New Prime Video anthology series Secret Level adapts more than 15 games into short stories, spanning the breadth of past, present, and future gaming. One of the most anticipated episodes is the Warhammer 40K story, as adaptations of the beloved game have rarely made it onto the screen.
When it rains, it pours though as aside from Secret Level’s episode, another series is being developed with Henry Cavill at the helm. However, as executive producer Dave Wilson tells GamesRadar+, these are pretty separate right now despite both being produced by Prime Video.
“They’re pretty separate right now,” he explains. “I will say, we’ve been close with Games Workshop for years and I’m a massive Warhammer fan. We did an episode of 40k 20 years ago to the year at Blur [Studios], and it was one of my favorite and proudest moments of my time with Blur. I’ve been itching to get back to 40k for those two decades. But, you know, these franchises don’t belong to us, or anyone in Hollywood, they belong to the creatives in Nottingham who have kept that franchise alive for 40 years, right?
“Whatever Henry is doing and whatever plans we may have, all we really want to do is raise that franchise up a little higher if we can. If we can be complementary to whatever we’re doing together, that would be amazing. The truth is there are so many stories to tell in Warhammer that even if there were 10 people trying to tell there would be enough for everybody.”
(Image credit: Prime Video)
Wilson explains that the team behind Warhammer 40K are very discerning about what they commission too. “The folks at Games Workshop are incredibly sharp and mindful of their franchise,” he continues. “It is the one nice thing about them being successful, for a lack of a better way of putting it, they’re wary, right? They don’t need Hollywood to come in, they were successful before we borrowed what they had. So I think they want to make sure it gets done right, and they will take as much time as is necessary to do that.”
Wilson adds that he and Secret Level creator Tim Miller actually met with the creators many years prior for a movie that didn’t work out. As Miller explains: “When we did that first project 20 years ago, they said, ‘Oh, this was really great, we’d love to make a movie.’ And I said, ‘Well, let’s go talk to some of the studios’ because we knew people.
“And the very first meeting, I got such an education in the game business that I was shocked, because everybody, or at least I did and I think a lot of people do, they have this impression of like, ‘Oh my gosh, Hollywood comes calling and we’re going to make a movie.’ But to them, it was like, ‘Eh, we make these games, and they’re hugely popular, and we make really great money, and the fans love it. And if you made a bad movie, it’s not gonna help us. And if you make a good movie, it’s really not gonna move the needle that much.’ So the the the incentive for them is not that large, and it’s only if you make a great movie.”
Secret Level is released on Amazon Prime Video on December 10, with additional episodes released until December 17. For more, check out our guides to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video and our round-up of all the upcoming video game adaptations you need to know about.
