, this is Warhammer 40,000 editions 2nd-7th edition. It the time period of the constant clock resets and classic Grimdark 40k.
Indomitus Era – I don’t know what you’d call the “Post-Great Rift” Era but it’s the current timeline of 40k. We’re technically past the 41st millennium at this point…but now we’re just splitting hairs. This is the Era of the Primaris Marine and beyond.
Alright, now that we’ve got a basic set of eras, we can talk about which one (or which ones) would be a good fit and why. So let’s go through them.
Pre-Heresy Era
This era would be a trip. It would cover the creation of the Primarchs and the crusade of the Emperor to go out and find all his lost children. We’d get to meet each one and get their back story and a taste of their personality. These stories have been told so there’s at least something to adapt to a TV/Streaming screen. The backdrop of these stories would also be the galaxy spanning conquest of the Imperium. There would be plenty of set pieces to showcase big, epic battles. At the same time you could have those character and world building moments that focused on specific Primarchs and the Emperor.
The downside is that this is set waaaay before the 40k universe that’s depicted on the tabletop these days. It’s far, far removed and those stories have already been told. But it’s far enough away Amazon could have some room for “interpretation” which could be a good (or bad) thing depending on your point of view.
Horus Heresy Era
On the one hand this is a pretty iconic era. It focuses entirely on the civil war between Horus and the Emperor. It’s Space Marine centric. It’s got clear protagonists and clear antagonists. Plus, we get to dabble with the more “mystic” elements of Chaos in this Era. The mix of hard sci-fi and fantastical “chaos” elements is pretty cool. And it’s a bloody, bloody conflict. There’s lots of stories to be told during this era.
On the other hand, this story has been written. It’s probably the most covered narrative in all of 40k up to this point. There’s been over 40 books written in this era! I know Cavill is a big fan of the lore and I’ve read how he pushed Netflix to stick to the story with The Witcher — I worry that this might be a stumbling block here, too. Also, we know how this era ends. I just don’t want to wait for 20 seasons of TV to get to that final battle.
Post-Heresy Era
This 10,000 year play ground might be the best option of the batch. We’ve got some spots in the timeline that have been written about with the various stories. But there’s still a lot of empty canvas to work with. Depending on when you started you might even have Primarchs running around. Or they might have been long dead — it all depends. The Amazon show could touch on some of those highlights or even just mention them. This time period could possibly cover an Inquisitor Show, an Imperial Guard Show, an Ultramarine Show or even a Necromunda Show.
The thing to remember is that Space Marines are effectively immortal. They can be killed, but barring a battlefield injury, they don’t really die of old age. Plus there’s the whole stasis thing they can get stuck in…A story set in this era could follow a group of Marines through various conflicts in this time period.
Personally, I think this era has the most promise because it does lead up to and “end” point but it’s got enough about it for a “road map” through time and yet there’s still a lot of blank space to work with.
Warhammer 40k ‘Propper’ Era
Aside from being the most accurate to the name, this era is pretty well defined in the lore, too. We know the major players and it’s set against that backdrop of Abaddon eventually crashing a Blackstone Fortress into Cadia. This could also be an era where you’d fit pretty much all the same type of shows into. It really depends on where the writers want to focus their lens. This era does benefit from having a very clear end point and it constantly feeling like the clock could tick over at any point.
There’s lots of stories to tell in this particular era, too. The Third War for Armageddon comes to my mind. You’d basically get a giant set piece and you’d get a ton of Space Marine, Imperial Guard, and Ork action. Also, you’d have the culture of the Hives to play around with and an introduction (or at least a very brief look at) the life of a civilian in during the Grimdark millennium.
At the very least, you’d have all those same advantages and disadvantages of having parts of the timeline fleshed out but not every part. This would be my second pick if I had to choose an era.
Indomitus Era
The final era is this age of the Primaris Marine. This era is still being written. The 40k timeline is moving this section forward and it’s been a very mixed bag of highs and lows for the Imperium. This era is basically a blank slate for the writers. They could tell pretty much whatever story they wanted to write here as there is nothing competing with it. There’s lots and lots of blank space here with the backdrop of the Great Rift looming.
If I were a writer on the show I’d probably want to work in this area as the “sandbox” allow for the most creative freedom. At the same time, if the showrunners don’t know what they are doing they could quickly take this “creative freedom” and screw everything up. This era doesn’t have the same guard rails as some of the others and I could see it going poorly if there’s not a clear vision with a steady hand to guide it.
On the flip side there are lots of exciting seeds that have been planted in the recent lore. A lot of those events are new and surprising so this could be a great spot to write new stories in for exactly that reason — it would be a surprise for existing fans and it would be something new.
Not to mention we’ve got the return of a few Primarchs to play around with in this era, too.
We glossed over a lot of eras, so if you like a particular chunk of time from 40k, let us know in the comments!
If you had to choose an era for a TV show which would you pick?
