Is Warhammer 40k: Astartes 2 still coming out? Joyfully, the answer is yes! Back in 2021, Games Workshop hired expert animator Syama Pedersen, the creator of the original 2018 animated YouTube mini-series Astartes, to create a follow-up season for Warhammer Plus - and now, finally, that sequel is visible on the horizon. This guide tracks all the latest info, trailer, and the official release window for the animated mini-epic.
One of the joys of Astartes - and by extension Astartes 2 - is that the dialogue free, high energy animated drama speaks for itself, and you don't need to know 40k lore to enjoy it. That said, you can get a deeper understanding by reading our complete guide to all the Warhammer 40k factions, and our detailed breakdown of the Space Marine chapters.
What is Warhammer 40k: Astartes 2?
Astartes 2 is the long awaited second season of a computer animated miniseries set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe, which has been wildly popular among 40k fans ever since the original, five episode run went up on YouTube in 2018.
It's the creation of New Zealand based 3D artist Syama Pedersen, who made the original Astartes mini-series - a set of five animated shorts with a 13 minute total runtime - as an independent solo creator. You can find a brief plot synopsis of the first series down below.
The follow-up will be a different beast, though, because Warhammer 40k owner Games Workshop hired Pedersen in 2021 to make the second series as an official GW production - which means it's fair to suspect he had access to a bigger budget and some measure of support from the Warhammer publisher itself to help juice up season two.
Details about the second season's plot are still shrouded in mystery (though we can pull quite a lot of hints from the teaser trailer - more on that below). But one thing is certain: Astartes 2 will star the Space Marines - seven foot tall, genetically enhanced, power armored super soldiers - as they fight the enemies of the Imperium of Man.
Astartes 2 release date estimate
Games Workshop has confirmed that Astartes 2 is coming some time in 2026. The firm dropped a teaser trailer in January 2025, which ends with the words "Suffer Not The Alien To Live - 2026". No more specific date has been revealed since then.
Beyond that, we don't have much to go on. The timetable for new animated series to be added to GW's Warhammer Plus streaming service has been pretty sporadic since the platform launched in 2021, so we can't use past performance to predict when Astartes 2 is likely to drop.
Rest assured, though, we'll keep this guide updated with the latest info on when the second season will launch on Warhammer Plus.
Syama Pedersen's original Astartes miniseries - a total of 13 minutes runtime - took three full years to create. Pedersen was the only person working on the project. Based on the current schedule of a 2026 release, Astartes 2 will have been in the works for a relatively luxurious five years.
Considering the visual feast that is the Astartes 2 teaser trailer, and the extended development time, we're anticipating the new season being will be longer and more impressive than the original. The Emperor provides.
Astartes 2 trailer
Games Workshop revealed the Astartes 2 Official Teaser Trailer on Wednesday, Januay 29, 2025, and the online 40k fan community collectively went bananas. You can watch it above. When GW made the reveal, it stated that it wasn't showing off a medley of snippets from the series - instead, this represented the backstories of the five marines who would star in the actual series.
It's wild how much action is packed into just ninety seconds, and how well each segment captures the essence of Warhammer 40k. But it isn't surprising: the original Astartes deserves its status as a cult classic. Pedersen clearly understands cinematography, sound design, and what makes the Warhammer 40k universe tick, to a degree few people can match
Pedersen also runs his own 3D animation studio called Digital Bones, and released a stunning sizzler reel of its non-Astartes projects at the same time the Astartes teaser trailer above dropped. 40k it ain't, but Pedersen has made some amazing stuff that Astartes fans will dig - watch it here:
It's possible we won't see many new trailers for Astartes 2 between now and its projected release in 2026. There are only so many clips GW can share in trailer form without spoiling the whole thing.
As and when any new teasers or other video commentaries drop to give us more info and insights on the new season, you can be sure we'll add them to this guide.
Astartes 2 plot
Astartes 2 will star a Deathwatch Kill Team, a special grouping of Space Marines drawn from multiple chapters to combats the most dangerous alien threats. Games Workshop hasn't said this explicitly, but the clues in the trailer are not subtle. It ends with a shot of a heavy Terminator helmet emblazoned with the icon of the Inquisition, the sinister organisation that holds the reins of the Deathwatch.
The trailer also introduces us to marines from five separate Space Marine chapters. Though multiple chapters might all deploy into the same warzone at once, it's only in the Deathwatch that marines from different brotherhoods fight side by side as unified squads. They leverage the unique talents of their different members to achieve feats no single chapter could manage - as well as bringing to bear the deadliest weaponry in the Imperial arsenal.
Astartes 2 Chapters
The Astartes 2 trailer shows marines from five Space Marine chapters. The Retributors, whose icon is a hand clasping a skull, were created by Syama Pedersen for the original Astartes miniseries. The trailer shows them assaulting a Chaos Space Marine cult on a hive world, and later suffering a defeat to the plague-ridden Death Guard.
The yellow and black armored Scythes of the Emperor, whose icon is a pair of crossed scythes, are depicted fighting their natural enemies, the Tyranids, the voracious alien species that devoured their home world Sotha. The marines in the video are firstborn rather than the larger (and later) Primaris marines. Most of the firstborn Scythes died in the final defense of Sotha, so this scene could depict part of that valiant last stand.
The warrior in black and white armor with a white skull logo painted onto his shoulder pad and helmet is a Mortificator (or Mortifactor, they've been called both things). Recruited from a death world, the Mortificators are extremely morbid and favor close-ranged violence. The video shows a warrior punching Orks, pummelling a Winged Tyranid Prime in the face, and ramming a chainsword into a fallen human.
The warrior with a jump pack, red armor, and a winged blood drop icon is a member of the Blood Angels. This section is really brief: we see the Blood Angels take part in an aerial jump assault, and an Imperial Navy battleship being struck with either weapons fire or boarding pods while in a planetary atmosphere.
Lastly, the warriors in green with white helmets with an icon of a black skull inside a spiked halo, are the Sons of Medusa. They're descendants of the Iron Hands with a special devotion to the Cult of the Machine God - no surprises that they're shown piloting tanks. They're depicted fighting T'au stealth suits in a city, trading fire with T'au energy weapons from tank back, and chewing through hordes of Tyranids on the open plains.
Astartes Season 1 plot
Spoilers ahead for Astartes Season 1! If you've not seen it yet, you can catch it on Warhammer Plus.
While we're waiting for Astartes 2 to come along in 2026, let's recap what happened in the original 2018 mini-series. It might only be 13 minutes of video in total, with not a single word spoken - but Astartes packs a lot of detail and story into that tiny narrative space.
The below is the really short version - for a fuller run through, read our complete Astartes season 1 synopsis.
- A detachment of Retributors Space marines boards a renegade PDF (planetary defense force) void ship.
- Two squads push through the decks, fighting off PDF troops and heavy weapons squads.
- A squad of Retributors faces off against two masked psykers, guarding a large vault door, eventually killing them.
- Entering the vault, one squad finds a hooded adept praying in front of a mysterious, chained sphere.
- The second squad encounters another, floating sphere, and stabs multiple knife-like devices into it, apparently weakening it.
- At the same time, the first sphere breaks its restraints, the kneeling adept goes wild, and the Retributors kill them.
- With the death of the adept, the floating sphere reactivates, magnetically sucking the second squad into its surface.
- The second squad try to fight back, with no effect, and are swallowed by the liquid surface of the sphere.
- After a brief vision of space, the Retributors' leader awakens in a dusty valley on an unknown world, surrounded by thousands of chilling, skeletal statues.
We don't yet know exactly how we get from this bleak scene to the apparently bombastic Deathwatch war stories promised by the Astartes Season 2 teaser trailer - or even whether the new season will resolve the original's open ending. We'll have to wait for 2026 to find out.
Astartes 2 FAQ and trivia
We're still waiting with baited rebreather masks for more hard info on Astartes 2 - but in the meantime, if you're new to the Warhammer 40,000 setting, here are a few handy facts to fill in the background for this particular series.
Where can I watch Astartes II?
Astartes 2 will be available exclusively on Warhammer Plus, Games Workshop's subscription based streaming service.
GW launched Warhammer Plus in late 2021, and it's fair to say it got a mixed reception from fans, at least for the first year or so. The main issue was that, at that time, the $5.99 (£4.99) monthly fee got members access to a drastically smaller catalogue of shows than other similarly priced services.
These days, it's a more solid offering, with a lot more Warhammer TV series on offer, genuinely good exclusive minis for members, and a few other benefits - but it's still really only worth it for fans that really dig GW's official animations, in our opinion.
You can bet subscriber numbers will go through the stratosphere when Astartes 2 comes out, though.
What does 'Astartes' mean?
In Warhammer 40k, 'Astartes' is a generic term used to refer to Space Marines: the genetically engineered, power armored super soldiers who make up some of the setting's most prominent factions and characters. It can refer to both Imperial Space Marines and others, such as renegades and Chaos Space Marines; the latter are often called Traitor Astartes or Heretic Astartes.
It's a shortened form of the collective name for these warriors: the Adeptus Astartes. The name derives from Amar Astarte, a human genetic scientist who played a leading role in helping the Emperor of Mankind develop the methods to create the Space Marines. This took place during the Unification Wars, about 10,500 years before the setting's current timeline.
Is Astartes canon?
Yes, to all intents and purposes, the original Astartes miniseries is now canon, because the episodes are now hosted on Warhammer TV and available through Warhammer Plus.
This means that the Retributors chapter, invented by Syama Pedersen, exists within the official body of Warhammer 40k lore - as do the apparent Chaos cultists we see them fighting in the series, and the mysterious metallic orb and the strange, dust caked realm our protagonist travels to at the series' climax.
The immense, mind bogglingly diverse Warhammer 40,000 canon contains many things - and Pedersen's creations are now among them.
Was Astartes made by one guy?
Yes, the original Astartes miniseries was created by a single 3D animator, Syama Pedersen.
We don't yet know the size or nature of the team working on Astartes 2, but it's fair to hope and expect that Pedersen has had support from GW personnel this time around.
Did Syama Pedersen also work on the 40k Secret Level episode?
Yes, Syama Pedersen, creator of Astartes seasons one and two, also worked on the Warhammer 40,000 episode of Amazon's animated miniseries Secret Level, first broadcast in December 2024.
Titled "And They Shall Know No Fear", the episode features Lieutenant Demetrian Titus, protagonist of Space Marine 2, fighting Chaos cultists and traitor astartes in a desperate battle against insuperable odds (you know, just normal 40k things).
The 19 minute short was made by US based animation house Blur Studio, and Pedersen's LinkedIn page shows he was working there as a Layout Artist for six months during the time it was in development. He later posted that he was "proud to have contributed" to the episode.
Blur also created two other episodes in the series: "Xan", based on classic PC shooter Unreal Tournament; and "Exodus: Odyssey", based on Wizards of the Coast's upcoming, still rather mysterious, sci-fi RPG Exodus. It's thus possible Pedersen could have worked on those episodes as well, though he hasn't said as much publicly.
How do you paint Space Marines as Retributors?
As Astartes grew in popularity - and especially in the increasingly hyped buildup to Astartes 2 - more and more fans have looked to paint up their own Space Marines in the color scheme of Astartes' Retributors chapter: warm, slightly greenish gray armor, with white and gold trim.
As a relatively new entry into the 'official' ranks of Imperial chapters, Syama Pedersen's Retributors don't have any color scheme guidelines direct from Games Workshop - but don't worry, the community provides.
There are a few good Retributors painting tutorials on YouTube, but our favorite is this detailed, 25 minute video by respected UK based commission painting firm Siege Studios.
Their 'secret sauce' for Retributors gray is a five to one mix of Citadel's Skavenblight Dinge and XV-88 paints - a very dark, orange-tinged gray and a matt brown color, respectively. You'll see the dreaded airbrush early in the video, but don't worry - their scheme works just as well when base coating with a regular brush.
If you're stoked for Astartes - or think there's another animation that's even better - come and say hello in the Wargamer Discord community.