The Warhammer 40K franchise of TV, television, comics, and video games celebrated its 35th birthday. Yet it became a franchise with its first TV broadcast on BBC-TV in 1991. Most recently, Henry Cavill, has announced that he is taking over directing duties from the franchise, after years as the God-Emperor. As such, what were your favorite moments from the many parts of the franchise? Who are your favorite characters of the series? What would things be like regarding the "grimdark" look of the future?
DBWI: Warhammer 40K Franchise stillborn
- Thread starter Mr_ Bondoc
- Start date
The key landmark was in December 2009 when Disney bought Games Workshop (GW) and Marvel. The deal led to the creation of three divisions known as Marvel/GW Studios, Marvel/GW Television, and GW Gaming . After Disney acquired GW, the war gaming company became even more popular, especially to non-gaming book fans. Bob Iger became known as, "The Emperor".
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I can think of two impacts if the franchise was stillborn before the 1991 show.
1) In the real world BBC needed a new sci-fi show following the cancellation of Doctor Who. This gap in their programming was filled by Warhammer 40k from 1991 onwards. Without this they would need either a new ongoing program or a number of miniseries' to fill the gap.
2) In the Warhammer world a lot would change. The first edition was the only edition in existence before the TV adaptation began. A lot of the wackiness of first edition had to be turned somewhat down for a BBC budget and audience sensibilities and the second edition reflected this.
Obviously these are merely the immediate impacts, as a franchise its survivability and eventual transplant to Hollywood resulted in numerous butterflies to entertainment, the arts and even design aesthetics that pop culture today would be totally unrecognisable without it.
1) In the real world BBC needed a new sci-fi show following the cancellation of Doctor Who. This gap in their programming was filled by Warhammer 40k from 1991 onwards. Without this they would need either a new ongoing program or a number of miniseries' to fill the gap.
2) In the Warhammer world a lot would change. The first edition was the only edition in existence before the TV adaptation began. A lot of the wackiness of first edition had to be turned somewhat down for a BBC budget and audience sensibilities and the second edition reflected this.
Obviously these are merely the immediate impacts, as a franchise its survivability and eventual transplant to Hollywood resulted in numerous butterflies to entertainment, the arts and even design aesthetics that pop culture today would be totally unrecognisable without it.
I certainly wouldn't go that far. Much like many British and European directors, I am guessing that you are with the crowd that claims that "Warhammer films are not real films"...
They’re as real as the 1930s serials—and apart from the obvious puns, homages, double entendres, intellectual fan service drawn from dubious historical analogies, and quite frankly bizarre “Semple tank” grade jokes—they’re catering to teenage boy power fantasies. The fact that most of the boys can’t see the jokes that the creators are pulling on them makes them available for hostile reinterpretation, or uncovering the frankly ludicrous from the “lore,” such as the chaotic spirit of temptation having been produced by very non-PG space elf behaviour…this is all very thinly papered over.
Compared to American contents power fantasies of becoming a man in latex “punching on” with another man in latex, these British fantasies for boys offer greater complexity than mere physical homosociality rescued from homosexuality by violence. The idea of the Lacanian “name of the father” being an eternally undying unliving unloving impulse that everyone reinterprets for their own benefit seeking to appease or possess it but never managing.
Image the horror of being trapped on a throne of gold with nobody ever understanding your works. That’s what it is to be a writer for GW four a year serial adventure movies.
Compared to American contents power fantasies of becoming a man in latex “punching on” with another man in latex, these British fantasies for boys offer greater complexity than mere physical homosociality rescued from homosexuality by violence. The idea of the Lacanian “name of the father” being an eternally undying unliving unloving impulse that everyone reinterprets for their own benefit seeking to appease or possess it but never managing.
Image the horror of being trapped on a throne of gold with nobody ever understanding your works. That’s what it is to be a writer for GW four a year serial adventure movies.
Good grief, next you will be touting films by Woody Allen, David Lean, and Martin Scorsese, stating how Hollywood and British Studios have lost their way for the hedonistic ways of "junkfood film" .
Who here remembers the summer of 1994 "Warhammer Scare" when Pat Robertson attempted to organize an international boycott against the Warhammer 40K franchise, stating that the franchise constituted an "attack on Christian values"? If anything, I remember a few fundamentalist colleagues who actually participated in the burning of the comics and VCR tape cassettes....
Would the TV show even have happen if not for Stanley Kubrick releasing in early 91 , his adaptation of Ian Waston's 1990 Novel Inquisitor?
Who would have thought that Stanley Kubrick could turn what was essentially an RPG book into a 3-hour treatise on the nature of human nature and violence?
marathag
Banned
1991 era BBC budget era doing Daemonettes of Slaanesh
40K Retro:3 Decades of Daemonette Minis
Take a look back at one of the most exotic and horrifying denizens of the GW universe - Daemonettes of Slaanesh
www.belloflostsouls.net
And like the best WH40K, NSFW
Just out of curiosity, which stars do you feel were the best guest stars/ roles for the franchise? What cliffhangers were the best?
Also, on a more open note, how would other science fiction/ horror franchises been different without the 31 years of the series? Star Wars? Star Trek?
Also, on a more open note, how would other science fiction/ horror franchises been different without the 31 years of the series? Star Wars? Star Trek?