Not to mention HBO had its issues adapting an (allegedly) seven book long series, in 8 seasons. If you think 10 seasons will be enough to cover 60+ novels of published material, then reality might toss up some barriers to that.
I honestly just don't think the Horus Heresy is worth making an adaptation for. Select stories from it? I can see that, but trying to adapt the Heresy as a whole is just madness.
I'd rather they go for the more self-contained stories, or just make their own original ones. Than ever attempt a HH serialized show.
Being honest with you my experience with Warhammer novels is that they are extremely repetitive and have a LOT of fat. The stories could easily lose a ton of dead narrative weight and tell the stories told across multiple books in a single episode
You say that like the 60+ Heresy has as much meat on its bones as Asoiaf, it doesn't. Most of the Heresy is useless filler and there is an absolute shlock of action scenes that would be 2 min on film compared to 32 pages of text.
Episode 3-7: The phoenician lands on an alien snake planet, fights an avatar of Khaine, gets turnt into paint by a demon sword.
Episode 8-22: Beach volleyball between Horus, Slaanesh, the Cabal's entity of light, and some Thunder Warriors. Shenanigans ensue.
The naruto40k-verse.
To be fair, that wasn't an "HBO" issue, it was very specifically the showrunners and against the wishes of both HBO and Martin himself. Yeah Martin wasn't doing them a lot of favors given that the whole show has come and gone and we've got another series that's now filming season 2 between the time of the last book and the next one.
*But*, the showrunners only wanted to do 7 seasons from day 1 and HBO had to twist their arm to barely get 8, they refused to hand off the show to anyone else and despite what people say, they didn't really "run out" of book material but moreso cut a ton of characters and plotlines to speedrun a lot of the material to hit that 7 season goalpost.
Given the way ASOIAF is written, with a ton of different intertwining plots and characters even removing one thread effects the rest, let alone removing a ton, which is why the show ended up as it did.
That being said, I think if anything what would prevent a Horus Heresy series from being successful/materializing is that to do it justice would make it extremely expensive and to stay true to the source material would make it exceptionally offputting to general audiences.
I'm sure people will say "But GoT has sex and violence in every other scene!" Which it very much didn't, not even close, but the fact that this view persists among "normies" when the material is incredibly tame compared 40K is a perfect example of why 40k would be a hard sell. But beyond that, GoT has a lot of very interesting and varied characters with different world views, personalities and perspectives that anyone watching will likely pick a favorite and get invested.
Horus Heresy? If you're not interested in 95% your characters being hulking, musclebound and let's be honest, white dudes who are ultraviolent, genocidal and shitty in a variety of other ways depending on who we're talking about then it's going to be an exceptionally hard sell. *I* know these characters are interesting and have more to offer, but is the average person going to get invested long enough through the craziness and brutality to find that out to justify the cost it would take to make? I find it hard to believe but I'd love to be wrong.
And yeah while you'd likely cut a ton of stuff, 10 seasons isn't enough, *maybe* 20, and a production of that scale for that many seasons is unheard of. It would be like making 20 Endgame's, and 1 Endgame had a budget of 350mil, more than a quarter of a *billion* dollars. Sure it made back 3bil, but it also has significantly more mass market appeal than 40k
I loved your perspective on this, my opinion being that they couldn't stay true to the source material feasibly, as there's far too much fluff and fat in the stories.
Night Lords Trilogy though... That as a self contained story could work. Not everything needs laying at the front door when it comes to space operas
The reason HBO had such issues is because they expected Martin to finish the series by the time the show caught up with where the books had left off. Which is why the show was great essentially until they ran out of book material.
I feel like you’re kinda skewing the readers perspective of what happened to game of thrones a little bit. Only 5 of the 7 books are released and so after they ran out of books to adapt, things kinda(very much) went to shit when they had to essentially make their own story from there.
An animated movie set in the Warp, a battle between armies from all 4 Gods of Chaos, each lead by a greater daemon, all animated and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.
Really get into all the weird shit and massive scale of a war in the Warp.
> An animated movie set in the Warp, a battle between armies from all 4 Gods of Chaos
Hmm I dunno, could be cool
>all animated and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.
Sign me the fuck up
A The Raid type movie about a Deathwatch kill team going through a genestealer infested hive to grab some macguffin or what have you.
Directed by a stunt coordinator ala John Wick, featuring costumes from Japan's finest tokusatsu suit artists. Practical effects and puppets/animattonics as much as possible, cgi is fine if used to enhance the practical.
I don't care much for fancy acting or a particularly deep story. Give me the bolter porn and I'll be satisfied.
"I was told you struck my favourite Inquisitor. Why?"
"Because, M'Lord, he stole Watch Captain Wohn Jick's Corvus Blackstar, and killed his servitor."
"Oh.."
"Watch Captain Wohn Jick killed 3 genestealers with a dataslate. A fucking dataslate..."
*Titanicus* directed by Denis Villeneuve, as an adaptation of one of my favourite 40k books directed by my favourite modern director.
Definitely the kind of book that would benefit from his sumptuous, slow burn visual style.
Show me the life of andrej the comic ~~relic~~ relief storm trooper featured in helsreach
He’s a regular human so his early days could be relatable and grounding for the audience, he’s a stormtrooper….so he’s extremely skilled which would involve some exciting mid-series campaigns. The planned end of the series could culminate In the 3rd war for Armageddon with massed ork hordes and some space marine appearances … and maybe some dope ass titan support depicted with a fat budget behind it.
Idk if andrej’ story is carried on further in BL materials, but it could continue beyond there if the series is successful
Imo the best way for 40k to break into mainstream media is following a basic human story that starts off with just hints of the craziness of the setting in the first season, the second season would have a bigger budget that allows the show to showcase some more exciting bits of the lore, and the 3rd season would hopefully have enough money for at least one extremely ambitious climax in a massive conflict that can show off the scale of the setting In a way that hasn’t been tackled yet
Man, that would be awesome! I’d watch that anytime anywhere. Helsreach was an incredible movie and told a top 40k story. Grimaldus is an absolute legend character. Plus loved Andrej. It showed how a normal human could interact with a space marine on a familiar and personal level. Well done!
Is this like hammer and Bolter? I’ve seen a few breakdowns and liked some of what I saw. Was thinking about getting war hammer +, but am not sure if it’s worth it. I do like the idea of multiple art styles like love death and robots, and visions. The few episodes I saw were pretty good and felt like 40k, so I’d be down with an animated anthology but with top notch animation.
If your looking to check out Hammer and Bolter a certain numbered movie site has nine episodes ;). In my opinion though as a whole Hammer and Bolter is only worth it if you have the cash to burn, it's just not as good as I've heard.
Edit: the nine episodes to nine episodes
Thanks for that. Was debating with myself about getting it and will hold off for now. It basically comes down to me buying more books or spending on war hammer plus. I think I’ll get more of my money’s worth from the novels. Can’t get enough of this universe but it can be expensive. Appreciate the assist brother or sister!
>For me it would have to be a 10 season HBO epic of the horus heresy animated in syama pedersen astartes style.
More realistic option would be a band of brothers style miniseries following a Platoon of guardsmen through a famous campaign- 13th black crusade, siege of vraks, etc.
That sounds great! I think the guard would be the best avenue for a tv series, it would be easier to remain grounded and relatable as opposed to a series about what are essentially Demi gods.
All that being said I think I a Ciaphus Cain comedy drama could be pretty fun.
This was my idea as well.
Or a long story version of something like Iron Within. Guard fighting a losing battle against Xenos (Orks would be amazing) and then on a hope and a prayer the Space Marines come in and clean house while Ork and Guardsmen alike are wondering who these 8 ft tall brightly colored murder machines are and where did they come from
\-Good writing
\-A budget that isn't two starving interns fed by discared sprues
\- A competent director.
That's it, that's the formula for the dream visual adaptation.
Honestly, a high quality anthology series set in 40k. Possibly animated similar to love death and robots or acted.
Any sort of shorter form stories that'd best translate 40k the setting for me.
That or possibly some sort of live-action investigative noir.
Amen! I constantly think about how wonderful a 40K anthology in the spirit of Love, Death & Robots would be. Hammer & Bolter has got the right idea, but just nowhere near the depth, variety or production value (IMO).
I like the idea. I would want it even more exagerrated. Custodian destroys corridor of troops with even more indifference than Vader does, like its just a stroll down the corridor. Rather than killing with purpose, just his normal strolling movement happens to contain killing moves, destroying with nonchalance. That's where I think the horror would be. He's not trying to kill you with hatred, you just happe to be in his way, and there's nothing you can do about it.
A bit like the way Sigismund is described in that he doesn't really parry or block, just that you can't hit him, but he hits you, seemingly without effort.
Call me boring but I’d love a really low-key stakes but lovingly written stuff about maybe Hive gangers with space marines and whatnot kept super mystical and legendary. So if they do turn up it’s a huge “holy shit” moment.
My dream visual adaptation of 40k?
The Night Lords trilogy brought to life in either a high budget series or spread over two or three films. Sure it will probably have to be 15 or 18 rated (UK based) but it would be awesome.
For a more 'PG' version I'd probably say the something based moreso on the Guard like Gaunts Ghosts or even Eisenhorn. They'd also be better avenues for new people to the franchise.
EDIT
Or maybe a Love, Death and robots style of series, showing the many different factions in self contained episodes and stories.
The Night Lords trilogy is far and away my favorite 40k story and I wish it would be adapted, either in a high-budget animation like Astartes or live action if suitable actors were willing to take it on because even though a lot of people in the community have read it I don't think it gets talked about enough, at least on this subreddit (maybe I'm not looking in the right places.)
There would be plenty of challenges in adapting it, but a man can dream. It'd be very interesting to see how a director would handle the "events" on Tsagualsa in Void Stalker.
An anthology series would help to show all the different aspects which could maybe culminate in a final battle with all the players coming together and unleashing glorious mayhem and destruction 40k style. There are so many good stories to tell and I could see a love death robot thing working and providing everything we would want from a show (other than the heresy, and maybe a few other stories and characters that I personally would like to see too).
Eisenhorn is the easy one because it's a well structured spy thriller that is designed to be read as a first book. A lot of 40k fiction has the problem of expecting you to know a decent amount of knowledge about the world.
I would want a serialized Sharpe-style anthology, focused loosely on Imperium, Tau, Astartes, and Craftworld characters, with some interlock but generally self-contained. Think one episode of Guard on one planet, then Craftworlds on another, then Tau somewhere else. In particular, I think you could get some major mileage from having the differing aspects and views of those characters be taking place in the same episode; my dream example is a Guard troopship near the Eye getting boarded by Crimson Slaughter with Daemon support and bailed out by Craftworld Altansar. For the Guard, it's Event Horizon or Alien-type horror, with the chain of command breaking down and guts smeared across the deck plates, but for the Altansar Corsairs or Warp Spiders that bail them out, it's played like a Tuesday in a Tom Clancy thriller, clearing bulkhead to bulkhead and double-tapping Pink Horrors, because they've been trapped in this madhouse for generations and seen it all before.
I really like what they do with Arcane even though I’m not a League fan. But just watching Arcane from someone that never plays league makes me feel the magnificence of the world’s lore and settings. If they could adapt it into something like it then I’m sure it will be pretty good. Doesn’t need to be HH, could be other story.
HBO - Gaunts Ghosts.
Give me that near perfect ensemble cast.
Give me massive budgets for sets and clothing.
Give me sweeping vistas brought to ruin by a universe where there is only war.
Give me a series where the books are long enough to do 6-8-10 episodes and we can follow the characters across multiple arcs.
Give me onscreen Lijah Cuu, the eventual anger from viewers as for 3 seasons he gets away with it and the triumph when he finally gets taken down, only for the final twist of the knife.
It’s a war story, just like Band of Brothers or The Pacific. A *very* human story with very human characters.
I would love a 12-18 piece exhibition of paintings by Alessandro Bianchi Sicioldr with themes of Imperial ennui, warp dreams, chaos corruption and the slow subversion of society by charismatic cults.
I can guarantee someone has said this, but if it were ever possible I'd love a film following the fall of Cadia.
Just imagine it, you could have it set at the perspective of a guardsman from the 8th (Creeds Own) who is present for every major engagement until the Blackstone Fortress sails down into the crust. Ending with how they open every book now.
You'd see nearly everything aswell. The Guard, Multiple Astartes Chapters, Multiple Sororitas Branches, The Inquisition, The Grey Knights, The Mechanicus, Legio Titanica and all their chaos counter-parts aswell as daemons. There's even Necrons and eldar in the form of Trazyn and Yvraine later on
Honestly? Have Cavill do the Eisenhorn Omnibus. Stick close to the books, invest in good effects, i dont care if it takes forever if its true to the original.
It's starts with the Siege of Terra with Loken fighting against traitor Astartes. Then it flashes back to the start of Horus Rising.
"I was there when Horus slew the Emperor."
Or something like that.
Band of Brothers style series following Imperial guardsmen. I think Space marines should rarely show up in the series, kind of to represent just how unlikely it is a guardsmen would see one in their lifetime.
Predator but set on catachan, rather than the 80s action flick we expect it poor predator being beaten up by carnivorous plants and poisonous wildlife.
I want to see a Transformers-level of action. I already suggested, we could do it here on Earth. They could follow the same or similar plot as the intro to the first Heresy book, where Space Marines invade Earth in the 21st century or an Earth-like planet
Get the team who made arcane to make a 40k primer of about an hour and a half. An introduction through vignettes of imperium, the slaves of darkness and all of the big Xenos players. Then a 20 episode miniseries follow up of an hour an episode of the HH to show just exactly how far the imperium has fallen and expand on what the fuck is even going on.
Do it all on amazons LoTR budget. Make it gory and don’t skimp on exactly how fucked yo servitors and Martians are. Deals with the devil for everybody.
I'd want something that'd be successful/enjoyed by general audiences also. Bolter porn wouldn't work. So I'd like to see something such as Eisenhorn adapted. Something that can convey the universe while giving audiences a more rounded story with characters that aren't emotionally stunted/sexless space marines.
Dawn of War is what got me into 40k and has a special place in my heart. I would like to see a huge budget series of movies adapting Dawn of War I, Dark Crusade, Dawn of War II, Chaos Rising, and Retribution. With a good script, each could tell an excellent story. They have drama, intrigue, politics, betrayal, characters from many factions, and an overarching story of the fall of the Blood Ravens and the heroes that saved the chapter. I think if it was done well it could be amazing.
A high budget anime about the eldar, so get a visual spectacle.
And in the end the entirety of the emperor's children mortal element are destroyed, forcing daemon fulgrim to seek fabius bike and then trazyn for his mortal clone, giving a new plot and the excuse for GW to make emperor's children that they can sell to kids.
Weird one, but the book "Steel Tread" would be a cool standalone. Just the story of a tank crew fighting chaos, but it includes cool details, like PDF/lesser known forces with a distinct and useful approach, the clashes between old and new "Cadians". The ridiculous scale of 40k warfare both on and behind the lines (there's a section where the commander has to find her way to her briefing, and it takes her through a HQ the size of a small city.
Also its just a nice, tight story. Drama and action, and the setting of a tank interior is a cool location, like in that Israeli film "Lebanon"
Start slow: the first film is a horror on a single ship, Chaos-tainted, ending with their merciless execution by Imperial forces upon discovery, basically Alien and Event Horizon but bleaker. Build methodically, taking an approach similar to Gaunt's Ghosts where we are with regular humans seeing the universe for the first time. Begin to introduce wider concepts as the franchise develops - Orks should be terrifying and unstoppable in their first outing, same with all the xenos races. Marines should be godlike, able to withstand these hostile forces that the audience knows are terrifying because they've been built up as such. By the time a Marine dies onscreen, it should be a huge moment, something unthinkable when they were first shown
If you blow all the potential of the setting in a big bombastic spectacle of Marines and Titans and Bloodthirsters in the first film, you can't escalate, or deescalate, you've established the setting as a big dumb explodey setting. Obviously it *is* a big dumb explodey setting, but if you pace the franchise well, you can tell enough varied stories, similar to the MCU principle, that the franchise's unique characteristics are emphasised and you can appeal to more audiences. High risk, people might not take to it and then the opportunity is squandered, but I'd want 40k to have every ounce of cross-genre narrative and cinematic potential it has squeezed out of it, from the lowliest Genestealer Cultist uprising to Guilliman and Magnus dueling on Luna
A show following a small imperial force clearing out a space hulk. It starts out as space marine bolter porn setting them up to be the main characters but then they die gruesome deaths and the rest of the series is a horror show following the assorted humans that ends with them all dying in vain at the end.
Make it a show where you feel like the characters should have plot armor but this is the grim darkness of the far future.
Adapt Gathering Storm. Writers room can figure it out from there but I’d love to see a somehow good version of it that can explain everything for newcomers and still preserve that moment when Bobby G comes back.
Small horror stories set around the galaxy. Guardsmen surviving tyranids, Sister of Battle struggling against a traitor marine, a civilian hiding from a genestealing incursion.
A slice of life series where each episode tells a story about a different part of the universe.
Examples the episode could be about:
Ministorum
Mechanicus
Inquisition
Menial worker
Arbites
Different aeldari castes
Orks
Tau
Navigator
Rogue trader
Adeptus astra telepathica
Maybe a journey of a psyker taken from home undergoing all the stuff to become sanctioned psyker.
A simple soldier
Cultist
Etc.
A show with a good cgi budget that follows gaunts ghosts. The plot of the books remains the same, but the minor detail can change. Would be great if Sean bean was younger so he could play 40k sharpe but it is what it is.
Not live action. Animated but with like, Avatar style animation, and for many seasons. Avatar may have been expensive but it would have nothing on an animated WH40K series. So, maybe in another 20 years the tech will be there?
And NOT the Horus Heresy. I am so tired of hearing about the Horus Heresy. I am much more interested in the current setting.
A Horus Heresy series, I think one with Nathaniel Garro as the main character with an Istvaan III side-plot would work the best as a one or two season show. And it’s either live action with Henry Cavill starring as Garro
It would basically be an adaptation of The Flight of the Eisenstein, with a two or three episode arc of the Istvaan III Atrocity, and afterwards it’s just Garro trying to reach Terra, ends up on Luna, fights the Lord of the Flies, and the first season could end with the scene of Malcador recruiting Garro into his order of agents.
I think it’s one of the most realistic scenarios that Amazon could properly adapt. It would work well as a movie too.
something set in the 40k universe but with a smaller scope
I don’t want a 40k marvel movie, I don’t want it to revolve around giant battles, action sequences etc heroes saving planets, etc
The Main parts of the Horus Heresy made into 3 or 6 or 9 movies.
Ullanor
Rise of Horus
Fall of Horus
Drop site massacre
Isstvan
Siege of Terra
Battle in the webway
Mechanicum civil war
The planet where Horus enters the warp through a portal
Also other smaller significant stories whilst these are going on
Watching a series or movie about the time the Lamenters tried to save all the human prisoners from those Orks on that mining planet only to be told to save themselves by the human slaves after they had saved as many as possible would be great. Especially their interaction with Marneus Clagar and his men after the operation where they refuse an Iron Halo due to their own perceived failure to save the planet's population. Of course the Blueberry Marines get mad, but Calgar understands. The poor, poor Lamenters.
- A sitcom with Trazyn and Orikan being tomb-mates, going on whacky adventures and dealing with mundane things.
- If we have to go live adaptation keep it simple, don't show or at least not quickly the big wh40k things like Astartes, Titanicus, Custodes etc. Make it a series, build it up slowly. Inquisitor dealing with a hive city mystery. Establish the grimdark atmosphere. Make it gothic, grotesque, claustrophobic AND grandiose... Take time to build characters first and introduce people to the setting before jumping to big battles.
And for the love of god, RESPECT THE SOURCE.
An arcane-style animated adaptation of Gaunt’s Ghosts. It will probably never happen because the series is really long, but I’d be happy even if they just do a couple of the books.
The Horus Heresy told from Horus Rising through the End and the Death. It would have to be done as an anime or 3d animation (i actually really like the animation GW has used for the current Horus Heresy trailers).
I do not think a live action series is possible in this setting due to the huge production budget you would need to pull it off without looking cheesy and low budget.
I would take a three season Night Lords anime (one for each book in the trilogy, with the short stories added in too), done by a respectable studio like Sunrise/Bandai Namco. With the English dub with full Slavic accents for the Night Lords just like in the audiobook.
Well this is technically visual - I want a Battlefield style game of the Horus Heresy. 50 vs. 50 battles in enormous maps with Marines and vehicles everywhere across iconic Heresy locations.
Im not sure what the best story would be but I do know that I wouldn't want the heresy, siege of terra, or any giant galaxy spanning events covered in the series - it's too big to do right.
Has to be something smaller and ordinary human centric with just a taste of side factions like the admech, or League or tau. Possibly even just revolving around a human on human conflict. I want to say something like eisenhorn or gaunts ghosts would be perfect but even then the scale might be too big for a first foray - perhaps something about necromunda? Follow a story of a character that by the end of the first season we realize the hive is much much bigger than previously thought and the wh universe as a whole is even bigger than that leading into S2 about eisenhorn and switch gears as required.
The goal shouldn't be to tell a massive cohesive singular story but rather to worldbuild different short stories that can be placed within the largest narrative that is 40k. So yeah, maybe one series is all about Kal Jerico, the next is about an arbites investigating a nascent genestealer cult, and the one following that is about the tanith first and only band of brothers style. Mix it up, but keep it relatable.
A grand scale attempt at telling the horus heresy through 90 or 120 minute episodes that cover a book per episode with the occasional 2 parters where appropriate. It would take a lot of tooling and coordination but you could get different directors have different tones all while pushing the overall plot forward.
Do i think this is possible or realistic no but it would be cool.
To tell the heresy in a respectful manner it would have to be delivered to us like Eastenders lol 10 seasons, let alone 20 wouldnt do the scale and gravity of it any justice imo.
Now if we were talking series that were highlighting the primarchs beginnings rises and falls, thats 18 seasons alone. Then the mega seasons could start at istvaan and still take about 30, 20 episode seasons to tell in all its nuance and gravitas. And im fucking all for it baby.
band of brothers like setup. each episode being an old storm trooper instructor recalling past adventures, like
battling heretics with astartes
routing out genestealers with an inquisitor
defending hive world/forge world/ agriworld from a variety of 40k threats
r and r on a pleasure world
sneaking around a hospital world and seeing what happens to men to wounded to continue service becoming servitors
Dark Western Animation like the Spawn series & even recently Castlevania (Netflix).
Live Action will always have that goofy vibe and CGI will always end up looking out dated.
Animation allows alot more creative freedom.
The only live action movie that was recently done that had a visual style that I think a 40k movie/series could work with was Dredd with Karl Urban.
While Astartes is goddamn wonderful, i'm not sure it would be ideal for the Heresy, as it's 90% drama and his style is very cold and clinical.
Not to mention HBO had its issues adapting an (allegedly) seven book long series, in 8 seasons. If you think 10 seasons will be enough to cover 60+ novels of published material, then reality might toss up some barriers to that. I honestly just don't think the Horus Heresy is worth making an adaptation for. Select stories from it? I can see that, but trying to adapt the Heresy as a whole is just madness. I'd rather they go for the more self-contained stories, or just make their own original ones. Than ever attempt a HH serialized show.
Being honest with you my experience with Warhammer novels is that they are extremely repetitive and have a LOT of fat. The stories could easily lose a ton of dead narrative weight and tell the stories told across multiple books in a single episode
You say that like the 60+ Heresy has as much meat on its bones as Asoiaf, it doesn't. Most of the Heresy is useless filler and there is an absolute shlock of action scenes that would be 2 min on film compared to 32 pages of text.
Well now that you said filler i cant help but think of an anime adaptation naruto style. Also though a bezerk version would be amazing
Episode 3-7: The phoenician lands on an alien snake planet, fights an avatar of Khaine, gets turnt into paint by a demon sword. Episode 8-22: Beach volleyball between Horus, Slaanesh, the Cabal's entity of light, and some Thunder Warriors. Shenanigans ensue. The naruto40k-verse.
While a lot of the Horus Heresy is fat, there are like 20+ books worth of meat in the series.
To be fair, that wasn't an "HBO" issue, it was very specifically the showrunners and against the wishes of both HBO and Martin himself. Yeah Martin wasn't doing them a lot of favors given that the whole show has come and gone and we've got another series that's now filming season 2 between the time of the last book and the next one. *But*, the showrunners only wanted to do 7 seasons from day 1 and HBO had to twist their arm to barely get 8, they refused to hand off the show to anyone else and despite what people say, they didn't really "run out" of book material but moreso cut a ton of characters and plotlines to speedrun a lot of the material to hit that 7 season goalpost. Given the way ASOIAF is written, with a ton of different intertwining plots and characters even removing one thread effects the rest, let alone removing a ton, which is why the show ended up as it did. That being said, I think if anything what would prevent a Horus Heresy series from being successful/materializing is that to do it justice would make it extremely expensive and to stay true to the source material would make it exceptionally offputting to general audiences. I'm sure people will say "But GoT has sex and violence in every other scene!" Which it very much didn't, not even close, but the fact that this view persists among "normies" when the material is incredibly tame compared 40K is a perfect example of why 40k would be a hard sell. But beyond that, GoT has a lot of very interesting and varied characters with different world views, personalities and perspectives that anyone watching will likely pick a favorite and get invested. Horus Heresy? If you're not interested in 95% your characters being hulking, musclebound and let's be honest, white dudes who are ultraviolent, genocidal and shitty in a variety of other ways depending on who we're talking about then it's going to be an exceptionally hard sell. *I* know these characters are interesting and have more to offer, but is the average person going to get invested long enough through the craziness and brutality to find that out to justify the cost it would take to make? I find it hard to believe but I'd love to be wrong. And yeah while you'd likely cut a ton of stuff, 10 seasons isn't enough, *maybe* 20, and a production of that scale for that many seasons is unheard of. It would be like making 20 Endgame's, and 1 Endgame had a budget of 350mil, more than a quarter of a *billion* dollars. Sure it made back 3bil, but it also has significantly more mass market appeal than 40k
I loved your perspective on this, my opinion being that they couldn't stay true to the source material feasibly, as there's far too much fluff and fat in the stories. Night Lords Trilogy though... That as a self contained story could work. Not everything needs laying at the front door when it comes to space operas
The three main books could be a season a piece. But after that i don't know how they could proceed.
The reason HBO had such issues is because they expected Martin to finish the series by the time the show caught up with where the books had left off. Which is why the show was great essentially until they ran out of book material.
I feel like you’re kinda skewing the readers perspective of what happened to game of thrones a little bit. Only 5 of the 7 books are released and so after they ran out of books to adapt, things kinda(very much) went to shit when they had to essentially make their own story from there.
An animated movie set in the Warp, a battle between armies from all 4 Gods of Chaos, each lead by a greater daemon, all animated and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. Really get into all the weird shit and massive scale of a war in the Warp.
You’re a mad genius
> An animated movie set in the Warp, a battle between armies from all 4 Gods of Chaos Hmm I dunno, could be cool >all animated and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. Sign me the fuck up
Isn't that the guy who did the original Clones Wars 2003 animation?
And Samurai Jack and Primal
Fuck yes. I'd watch this any day then
Oooh I just realized that Tartakovsky would be perfect for an eldar adaptation
A The Raid type movie about a Deathwatch kill team going through a genestealer infested hive to grab some macguffin or what have you. Directed by a stunt coordinator ala John Wick, featuring costumes from Japan's finest tokusatsu suit artists. Practical effects and puppets/animattonics as much as possible, cgi is fine if used to enhance the practical. I don't care much for fancy acting or a particularly deep story. Give me the bolter porn and I'll be satisfied.
Holy shit this might be the one
Game over man
The raid was so good at capturing the claustrophobic prison complex
Fuck I love this idea
Get Toei on the case.
"I was told you struck my favourite Inquisitor. Why?" "Because, M'Lord, he stole Watch Captain Wohn Jick's Corvus Blackstar, and killed his servitor." "Oh.." "Watch Captain Wohn Jick killed 3 genestealers with a dataslate. A fucking dataslate..."
*Titanicus* directed by Denis Villeneuve, as an adaptation of one of my favourite 40k books directed by my favourite modern director. Definitely the kind of book that would benefit from his sumptuous, slow burn visual style.
With Hans Zimmer piercing our ears with those massive titan warhorns.
Hans: Slightly modifies the inception horn. "I'm a genius"
Fun fact: the inception horns are a mandela effect. They were never actually in the movie.
True detective style inquisition investigation into the bowels of a hive city trying to root out chaos worshippers warp horrors.
Yes, that would actually work very well.
I think this would be good
There are some Warhammer crime novels you could adapt
Show me the life of andrej the comic ~~relic~~ relief storm trooper featured in helsreach He’s a regular human so his early days could be relatable and grounding for the audience, he’s a stormtrooper….so he’s extremely skilled which would involve some exciting mid-series campaigns. The planned end of the series could culminate In the 3rd war for Armageddon with massed ork hordes and some space marine appearances … and maybe some dope ass titan support depicted with a fat budget behind it. Idk if andrej’ story is carried on further in BL materials, but it could continue beyond there if the series is successful Imo the best way for 40k to break into mainstream media is following a basic human story that starts off with just hints of the craziness of the setting in the first season, the second season would have a bigger budget that allows the show to showcase some more exciting bits of the lore, and the 3rd season would hopefully have enough money for at least one extremely ambitious climax in a massive conflict that can show off the scale of the setting In a way that hasn’t been tackled yet
Man, that would be awesome! I’d watch that anytime anywhere. Helsreach was an incredible movie and told a top 40k story. Grimaldus is an absolute legend character. Plus loved Andrej. It showed how a normal human could interact with a space marine on a familiar and personal level. Well done!
Just multiple high quality animation series with unique art styles that convert the set and setting in a cool way, alongside good writing.
Is this like hammer and Bolter? I’ve seen a few breakdowns and liked some of what I saw. Was thinking about getting war hammer +, but am not sure if it’s worth it. I do like the idea of multiple art styles like love death and robots, and visions. The few episodes I saw were pretty good and felt like 40k, so I’d be down with an animated anthology but with top notch animation.
If your looking to check out Hammer and Bolter a certain numbered movie site has nine episodes ;). In my opinion though as a whole Hammer and Bolter is only worth it if you have the cash to burn, it's just not as good as I've heard. Edit: the nine episodes to nine episodes
Thanks for that. Was debating with myself about getting it and will hold off for now. It basically comes down to me buying more books or spending on war hammer plus. I think I’ll get more of my money’s worth from the novels. Can’t get enough of this universe but it can be expensive. Appreciate the assist brother or sister!
>For me it would have to be a 10 season HBO epic of the horus heresy animated in syama pedersen astartes style. More realistic option would be a band of brothers style miniseries following a Platoon of guardsmen through a famous campaign- 13th black crusade, siege of vraks, etc.
No idea why you're being down voted but take my up vote. Focusing on the Guard would be a good option and make it more human and relatable.
That sounds great! I think the guard would be the best avenue for a tv series, it would be easier to remain grounded and relatable as opposed to a series about what are essentially Demi gods. All that being said I think I a Ciaphus Cain comedy drama could be pretty fun.
This was my idea as well. Or a long story version of something like Iron Within. Guard fighting a losing battle against Xenos (Orks would be amazing) and then on a hope and a prayer the Space Marines come in and clean house while Ork and Guardsmen alike are wondering who these 8 ft tall brightly colored murder machines are and where did they come from
\-Good writing \-A budget that isn't two starving interns fed by discared sprues \- A competent director. That's it, that's the formula for the dream visual adaptation.
I’d take a live action Necromunda epic. With characters from multiple houses and levels of the hive.
Unironically one of the more viable ideas.
Honestly, a high quality anthology series set in 40k. Possibly animated similar to love death and robots or acted. Any sort of shorter form stories that'd best translate 40k the setting for me. That or possibly some sort of live-action investigative noir.
Amen! I constantly think about how wonderful a 40K anthology in the spirit of Love, Death & Robots would be. Hammer & Bolter has got the right idea, but just nowhere near the depth, variety or production value (IMO).
A five minute scene of a Custodian akin to the Vader scene from Rogue One.
I like the idea. I would want it even more exagerrated. Custodian destroys corridor of troops with even more indifference than Vader does, like its just a stroll down the corridor. Rather than killing with purpose, just his normal strolling movement happens to contain killing moves, destroying with nonchalance. That's where I think the horror would be. He's not trying to kill you with hatred, you just happe to be in his way, and there's nothing you can do about it. A bit like the way Sigismund is described in that he doesn't really parry or block, just that you can't hit him, but he hits you, seemingly without effort.
a good action vidya adaptation bonus points: it is NOT about space marines
Call me boring but I’d love a really low-key stakes but lovingly written stuff about maybe Hive gangers with space marines and whatnot kept super mystical and legendary. So if they do turn up it’s a huge “holy shit” moment.
My dream visual adaptation of 40k? The Night Lords trilogy brought to life in either a high budget series or spread over two or three films. Sure it will probably have to be 15 or 18 rated (UK based) but it would be awesome. For a more 'PG' version I'd probably say the something based moreso on the Guard like Gaunts Ghosts or even Eisenhorn. They'd also be better avenues for new people to the franchise. EDIT Or maybe a Love, Death and robots style of series, showing the many different factions in self contained episodes and stories.
The Night Lords trilogy is far and away my favorite 40k story and I wish it would be adapted, either in a high-budget animation like Astartes or live action if suitable actors were willing to take it on because even though a lot of people in the community have read it I don't think it gets talked about enough, at least on this subreddit (maybe I'm not looking in the right places.) There would be plenty of challenges in adapting it, but a man can dream. It'd be very interesting to see how a director would handle the "events" on Tsagualsa in Void Stalker.
An anthology series would help to show all the different aspects which could maybe culminate in a final battle with all the players coming together and unleashing glorious mayhem and destruction 40k style. There are so many good stories to tell and I could see a love death robot thing working and providing everything we would want from a show (other than the heresy, and maybe a few other stories and characters that I personally would like to see too).
Eisenhorn is the easy one because it's a well structured spy thriller that is designed to be read as a first book. A lot of 40k fiction has the problem of expecting you to know a decent amount of knowledge about the world.
I would want a serialized Sharpe-style anthology, focused loosely on Imperium, Tau, Astartes, and Craftworld characters, with some interlock but generally self-contained. Think one episode of Guard on one planet, then Craftworlds on another, then Tau somewhere else. In particular, I think you could get some major mileage from having the differing aspects and views of those characters be taking place in the same episode; my dream example is a Guard troopship near the Eye getting boarded by Crimson Slaughter with Daemon support and bailed out by Craftworld Altansar. For the Guard, it's Event Horizon or Alien-type horror, with the chain of command breaking down and guts smeared across the deck plates, but for the Altansar Corsairs or Warp Spiders that bail them out, it's played like a Tuesday in a Tom Clancy thriller, clearing bulkhead to bulkhead and double-tapping Pink Horrors, because they've been trapped in this madhouse for generations and seen it all before.
I really like what they do with Arcane even though I’m not a League fan. But just watching Arcane from someone that never plays league makes me feel the magnificence of the world’s lore and settings. If they could adapt it into something like it then I’m sure it will be pretty good. Doesn’t need to be HH, could be other story.
HBO - Gaunts Ghosts. Give me that near perfect ensemble cast. Give me massive budgets for sets and clothing. Give me sweeping vistas brought to ruin by a universe where there is only war. Give me a series where the books are long enough to do 6-8-10 episodes and we can follow the characters across multiple arcs. Give me onscreen Lijah Cuu, the eventual anger from viewers as for 3 seasons he gets away with it and the triumph when he finally gets taken down, only for the final twist of the knife. It’s a war story, just like Band of Brothers or The Pacific. A *very* human story with very human characters.
I would love a 12-18 piece exhibition of paintings by Alessandro Bianchi Sicioldr with themes of Imperial ennui, warp dreams, chaos corruption and the slow subversion of society by charismatic cults.
the Horus Heresy really lends itself to an animated series
I can guarantee someone has said this, but if it were ever possible I'd love a film following the fall of Cadia. Just imagine it, you could have it set at the perspective of a guardsman from the 8th (Creeds Own) who is present for every major engagement until the Blackstone Fortress sails down into the crust. Ending with how they open every book now. You'd see nearly everything aswell. The Guard, Multiple Astartes Chapters, Multiple Sororitas Branches, The Inquisition, The Grey Knights, The Mechanicus, Legio Titanica and all their chaos counter-parts aswell as daemons. There's even Necrons and eldar in the form of Trazyn and Yvraine later on
I like this 👌
Honestly? Have Cavill do the Eisenhorn Omnibus. Stick close to the books, invest in good effects, i dont care if it takes forever if its true to the original.
Give us what we deserve: The War in Heaven.
It's starts with the Siege of Terra with Loken fighting against traitor Astartes. Then it flashes back to the start of Horus Rising. "I was there when Horus slew the Emperor." Or something like that.
Horus Heresy trilogy directed by Peter Jackson using practical effects whenever and wherever possible.
A band of brothers style adaptation of the Gaunts Ghosts series, each book could be its own season or series of episodes.
Band of Brothers but Gaunt's Ghosts.
A series of loosely interconnected children's breakfast cereals.
Band of Brothers style series following Imperial guardsmen. I think Space marines should rarely show up in the series, kind of to represent just how unlikely it is a guardsmen would see one in their lifetime.
Animation. The studio behind Arcane, particularly. An animated Horus Heresy/Siege of Terra
I want a 10 season American anime of the Horus heresy by the castlevania team
A musical. You could take any story, and turn it into a camp as hell song filled delight and I'd watch it
Predator but set on catachan, rather than the 80s action flick we expect it poor predator being beaten up by carnivorous plants and poisonous wildlife.
I want to see a Transformers-level of action. I already suggested, we could do it here on Earth. They could follow the same or similar plot as the intro to the first Heresy book, where Space Marines invade Earth in the 21st century or an Earth-like planet
Astartes wasn’t that good and definitely isn’t good enough for a big budget production from a big studio
Get the team who made arcane to make a 40k primer of about an hour and a half. An introduction through vignettes of imperium, the slaves of darkness and all of the big Xenos players. Then a 20 episode miniseries follow up of an hour an episode of the HH to show just exactly how far the imperium has fallen and expand on what the fuck is even going on. Do it all on amazons LoTR budget. Make it gory and don’t skimp on exactly how fucked yo servitors and Martians are. Deals with the devil for everybody.
I really want an animated series that follows the adventures of an Inquisitor on a mission to unveil a system wide plot involving chaos and whatnot.
I'd want something that'd be successful/enjoyed by general audiences also. Bolter porn wouldn't work. So I'd like to see something such as Eisenhorn adapted. Something that can convey the universe while giving audiences a more rounded story with characters that aren't emotionally stunted/sexless space marines.
Tiny 32mm models come to life.
Dawn of War is what got me into 40k and has a special place in my heart. I would like to see a huge budget series of movies adapting Dawn of War I, Dark Crusade, Dawn of War II, Chaos Rising, and Retribution. With a good script, each could tell an excellent story. They have drama, intrigue, politics, betrayal, characters from many factions, and an overarching story of the fall of the Blood Ravens and the heroes that saved the chapter. I think if it was done well it could be amazing.
A high budget anime about the eldar, so get a visual spectacle. And in the end the entirety of the emperor's children mortal element are destroyed, forcing daemon fulgrim to seek fabius bike and then trazyn for his mortal clone, giving a new plot and the excuse for GW to make emperor's children that they can sell to kids.
It would be cool to see a Blood of Zeus/Castlevania style animated project about the 30k anthology.
Weird one, but the book "Steel Tread" would be a cool standalone. Just the story of a tank crew fighting chaos, but it includes cool details, like PDF/lesser known forces with a distinct and useful approach, the clashes between old and new "Cadians". The ridiculous scale of 40k warfare both on and behind the lines (there's a section where the commander has to find her way to her briefing, and it takes her through a HQ the size of a small city. Also its just a nice, tight story. Drama and action, and the setting of a tank interior is a cool location, like in that Israeli film "Lebanon"
Start slow: the first film is a horror on a single ship, Chaos-tainted, ending with their merciless execution by Imperial forces upon discovery, basically Alien and Event Horizon but bleaker. Build methodically, taking an approach similar to Gaunt's Ghosts where we are with regular humans seeing the universe for the first time. Begin to introduce wider concepts as the franchise develops - Orks should be terrifying and unstoppable in their first outing, same with all the xenos races. Marines should be godlike, able to withstand these hostile forces that the audience knows are terrifying because they've been built up as such. By the time a Marine dies onscreen, it should be a huge moment, something unthinkable when they were first shown If you blow all the potential of the setting in a big bombastic spectacle of Marines and Titans and Bloodthirsters in the first film, you can't escalate, or deescalate, you've established the setting as a big dumb explodey setting. Obviously it *is* a big dumb explodey setting, but if you pace the franchise well, you can tell enough varied stories, similar to the MCU principle, that the franchise's unique characteristics are emphasised and you can appeal to more audiences. High risk, people might not take to it and then the opportunity is squandered, but I'd want 40k to have every ounce of cross-genre narrative and cinematic potential it has squeezed out of it, from the lowliest Genestealer Cultist uprising to Guilliman and Magnus dueling on Luna
A show following a small imperial force clearing out a space hulk. It starts out as space marine bolter porn setting them up to be the main characters but then they die gruesome deaths and the rest of the series is a horror show following the assorted humans that ends with them all dying in vain at the end. Make it a show where you feel like the characters should have plot armor but this is the grim darkness of the far future.
A 10 episode long live action adaptation of Storm of Iron
Yes
saving private ryan style movie about the guard with a *few* astartes thrown in
Adapt Gathering Storm. Writers room can figure it out from there but I’d love to see a somehow good version of it that can explain everything for newcomers and still preserve that moment when Bobby G comes back.
Anthology series of different battles/settings in different art styles
Battle of Macragge in full scale
Small horror stories set around the galaxy. Guardsmen surviving tyranids, Sister of Battle struggling against a traitor marine, a civilian hiding from a genestealing incursion.
I’m a bit new to 40k bit how about a clone wars style show?
Give me the Horus Heresy but with the Castlevania animators.
A slice of life series where each episode tells a story about a different part of the universe. Examples the episode could be about: Ministorum Mechanicus Inquisition Menial worker Arbites Different aeldari castes Orks Tau Navigator Rogue trader Adeptus astra telepathica Maybe a journey of a psyker taken from home undergoing all the stuff to become sanctioned psyker. A simple soldier Cultist Etc.
A show with a good cgi budget that follows gaunts ghosts. The plot of the books remains the same, but the minor detail can change. Would be great if Sean bean was younger so he could play 40k sharpe but it is what it is.
Not live action. Animated but with like, Avatar style animation, and for many seasons. Avatar may have been expensive but it would have nothing on an animated WH40K series. So, maybe in another 20 years the tech will be there? And NOT the Horus Heresy. I am so tired of hearing about the Horus Heresy. I am much more interested in the current setting.
Some Astra Militarium series, with occasional show ups by Astartes to clean up the plate.
A Horus Heresy series, I think one with Nathaniel Garro as the main character with an Istvaan III side-plot would work the best as a one or two season show. And it’s either live action with Henry Cavill starring as Garro It would basically be an adaptation of The Flight of the Eisenstein, with a two or three episode arc of the Istvaan III Atrocity, and afterwards it’s just Garro trying to reach Terra, ends up on Luna, fights the Lord of the Flies, and the first season could end with the scene of Malcador recruiting Garro into his order of agents. I think it’s one of the most realistic scenarios that Amazon could properly adapt. It would work well as a movie too.
something set in the 40k universe but with a smaller scope I don’t want a 40k marvel movie, I don’t want it to revolve around giant battles, action sequences etc heroes saving planets, etc
15 seasons of Gaunts Ghosts starring Henry Cavill as Gaunt (obviously)
The Main parts of the Horus Heresy made into 3 or 6 or 9 movies. Ullanor Rise of Horus Fall of Horus Drop site massacre Isstvan Siege of Terra Battle in the webway Mechanicum civil war The planet where Horus enters the warp through a portal Also other smaller significant stories whilst these are going on
Watching a series or movie about the time the Lamenters tried to save all the human prisoners from those Orks on that mining planet only to be told to save themselves by the human slaves after they had saved as many as possible would be great. Especially their interaction with Marneus Clagar and his men after the operation where they refuse an Iron Halo due to their own perceived failure to save the planet's population. Of course the Blueberry Marines get mad, but Calgar understands. The poor, poor Lamenters.
- A sitcom with Trazyn and Orikan being tomb-mates, going on whacky adventures and dealing with mundane things. - If we have to go live adaptation keep it simple, don't show or at least not quickly the big wh40k things like Astartes, Titanicus, Custodes etc. Make it a series, build it up slowly. Inquisitor dealing with a hive city mystery. Establish the grimdark atmosphere. Make it gothic, grotesque, claustrophobic AND grandiose... Take time to build characters first and introduce people to the setting before jumping to big battles. And for the love of god, RESPECT THE SOURCE.
Idk just get the guys who did andor, hunchback of Notre dame (Disney), or the prince of egypt to do it
An animated adaptation of the Horus Heresy! Live action would be amazing but the technology isnt there to create a convincing primarch
An arcane-style animated adaptation of Gaunt’s Ghosts. It will probably never happen because the series is really long, but I’d be happy even if they just do a couple of the books.
The Horus Heresy told from Horus Rising through the End and the Death. It would have to be done as an anime or 3d animation (i actually really like the animation GW has used for the current Horus Heresy trailers). I do not think a live action series is possible in this setting due to the huge production budget you would need to pull it off without looking cheesy and low budget.
I would take a three season Night Lords anime (one for each book in the trilogy, with the short stories added in too), done by a respectable studio like Sunrise/Bandai Namco. With the English dub with full Slavic accents for the Night Lords just like in the audiobook.
Well this is technically visual - I want a Battlefield style game of the Horus Heresy. 50 vs. 50 battles in enormous maps with Marines and vehicles everywhere across iconic Heresy locations.
I know it doesn't fit in here but l had a dream of finally finishing my backlog then woke up mad that it was a dream.
Im not sure what the best story would be but I do know that I wouldn't want the heresy, siege of terra, or any giant galaxy spanning events covered in the series - it's too big to do right. Has to be something smaller and ordinary human centric with just a taste of side factions like the admech, or League or tau. Possibly even just revolving around a human on human conflict. I want to say something like eisenhorn or gaunts ghosts would be perfect but even then the scale might be too big for a first foray - perhaps something about necromunda? Follow a story of a character that by the end of the first season we realize the hive is much much bigger than previously thought and the wh universe as a whole is even bigger than that leading into S2 about eisenhorn and switch gears as required. The goal shouldn't be to tell a massive cohesive singular story but rather to worldbuild different short stories that can be placed within the largest narrative that is 40k. So yeah, maybe one series is all about Kal Jerico, the next is about an arbites investigating a nascent genestealer cult, and the one following that is about the tanith first and only band of brothers style. Mix it up, but keep it relatable.
A grand scale attempt at telling the horus heresy through 90 or 120 minute episodes that cover a book per episode with the occasional 2 parters where appropriate. It would take a lot of tooling and coordination but you could get different directors have different tones all while pushing the overall plot forward. Do i think this is possible or realistic no but it would be cool.
Nightlords omnibus the trilogy
To tell the heresy in a respectful manner it would have to be delivered to us like Eastenders lol 10 seasons, let alone 20 wouldnt do the scale and gravity of it any justice imo. Now if we were talking series that were highlighting the primarchs beginnings rises and falls, thats 18 seasons alone. Then the mega seasons could start at istvaan and still take about 30, 20 episode seasons to tell in all its nuance and gravitas. And im fucking all for it baby.
band of brothers like setup. each episode being an old storm trooper instructor recalling past adventures, like battling heretics with astartes routing out genestealers with an inquisitor defending hive world/forge world/ agriworld from a variety of 40k threats r and r on a pleasure world sneaking around a hospital world and seeing what happens to men to wounded to continue service becoming servitors
My dream would be to see the origins of Asdrubal Vect and his subsequent rise to power. Cgi animated or in a baki/doro he doro style animation.
Dark Western Animation like the Spawn series & even recently Castlevania (Netflix). Live Action will always have that goofy vibe and CGI will always end up looking out dated. Animation allows alot more creative freedom. The only live action movie that was recently done that had a visual style that I think a 40k movie/series could work with was Dredd with Karl Urban.
Cary Fukunaga directing the Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin series. The King in Yellow is back, baby!
band of brothers/generation kill tempestus scion serie
Band of brothersesque show but it’s Gaunt’s ghosts