Since its inception in 1994, Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft series has been an immensely popular one, showcasing five core video games, numerous novels, board games, collectible card games, comics and now a much-anticipated film. Taken on by British director Duncan Jones (Moon) after Sam Raimi stepped down back in 2009 to pursue Oz the Great and Powerful, Warcraft has not exactly been speeding its way to a theater near you.
Until now, Jones and Universal have been keeping Warcraft quite hush-hush. There’s been little for fans to sink their eager teeth into, despite three years of visits by Jones to San Diego Comic Con. His most recent trip to SDCC back in July of 2015 finally gave fans some footage to digest, which was met with both delight and apprehension.
Today however, three new images were included in the latest issue of Empire Magazine (via BuzzHub) and they’re sure to get pulses racing among fans who likely feel as though they’ve been waiting forever for something – anything - from this colossal undertaking. The stills give us glimpses at Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), Durotan (Toby Kebbel) and Orgrim Doomhammer (Robert Kazinsky) and are impressive to say the least; hinting at a world filled with some high-end effects and keen detail.
Fimmel's character is a mighty warrior and the right hand man of the human leader King Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper). Durotan is the leader of the Orc clan and Orgrim is his right-hand orc, who takes his name from the mighty weapon that he wields. All three characters are taken from the game lore. As we learned from the Comic-Con trailer, the film will see the orcs travelling through a portal to escape their dying world and clashing with the human race. With both good and malevolent characters on both sides of the conflict, the situation soon descends into war.
Any time that a filmmaker takes on a much beloved series, no matter its source material, both the workload and the expectations are going to be sky high. Bringing the same immersive world found in a video game to the big screen is undoubtedly a war of its own. Fans can be extremely passionate and unforgiving about choices made to bring these tales to life and, as the old saying goes, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Also, let’s not forget that while Universal may see Warcraft as a 'problem movie', that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s destined to fail. Once upon a time there was another 'problem movie' called Jaws that was hugely over budget and schedule, causing no small amount of physical and mental strain for its director, cast, crew and studio - Universal. Perhaps Warcraft will prove a pleasant surprise for fans and Universal alike.
Warcraft is set to open June 10th, 2016.
Source: Empire (via BuzzHub)