The miniature wargame Warhammer 40,000, which has been turned into games, novels, and a movie is set to be adapted into a live-action TV series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Big Light Productions’ Frank Spotnitz (The Man in The High Castle) will adapt Warhammer to a live-action TV series, titled Eisenhorn, together with Games Workshop, the wargame’s rights holder.
The live-action series is set in Warhammer 40,000′s world, where mankind lives on the verge of extinction. While humanity’s armies are fighting never-ending wars, there is a secret conflict, fought by the Imperial Inquisition’s armies. Inspired by sci-fi, crime, and fantasy genres, Eisenhorn will have Inquisitor Eisenhorn and his team of investigators fight in order to stop the horrendous plans of aliens, demons, and heretics before the human race faces its end.
The series is based on Dan Abnett’s 2001’s bestselling novels (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Horus Heresy, TX-Men), which were first published by Games Workshop’s Black Library. Abnett also penned the script for Warhammer 40,000‘s 2001 movie Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie. Spotnitz will serve as showrunner and executive producer on the TV series. Emily Feller (Ordinary Lies, Trust Me, Medici), the creative director for Big Light Productions, will also serve as an executive producer.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Games Workshop to develop the beloved visionary world of Warhammer 40,000 into a TV series,” Spotnitz stated. “Warhammer 40,000 is steeped in rich and complex lore, with a myriad of traditions and stories that have accumulated over time in this thrilling and complex world, making it one of the most exciting properties to adapt for television audiences and the franchise’s loyal global fanbase. There is nothing else like it on television, and we are incredibly excited to tap into our own experience creating imaginative, complex and compelling worlds to bring this incredible saga to the screen.”
Andy Smillie, the global head of marketing and media for Games Workshop, said, “We’re thrilled to be working with Frank and his team at Big Light. Warhammer 40,000 has a massive global fanbase – they are a passionate community of Warhammer hobbyists who love to engage with our characters, stories, and games. I’m truly delighted we are able to develop a show that will reward their loyalty. Inquisitor Eisenhorn represents one of the best-loved characters within our worlds, and we’re excited to share his exploits and adventures with audiences new and old. Frank and his outstanding team at Big Light have done amazing things with other properties, bringing complex worlds to the screen, and we can’t wait to see what our partnership produces for the grim darkness of Warhammer 40,000.”
Author Abnett added, “Gregor Eisenhorn is a relentless force in the dark future of the Warhammer universe: a destroyer of daemons and a purger of heretics, implacable, powerful and dedicated. But the appeal to me, from the moment I started writing him, was his complexity. He is not the simple, ruthless hero he appears to be. His battle with the Warp leads him into dark places and forces him to question his duty, his understanding of the Imperium, and his own identity. With Eisenhorn, it’s not just the adventures, and they are certainly vivid: it’s the journey he takes to the very limits of what he is and what it means to be loyal.”