Amazon Nails Down Partnership With Warhammer Creator

Amazon has agreed to develop movies and TV series based on the Warhammer 40,000 games.

Games Workshop, the British company that makes the miniature tabletop game series, announced the agreement on its website Monday (Dec. 18).

“Now comes the fun part: working out all the creative details with our partners and getting the first script written and into production,” the announcement said. “What Warhammer 40,000 stories should we tell first? Should we kick off with a movie or a TV show? Both?!”

The company said it was assembling a group of screenwriters, with actor Henry Cavill set to act as executive producer.

The company also notes that TV and movie production are “a mammoth undertaking,” and that it’s “not unusual for projects to take two to three years from this point before something arrives on screen.”

A report on the agreement Monday by The Wall Street Journal quotes AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould, who said the deal could backfire if Amazon disappoints Warhammer’s massive fanbase.

“There is a fine line to tread between sweating the assets and royally mucking up. Games Workshop risks long-lasting reputational damage if Amazon makes a mockery of its IP on the screen,” Mould said.

The announcement comes just over a year after Games Workshop said it had reached an agreement with Amazon Content Services to let the company develop films, television shows and merchandise around its intellectual property, though contracts had yet to be signed.

The nearly 50-year-old Games Workshop manufactures millions of fantasy miniatures each year and sells them in 5,000 retail stores worldwide.

This partnership is happening, as noted here last week, at a time when Amazon and both rival Walmart are looking for ways to boost their subscription numbers.

It’s also happening at a moment when “streaming services are collaborating with subscription partners both within and beyond their industry to distinguish themselves in the fiercely competitive pursuit of customer acquisition,” that report said.

Examples of this trend include Apple and Paramount considering a team-up, while Disney+ is introducing a Hulu bundle.

Meanwhile, Peacock is working with grocery aggregator Instacart to boost adoption, hoping to capture the loyalty of Instacart’s audience via a subscription partnership. Last month, the eGrocery company said that it would offer premium-level subscriptions to the streaming service to its Instacart+ members at no added charge.