ConnexionWhy the Mere Mention of an NDA by a Games Workshop Author Has Sparked All Sorts of Speculation About What Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe Might Be
The Warhammer 40,000 story, such as it is, is a slow moving beast. The scribes at Games Workshop sometimes take years to inch the overarching plot forward. Take, for example, the return of beloved Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, which was announced in March 2023. Now, over two years later, the character is yet to do much of anything in the setting, his hotly anticipated reunion with his brother, Roboute Guilliman, seemingly further away than ever.
Tantalizing plot threads are left dangling, sometimes for decades. Answers remain frustratingly out of reach. Cliffhangers seem destined to hang in a perpetual state of anticipation, never to be fulfilled. Such is the nature of Games Workshop's grimdark 41st millennium, which has exploded in popularity over the last decade. At this point any news on how the story might actually move forward is analyzed to within an inch of its life, as if under investigation by the Inquisition itself.
And so it is with the latest Facebook post by celebrated Black Library author Dan Abnett. Abnett, perhaps the most high-profile Warhammer 40,000 writer today, is at the heart of the setting’s development. His long list of Warhammer 40,000 books established much of the lore fans know and love, including the wonderful Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn series, and key entries in the sprawling The Horus Heresy saga.
Let’s zero in on Eisenhorn, because that’s the subject of the latest speculation. Eisenhorn is a strilogy of sci-fi crime novels that revolve around inquisitors Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor, who got his own spin-off series. The gist is the hunt heretics and daemons while fending off the brain-melting powers of Chaos. While the story is set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe, it is more focused and smaller in scope than some of the other, galaxy-spanning 40K stories that involve long-running space battles and thousands of Space Marines fighting alien monstrosities and even each other.
The Eisenhorn saga includes a spinoff series that revolves around an Inquisitorial agent called Alizebeth Bequin. The first novel in the Bequin series, Pariah, came out in 2012. Its sequel, the Warhammer 40,000 lore treasure trove that is Penitent, followed nearly a decade later, in March 2021. The hotly anticipated third novel in the series, Pandaemonium, does not have a release date, and the wait for an announcement is fast becoming Warhammer 40,000’s version of George R. R. Martin’s M.I.A. Game of Thrones book, The Winds of Winter.
Why should so many Warhammer 40,000 lore lovers care so much about Pandaemonium? Because it promises to actually move the overarching plot forward. Penitent ended with a significant lore revelation (it has to do with the identity of the mysterious King in Yellow, which we won’t spoil here), and so the ramifications of Pandaemonium could be huge. Everyone wants to know what happens next, and is badgering Abnett to get on and write the damn book.
Which brings us to now, and a seemingly innocuous Facebook post by Abnett himself promoting his attendance at this weekend’s Broadside Games Show in the English town of Gillingham, Kent. It includes a warning of sorts:
By the way… my previous posts about this event (and, actually, pretty much anything I post) have resulted in many comments asking for Pandaemonium (Bequin book 3). Positively demanding it. And I’m delighted you’re keen, because so am I. But for those who don’t know, it is not MY decision when Pandaemonium gets finished and published. For reasons an NDA prevents me from discussing, Bequin 3 — and some other things — are held up for a while. It’s coming — and I’ll be delighted to bring it to you — but in the meantime, try to be patient… and maybe try to enjoy the things that I AM writing.
This message was brought to you by peace, love, and shooty-death-kill-in-space. See you Saturday.
So, Abnett is bound by a non-disclosure agreement that prevents him from explaining why Pandaemonium and “some other things” are “held up for a while.” That on its own wouldn’t warrant such attention, but in combination with a reddit post from March, it certainly does set the cat among the pigeons.
Three months ago, redditor Zigoia described a meeting he had with Abnett at a book signing in a Warhammer store in Maidstone, Kent. Zigoia reported that Abnett told him that the delay for Pandaemonium “is because of the potential lore impact it’s going to have on the setting — and is due to GW wanting to get the lore in the TV show totally settled first. They apparently don’t want to end up having some of the potentially galaxy shaking events of Pandaemonium contradict what they lay out in the show.”
The TV show! So, this is Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe, the result of a deal struck between Games Workshop and Amazon for movies and TV shows based on the tabletop. It’s all hugely exciting, especially given Cavill’s well-documented love of Warhammer 40,000. Not only is he set to star in whatever comes from the project, but he is down as executive producer. Cavill is among those steering this ship, hopefully in the right direction, like the Emperor guiding humanity safely through the Warp.
We know next to nothing about Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 adaptation. We do not know which characters it will deal with, where in the setting it will take place, or even when in the setting it will take place. Who will Cavill play? We don’t know. But one character is often mentioned by fans as a great fit: Eisenhorn, from Abnett’s saga of the same name.
With this in mind, it's easy to see why Abnett would be tied up in NDA knots over the future of his saga. If the delay to Pandaemonium is due to Games Workshop wanting to get its Amazon ducks in a row so the movies and TV shows slot neatly into Warhammer 40,000 canon and veteran fans and newcomers alike aren’t faced with two sets of contradicting lore, you can see why the revelations of Pandaemonium might have to wait.
Unfortunately for Warhammer 40,000 lore fans, that probably means an even longer wait for Pandaemonium than they had expected. When Games Workshop confirmed the deal in December 2024, it said a synopsis and ordering for the stories set to be told in Amazon’s Warhammer 40,000 films and television series was in place. But, Games Workshop warned, “it’ll be some years” before the first project hits screens. Perhaps this is why the Warhammer 40,000 narrative feels like it has ground to a halt, with pockets of isolated developments that tell hardcore fans little they didn’t already know keeping us going until Pandaemonium rewrites the rule book.
So, to fill the gap, let’s enjoy some fun speculation. Does Abnett’s NDA suggest Amazon and Cavill are adapting his Eisenhorn series? Remember I mentioned it was tighter in scope than some of the grander Warhammer 40,000 stories? That might make it a more realistic adaptation for Amazon to bankroll than something that would need The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power kind of money, like the gargantuan Horus Heresy.
If Amazon and Cavill have gone for Eisenhorn, perhaps Abnett is involved in the project in some way, and thus Games Workshop has locked him down. Maybe Cavill is set to play Eisenhorn, as many fans would like. Just this week, Cavill said he was enjoying the challenge of adapting what he called the "tricky" and “very complex” Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. Perhaps realizing Eisenhorn in live-action is a part of that challenge.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
