The greatest partnership in TV history is about to happen

Despite what you might think, this is not a good guy (Picture: Games Workshop) For more than a hundred centuries, I have sat immobile on a Golden Throne, a burned-out husk unable to feel anything beyond apathy and irritation. Okay, that’s not actually true. I don’t have a Golden Throne, just an office chair with a missing arm that I’ve been using for 18 months, nor am I hundreds of centuries old, although if you saw me that might surprise you. Still the stuff about apathy and irritation? That’s pretty much spot on, especially when it comes to film and TV. Call me a grump, but after more than ten years as an entertainment journalist, you do get to a point where you feel like you’ve done and seen it all. So imagine my delight when last night (July 29) I got arguably the best news I’ve had all year and felt the faint pulse of hope once again. You’ve no ideahow much my friends and I enjoyed this moment (Picture: Tom Percival) According to the BBC, Games Workshop – the Nottingham-based miniatures company behind my favourite tabletop strategy game, Warhammer – has drafted Mike Flanagan to write an upcoming Warhammer 40,000 project. The Warhammer Cinematic Universe (WCU) has been in the works since at least December 2022, when it was announced that Superman star Henry Cavill was helping develop a series for Amazon Prime Video. The last we heard was that a set of ‘creative guidelines’ had been agreed for the show, and in 2024, Cavill shared an update. ‘Together, we’ve been sifting through the plethora of incredible characters and poring over old tomes and texts,’ Cavill said in a statement on Instagram. ‘Our combined efforts have led us to a fantastic place to start our Universe, which has been agreed upon by those up on high at both Amazon and Games Workshop. That starting place shall, for now, remain a secret. Watch this space, though — more to come in time!’ According to Deadline, Flanagan is now in talks to serve as an executive producer on a 40K TV series and will also be a showrunner, writer and director for the series. Henry Cavill would think this was cool… (Picture: Tom Percival) Even more excitingly, Deadline is reporting that this is the series that will star Cavill, presumably as a mighty Space Marine or Inquisitor (sorry Xenos fans, I don’t think he’s playing an Ork). So why am I so excited? Well, I think the combination of Flanagan, Cavill and Warhammer is a match made in heaven (or The Warp in this case) You see, one of my biggest passions is Warhammer 40,000 (hitherto referred to as 40K), and I don’t just mean assembling and painting the miniatures (although that is the fun bit). I had my best friend dead to rights, and then he rolled a 3 and let me tell you I was astounded (Picture: Tom Percival) I love the grimdark world of 40K, where eldritch horrors, laughing gods, and cruel aliens sharpen their knives in the shadows of a hostile galaxy. A galaxy where, out of desperation, humanity has turned itself into the most brutal and cruel theocratic regime in history, serving the Corpse Emperor of mankind seated upon his Golden Throne (He doesn’t have a broken office chair). Where a billion lives are lost across countless worlds every day, and it’s considered nothing more than a rounding error to be noted in a bureaucrat’s files. The real fun was painting my little dudes pink and purple… (Picture: Tom Percival) Sounds fun, right? Well, honestly, I adore the stories and tales of heroism from this grimdark far future where there is only war because, as dark as things may be, there are small flickers of good in the galaxy. And I think Flanagan, who’s responsible for some of the best horror movies and TV series of the decade, including The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher, and the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Carrie, is a perfect fit for the 40K universe. Why is Mike Flanagan such a good fit for Warhammer 40k Our Deputy TV Editor Tom Percival takes a break from painting his Drukhari and Emperor’s Children to wax lyrical about Mike Flanagan’s work… Mike Flanagan’s understanding of the uncanny and eerie is what makes him such a good fit for a 40k show. I think this is best reflected (pun unintended) in his movie Occulus about a haunted mirror that ruins a family’s life. The way this film plays with people’s perceptions, slowly amping up the dread as the entity in the mirror plays with its victims, slowly driving them mad, is exactly the type of insidious tale you’d see in 40k. Cavill, meanwhile, is a capital ‘N’ nerd who once spent a Netflix press campaign saying a chandelier looks like a Blackstone Fortress (and he was right), so I know that dweeb can be trusted to get this right. Sadly, there’s no release date yet for the 40K TV show, but Flanagan is working on the series; it hints that plans are in motion now in the webway of TV production. Metro has contacted Games Workshop and Mike Flanagan for comment. 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