Making television is hard and takes time. A a lot of Which is why since Warhammer Producers Games Workshop and Amazon officially announced late last year that they had agreed to produce a new TV series set in the United States. Warhammer 40,000 universe (in Warhammer Super nerd and occasional actor Henry Cavill), we haven’t heard anything about the series since. But if a show is to be held, that could change in the coming months: because deals actually have a time stipulation.
Today Games Workshop released its 2024 annual report (via IGN ) and provided a brief overview of its ongoing partnership with Amazon. Facts have proved that no news is a good thing and a good thing potentially bad news. Good news: The process is still ongoing, and if Amazon does make one Warhammer 40,000the current deal also gives the streamer access to licensing rights to Games Workshop’s fantasy titles, presumably Age of Sigmar or its predecessor, Warhammer Fantasy Combat. Potentially bad news? Amazon and Games Workshop don’t have much time to agree on the shows they want to make before the deal expires.
“Games Workshop and Amazon are collaborating for a period of 12 months, ending in December 2024, to agree on creative guidelines for movies and TV series developed by Amazon,” reads part of the annual report related to the licensing deal. “This agreement will only proceed if Games Workshop and Amazon mutually agree on creative guidelines. We will update you accordingly.”
Basically, things are still happening, but not enough to really say a specific new show is happening. We still have five months until the deal closes before Games Workshop can take its dark universe elsewhere.
This is something that’s relatively common in TV production, and something Games Workshop is already very familiar with considering it went through a similar process with Spotnitz Productions in 2019. At the time, the company announced that it was developing a TV series centered around the character of Gregor Eisenhorn, an Inquisitor of the Imperium of Man who is tasked with hunting down corruption in human society of extraterrestrial influence. But after the deal was first announced, nothing came of it – and the deal was supposedly expiring before Games Workshop could enter into discussions with Amazon in late 2022.
The same thing could happen here, we just haven’t heard anything about Amazon’s plans Warhammer, until a few years later when Games Workshop announced that the license had been moved elsewhere. Or maybe we hear about a show coming out before the end of 2024, see what style Henry Cavill might play Power Man, and then wait for it to go into production! either way, 40KThe future of television will be revealed by the end of 2024. Well, in a grim dark future, there’s only war… and licensing deals.
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