CEO Kevin Rountree confirms Mike Flanagan has been brought on to help Henry Cavill with scripts for upcoming Amazon 40k series.
News has been sparse about the state of the Amazon projects the two companies announced back in 2023. We got confirmation that the deal was indeed finalized in 2024. It’s been nearly two years, and the rumor mill around the deal and what series it may produce has been running at overdrive. Claims that Cavill has left for various reasons have been flung around on Reddit and Discord channels.
Chief executive Kevin Rountree has put those to rest and revealed an interesting addition to the team. A very well-known and talented horror creator.
Buried in a recent finance report from Games Workshop is this tidbit:
As for the Warhammer 40,000 film and TV partnership with Amazon, Henry Cavill remains involved, while United Artists and horror director Mike Flanagan have joined the project and were said to be providing “pace and quality”. Initial outlines have been completed, with Flanagan expected to begin work on the script shortly.
Flanagan is known for his horror series on Netflix, including Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, as well as big-screen Stephen King adaptations of Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck. He’s served as creator, writer, director, and showrunner on multiple projects. In March, he inked a deal with Amazon MGM Studios to develop and produce original series starting with a new adaptation of Carrie. It looks like the studio has asked for his help with Warhammer 40k.
Can We Expect The Inquisition?
The choice to bring in Flanagan might give some clues about the subject of the first series. The grimdark is fundamentally sci-fi horror, and having the showrunner behind some of the best horror series of the last decade is a tell. To me, this says they’re leaning toward a series about the Inquisition rather than something centering Space Marines. It’s been my hope since the announcement that this would be the case.
Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn novels are a perfect base for a series that will pull in a wide audience, beyond longtime 40k fans. I think folks will tune in to follow the iconic Inquisitor Xenos (or a new character or characters) as he hunts down leaders of heretical cabals, infiltrates chaos cults, and deals with Cthulhu-esque monsters. It makes for a more compelling long-form series than the Space Marine fights we’ve gotten in Secret Level.
Maybe we’ll get Hamish Linklater in the lead. That would be fantastic.
My other hope is for a Gaunt’s Ghosts series, but Flanagan being brought in leans hard into Eisenhorn being the star of the first series. Maybe we’ll get the tales of the Tanith First if the first show does well.
More Animation On The Way
GW also announced that a new episode of Secret Level is nearly done. Don’t hold out for a continuation of Titus’ story; it’s set in the Age of Sigmar universe. No details beyond that were shared; I’m sure we’ll get a trailer in the next couple of months. They’ve also started work on a series that focuses on the Deathwatch from writer John Orloff and animation by Blur, which will be released via Amazon Prime Video rather than Warhammer+.
What are you looking forward to the most – a mystery live-action show or the animated Deathwatch series?
Don’t Miss:
Managing editor and pop culture writer that has been on the BoLS team since 2012. Vertigo Comics, Batman, and dystopian sci-fi fan. Enjoys bad movies, LEGO Technic, and the internet. Hates rom-coms. (she/they)
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
