Henry Cavill will star in Amazon’s Warhammer 40k movie, TV show

It's finally official - king of the nerds Henry Cavill will star in and executive produce Warhammer 40k series and films licensed by Amazon Studios

Warhammer 40k Amazon film deal in principle - photograph of Henry Cavill from a Witcher event in Madrid

An announcement by Amazon Studios on December 16, posted to the Warhammer Community website, confirms that Henry Cavill will both act in and executive produce licensed Warhammer 40k productions across “all Amazon Studios productions”.

Amazon Studios says that it has secured “global rights” to the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property, though an earlier post made to Games Workshop’s investor website indicates that some contract details remain to be secured. Henry Cavill’s involvement in the project is official, after months of wishful thinking from Warhammer fans.

Warhammer 40k Henry Cavill Amazon movie and tv shows - Games Workshop promo image showing a gold aquila

Andy Smillie, creative director at GW, says “It’s great news and we’re absolutely thrilled; we’re working with a fantastic triumvirate in Henry, Vertigo [Entertainment], and Amazon.” Vertigo Entertainment’s most recent work includes the TV adaptation of Steven King’s The Strand and the recent film adaptations of IT.

Vertigo’s Vice President of Television, Natalie Viscuso, also happens to be Henry Cavill’s partner. She was formerly employed at Legendary Entertainment, a studio involved in two other Henry Cavill vehicles, Man of Steel and Enola Holmes.

The Warhammer Community article notes that the deal includes rights to Warhammer 40,000 “across series, film, and more”, and is the “first deal of its kind for Amazon Studios for IP of this scale”.

Warhammer 40k Henry Cavill confirmed to star in and executive produce new licensed movies and TV series - Henry Cavill, a well-built man with black hair and wearing a white jumper, holds a coffee cup beside a table of Warhammer figures, in front of a Warhammer logo

The Henry Cavill Warhammer 40k love affair is an open secret, and this announcement comes after widespread rumours broke on the internet yesterday.

There’s still no word yet on Cavill’s involvement in FromSoftware’s action RPG Warhammer 40k: Nihilus – but (and we can’t stress this enough) that’s because it is not a real game, we made it up for our 2022 April Fool’s Day story. At this time, there’s no indication GW or FromSoft took us as seriously as the internet did (but we remain open to discussions).