UPDATE 8/4: Henry Cavill has now confirmed everything himself in a statement posted to Instagram — Flanagan writing, United Artists aboard, the Deathwatch season — and added the piece the trades never had: he will still star in the lead role, though his character remains a secret.
UPDATE 8/3: Make it two Warhammer projects for Henry Cavill. Variety exclusively reports the animated Deathwatch project is officially in development as an event series at Amazon MGM Studios with Blur Studios and Games Workshop, set up as a spinoff of Secret Level, and Cavill is executive producing it alongside his live-action show.
Dave Wilson, who directed Secret Level’s Warhammer 40,000 episode, co-created the series and directs, with Masters of the Air’s John Orloff co-creating. Secret Level creator Tim Miller executive produces for Blur alongside Cavill, Natalie Viscuso, Vertigo’s Roy Lee, and Games Workshop’s Andy Smillie.
Wilson says Secret Level was “designed as a launchpad for larger stories” and that he has wanted to tell a long-form 40,000 story for more than twenty years. Smart pick, too, as the Warhammer episode remains the highest-rated Secret Level episode on IMDb.
The original article continues below.
Fans have spent months asking the same question about Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 series: is this thing even still happening?
On Tuesday, the answer arrived straight from the source, and it’s a big one. Mike Flanagan is on board.
Games Workshop Confirms Flanagan Has Joined
The confirmation comes from Games Workshop’s own annual report, where CEO Kevin Rountree revealed that Amazon has brought Flanagan into the developing Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Per the report, Flanagan has already completed initial story outlines and moves to script next.
Rountree also confirmed that Cavill and Vertigo Entertainment remain involved as they have been all along, with United Artists now part of the mix as well.
The trades quickly followed with more detail. Deadline reports Flanagan is in talks to executive produce the Cavill-led series and is also engaging as showrunner, writer, and director.
TheWrap reports the same, noting Warhammer would be Flanagan’s second series under the exclusive overall deal he signed with Amazon MGM Studios back in March. His first, the Carrie adaptation, hits Prime Video on October 7.
Flanagan is the filmmaker behind The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and Doctor Sleep, and he is currently everywhere in Hollywood.
He wrote the Clayface movie Warner Bros. releases this Halloween and is writing and directing The Exorcist: Martyrs for Universal and Blumhouse.
Why Fans Thought It Was Dead
Cavill announced the Amazon partnership in December 2022, the same month James Gunn confirmed he was out as Superman and the Man of Steel 2 he was developing with Christopher McQuarrie got scrapped.
Warhammer instantly became the passion project Cavill pivoted to, and he has never been shy about the fandom, signing a fan’s Warhammer helmet while filming Highlander in Poland.
Then came the silence. It took Amazon and Games Workshop a full two years just to finalize their agreement on the creative vision, which didn’t happen until December 2024.
Cavill’s last substantive update came in 2024, when he said the project was still in its early days but that being “at the tiller so it can be faithful” was key to him.
Three and a half years from announcement with no writer, no showrunner, and no script will make any fanbase nervous.
That’s what makes Tuesday’s news the first concrete creative milestone this project has ever had.
Don’t Expect It Anytime Soon
Now for the reality check, and it comes from Games Workshop itself. Rountree said in the report that “these adaptations will take years to bring successfully to market.”
That’s the CEO managing expectations in an official financial filing, so believe him. Outlines moving to script means a premiere is realistically 2028 at the earliest, and 2029 wouldn’t surprise me.
The Flanagan hire is still the strongest possible signal that Amazon is serious. Filmmakers of his caliber don’t attach themselves to vaporware.
And his brand of slow-burn dread is a far better fit for the grimdark of the 41st millennium than the fandom might initially assume.
Animated Warhammer Projects Also Revealed
The annual report had more. Games Workshop confirmed an animated Space Marines project centered on Deathwatch is in development with Masters of the Air screenwriter John Orloff writing.
Warhammer will also appear in Season 2 of Amazon’s Secret Level with a segment set in the Age of Sigmar. The franchise’s push beyond the tabletop continues on all fronts, following this year’s Helldivers 2 crossover.
As for Cavill, the man stays booked: Highlander, Voltron, Enola Holmes 3, and now a Warhammer universe finally moving toward scripts.
And don’t write off Superman. As CBN insiders have said for months, the SnyderVerse is back in play if Paramount lands Warner Bros. Discovery, with a Cavill return part of that conversation.
In the meantime, Man of Steel still shoots up streaming charts every time DC stumbles. Warhammer is the franchise Cavill chose for himself. The Emperor protects.
