It’s been an up-and-down end of the year for Henry Cavill. The actor announced his return as Superman for DC’s film universe. He exited The Witcher television series. Then he was out as Superman. Now, news has broken that the actor might be stepping in to produce and star in a Warhammer 40,000 series for Amazon.

While the deal is not done, Amazon is in the final talks for the rights to Games Workshop’s world. They have fended off others who see the potential goldmine in the property which remains relatively untapped. Cavill would star in and produce the adaptation along with Vertigo Entertainment which will executive produce. The actor is a known fan of the game, posting photos of his painting Adeptus Custodes miniatures on Instagram as well as talking about the hobby on talk shows.

Warhammer 40,000 is a 35-year-old game that has players building and painting miniatures to build an army and battle it out on the tabletop. Along with rules, the world is massive delivering stories on the macro and micro levels. It’s built its producer Games Workshop into a powerhouse of a business spawning numerous competitors and imitators.

Set 40,000 years from now, humanity is a militaristic society doing battle with aliens like Ork, the elf-like Aeldari, alien-like (as in the other property) Tyranids, daemonic Chaos, anime-inspired T’au, and more.

The world’s history spans over 10 thousand years from the Emperor’s unification of Earth to its expansion to the stars and the eventual betrayal by some of the Emperor’s forces in what’s known as the Horus Heresy and its current battles on multiple fronts. It boasts an ever-evolving story and world, full of shocking and epic moments on a grand scale.

The brilliance of the universe is its stories span massive battles that make the biggest in the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars look like a skirmish to small and focused stories about corruption at the local level. Planets are exterminated with orbital bombardment or crack squads are sent down to eliminate a single threat. The flexibility of stories is vast and unending.

There’s been a few attempts to adapt the world, mostly in animation with a lot of hits and misses. Games Workshop launched Warhammer+, their digital subscription service which included numerous animated series which were generally good. A television series based on the character Gregor Eisenhorn was announced in 2019 with The X-Files exec producer Frank Spotnitz as showrunner.

Games Workshop has focused in recent years on expanding its property beyond the tabletop. Licensing has increased with the property expanding to clothing, other games, cups, animation, toys, and more.

(via Hollywood Reporter)