A new animated Warhammer 40,000 series is in development at Prime Video, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, Blur Studios, and Games Workshop, with Henry Cavill on board as an executive producer. The show will exist separately from the long-gestating live-action Warhammer 40,000 series that Cavill is also set to star in and produce.
According to a report from Variety, cited by both GamesRadar+ and Polygon, the animated series is a spin-off of the Warhammer 40,000 episode from Amazon's 2024 video game anthology show Secret Level, titled 'And They Shall Know No Fear.' That episode, which followed Space Marine Lieutenant Titus and his squad battling Chaos cultists, was among the anthology's most positively received installments. Dave Wilson, who directed the episode, is co-creating and directing the new series alongside screenwriter John Orloff (Band of Brothers, Master of the Air). Blur Studios, known for its 3D-animated cutscenes and trailers including work on Halo Wars and Star Wars: The Old Republic, is returning to animate.
Details on the plot remain limited, but the series will center on The Deathwatch, a decentralized elite group of Space Marines who hunt alien threats. Polygon notes it seems possible the show could follow the same characters introduced in the anthology episode, including Lieutenant Titus. Wilson said in a statement that Secret Level 'wasn't conceived simply as an anthology' but was 'designed as a launchpad for larger stories,' adding that he has wanted to tell a long-form Warhammer 40,000 story for more than 20 years.
Executive producers on the animated show include Secret Level creator Tim Miller, who also co-founded Blur Studios and directed Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate, along with Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, Andy Smillie from Games Workshop, Natalie Viscuso, and Cavill.
The animated series was first revealed by Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree during the company's latest earnings report, according to GamesRadar+. In the same report, Rountree confirmed that horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan has joined the separate live-action Warhammer 40,000 project as a writer, and that a second Warhammer-themed episode, set in the Age of Sigmar universe, will appear in Secret Level's second season. The live-action series was first revealed in December 2022, though Cavill did not confirm his involvement until 2024, saying his team had been 'working away in concept rooms, breaking down approaches to the enormity and magnificence of the Warhammer world.' GamesRadar+ notes it could still be years before either show reaches screens.