The dispute between Henry Cavill and Amazon over Warhammer Intellectual property finally ended on Dec, 10, 2024. Warhammer is a grim-dark, dystopian and male-dominated universe which was created around 1987. Due to Warhammer’s recent popularity with books, video games and media, the universe has caught the attention of other businesses, specifically Amazon. So in 2022, Warhammer proclaimed it would give exclusive rights to Amazon for media purposes.
This was huge for many Warhammer fans, who were excited for the possibility of the franchise hitting screens. But what sealed the deal was that Amazon announced that Henry Cavill would be the executive director for the project. Cavill has been known to be truthful to the source material, and left the Netflix series, The Witcher, when it went against the source material. But most importantly, Cavill is a huge Warhammer fan himself.
“I’ve been into [Warhammer] since I was ten,” Cavill said.
With Cavill being both a Warhammer enthusiast and faithful to its source material, fans were excited. Yet Cavill’s passion for the franchise resulted in a clash with Amazon’s agenda. Amazon wanted to make changes to the existing universe, making it more diverse for the public. Cavill suggested including a few pre-existing female factions into the project, but Amazon denied them due to the faction not meeting Amazon’s standards. For example, the Adepta Sororitas, were marked to be too religious, and the sisters of silence were marked down for not being able to have any dialogue. So instead, Amazon asked the owners of Warhammer to make a retcon, making a once male-only faction to now have females. This upset many fans and Cavill himself, with Cavill halting the deal in order to confront Amazon.
The main problem with Amazon trying to make changes to Warhammer is that it changes what makes the franchise unique and charming. Warhammer is a grim-dark universe, and making it more diverse results in contradicting most of Warhammers themes and aesthetics. In addition, Amazon had done the same thing with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The Rings of Power was a disaster, mostly due to Amazon disrespecting source material. According to indiewire, only 37% of U.S. viewers finished Season One of Rings of Power, which was viewed by over 100 million viewers world-wide. And with many other franchises which have diluted the franchise’s original charm in order to meet woke requirements, making fans fear the same will happen to Warhammer.
However, despite Amazon’s best efforts, Cavill continued to dispute with Amazon. But on Dec, 10, 2024, Warhammer and Amazon had finalized their deal, reaching a consensus on creative guidelines. What this means for the Warhammer franchise is unknown, though Cavill seems excited.
“Our combined efforts have led us to a fantastic place to start our Universe,” Cavill wrote in an Instagram post, “Which has been agreed upon by those up on high at both Amazon and Games Workshop.”
In the end, there are only speculations on whether Cavil or Amazon had won, but only time will tell.
