Henry Cavill moves on to a Warhammer 40K series with Amazon

Henry Cavill is moving on. After the actor’s recently touted return as Superman was ruled out this week by DC Studios boss James Gunn, speculation that Cavill might respond by un-retiring from the role of Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s The Witcher has been squashed — it’s not happening. But the world’s favorite nerdy beefcake does have a new project lined up: a Warhammer 40,000 series with Amazon.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Amazon is in final talks with Games Workshop to secure the rights to Warhammer 40K, so it’s not quite a done deal yet, but Cavill is attached to star and serve as executive producer on the show. No showrunner or writer is attached yet to the adaptation of the dark fantasy sci-fi setting of Games Workshop’s tabletop wargames.

Cavill is a longtime fan of the Warhammer universe. During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, he revealed on Instagram that he was using the free time to brush up on his miniature-painting skills. “One of my almost life-long hobbies, that I’ve been following but not actively doing, is this,” he wrote under a photo of him delicately painting a tiny helmet. “A company called Games Workshop… or plastic crack as ‘we’ call it. Genuinely can’t get enough of the lore they have built over the decades. They have been some of my most enthused reads! If you were in denial about me being a geek before, you can’t hide from it now.”

Earlier this year, Cavill posted a video of a visit to Warhammer World, a visitor attraction at Games Workshop HQ in Nottingham in the U.K. “I don’t often feel at home, but I did that day,” Cavill said, enthusing about the discussions he’d had on Warhammer lore and miniature design with the Games Workshop team.

On this evidence, and going by his executive producer credit, Cavill’s personal investment in this project may even outstrip his famously dedicated turn as Geralt. But fans’ hopes that he might reverse his decision to leave The Witcher after DC Studios opted to recast Superman are unfounded. Variety reports that season 4 of The Witcher is moving ahead unchanged, with Liam Hemsworth in the role of Geralt.

With the Warhammer 40K series still in the early stages of development, it won’t be Cavill’s next project, but the actor still has a few irons in the fire, including two spy films: Argylle, with Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, directed by Guy Ritchie. Argylle has already shot, the Ritchie film is due to shoot early in 2023, and both are seen as potential franchises. “I needed someone who was born to play Bond — which Henry is — and then nick him before Bond did,” Vaughn told the Hollywood Reporter.