So, this was actually announced a while ago, but somehow slipped under my radar even though multiple sites reported on it. There's a Warhammer 40K series in the works, which is going to be focusing on Gregor Eisenhorn, Imperial Inquisitor. Many 40K fans will probably recognise him, as he's the main character in some of the 40K novels written by Dan Abnett, has a tabletop model (in fact 2 now, both older and younger version, IIRC) etc.
As a big fan of Warhammer 40K, I am quite interested to see how this ends up developing. It's still in very early development, so not much information is actually available about it though.
I think it could work well if done right. As I have mentioned in other threads in the past when discussing this franchise, focusing on someone like Eisenhorn allows them to dive pretty deeply into 40K without having to blow their budget on enormous battle scenes, for example, where tens of thousands of Guardsmen and Orcs are charging each other, Titans stomping around etc.
Because if a series is well received, it could open the door for bigger budget projects down the line.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
I'm assuming you're referring to Bequin? Been a while since I read those novels, but can't recall him putting anyone else close to him on ice, long-term. And his obsession with her gets taken to new levels in Pariah, IMO, one of the most recent novels featuring him, where he goes [SPOILER - highlight to read]: after a clone of her. But he's pretty much completely off the reservation by then and has even officially [SPOILER - highlight to read]: been declared "Excommunicate Traitoris" by the Inquisition, at least according to Ravenor.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
I was referring to [SPOILER - highlight to read]: Godwyn Fischig, whose corpse is being used to house Cherubael at the end of the original Eisenhorn trilogy.
I've been waiting for someone to finally do a proper live action or animated WH40K series and this could finally be it. Please let this have a solid budget, cast and writers. If so, I might jizz.
Mads Mikkelsen might be a good casting for the eponymous character.
They better not f**k up the Space Marine appearances; they need to be and look larger than life. Use that same technology that made the Hobbits all tiny and hobbity in LoTR, but in reverse.
I really hope this is great and does lead to interest in other WH40k stories.
also: "A “Warhammer 40,000” animated series, dubbed “Angels of Death,” is also in the cards, with Richard Boylan directing." -snip
Yeah, I am really, really hoping they can nail this. Because it can open the door for so much more. Because the Warhammer 40K universe is pretty enormous, in terms of scope of potential storytelling. 10,000 years of history, stretching over the Milky Way. And depending on how well things are received, they could branch off into Eldar, Space Marine Tau (go weeaboo Space-Commies) and other stories as well down the line. It would probably be hard doing a Necron or Tyranid PoV-story though lol.
And it will be interesting how they choose to depict Space Marines. While their general design has stayed pretty consistent for the most part, various people have taken artistic license in terms of how tall/broad etc. they are. The scale that always made sense for me was around 7'6" without gear and around 8' in power armour, because it fits with how they are otherwise described towering head and shoulders above most normal people, including tall individuals. But depending on the author, you get everything between 2 and 3 meters. But the 3-meter mark should more be Primarch territory, really.
Mikkelsen could be awesome. I could possibly see him as either young or old Eisenhorn, depending on how they do his makeup. However, maybe it's just me getting used to him in certain roles, but I feel like he'd be best as a Pontius Glaw, Big Bad type villain.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Whoops, Space Marine, Tau* and edit is broken again. But yeah, 7'6" would put the Marines at around Fox Colossus size outside of armour, and a bit bigger and bulkier with.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
I do wonder how much they will be willing to show though. While more companies, particularly the streaming services, have been willing to adapt darker content (like The Boys etc), it's inevitably watered down to a degree. Because "Grimdark" originated from Warhammer 40,000 for a reason. The setting is pretty horrendous, in terms of brutality, cruelty etc., and the Imperium is a terrible place to live in. And that's not even getting into shit like Slaanesh cults and the like. Hell, even some of the plants in the setting are rather nightmarish:
To be perfectly honest, while brutal, violent, and gritty, 40k lore doesn't have nearly the same visceral carnage and depravity on showcase as the comic of The Boys did. The Boys had to be watered down because some of the scenes in that comic are pretty much unfilmable, sort of like the most gruesome scene in the novel of American Psycho.
For most of it, and the Eisenhorn novels themselves, sure. But I am pretty sure I can recall at least one 40k novel that featured descriptions of groups of naked, mutated Chaos cultists (with like extra limbs, including sexual organs) engaging in blood and sex orgies and such. It's mostly the Chaos/Dark Eldar stuff that I am thinking of, really. More the twisted and depraved shit as opposed to the purely violent things.
But I suppose I am getting way ahead of myself, because I have been hoping for a proper WH40k film or show for some time. But it might be shit, end up tanking, and we never see any more of it lol. But here is hoping that's not the case. Because I do still want to see the big battle scenes with Titans and the works brought to life some day as well.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Last edited by TheVaultDweller on Sep 6th, 2019 at 09:13 AM
That's how I visualize Space Marines from all the books and others readings I've taken in. Average height of 7'6" and massively built, with some rare taller marines being over 8' but under 9', out of armor.
So even a tall human at 6'6" is still a foot shorter and overall dwarfed due to the Marine's height and bulk combination.
9' is where I imagine the smaller of the Primarch start at, with some reaching 10+ like Horus and Vulkan.
Magnus was the tallest and seemed to be an exception, yeah?
Space Marines are, in most material, slated at seven foot even on average, with some variance like Arjac Rockfist of the Space Wolves who is huge for a Marine, or "Little" Horus Aximand who is relatively short.
What makes Marines particularly imposing isn't their height, but their proportionately massive frames. A seven foot tall man would still be much smaller in volume than a seven foot tall marine.
Primarch height is harder to say, though Lion El'Jonson is describe as three meters or about ten feet tall in Descent of Angels, which fits their description as dwarfing any Marine. Alpharius is a runt by comparison to the extent that taller Marines can pose as him convincingly, and Vulkan or Ferrus Manus are notably large. Magnus is often cited as the tallest of the Primarchs, but his psychic powers allow him to alter his stature, at one point in A Thousand Sons being just slightly taller than Ahriman to not intimidate a Remembrancer he was speaking with, and at another point growing to the size of a Titan. In Battle of the Fang he is described as five meters or over seventeen feet while he is taking on a form reminiscent of his pre-Daemon one.
Yeah, it's really more about the overall bulk. Because Marines aren't just tall, they're scaled up in every term. This image has the Marine somewhere between that 7-8 foot mark. But it's not really the height that's imposing. It's the fact that a Marine in armour is almost three times as broad as a normal person, on top of being that tall:
But yeah, it really depends on the writer. For example, Garviel Loken is described as being around 2 and a half meters in full armour in one of the early HH novels, IIRC, which would put him around that 8-foot mark I mentioned earlier. But yeah, in some books and fluff, marines are shorter. And I know way back in the day, when they were originally conceived, they were supposed to be around 7-feet.
As for Primarch heights? That's tough. Yeah, I think it was in Descent of Angels where they slate the Lion as just under 3 meters tall. But height varied even among the Primarchs. IIRC, guys like Ferrus were also really tall and literally stood a head taller than guys like Fulgrim. And given the sheer scale of the Primarchs, that could be a difference of over a foot in height. I've seen some rather hilarious attempts at scaling that has the Emperor at the size of a Dreadnaught, basically.
The cover art for a lot of the HH novels really don't help. If you compare Russ on the cover of Prospero Burns to Guilliman and Sanguinius on the cover of Unremembered Empire, it's rather lolworthy. Scaling off the regular people around them, Russ would barely reach the navel of the other two. Which we know is wrong.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Last edited by TheVaultDweller on Sep 7th, 2019 at 03:39 AM
But that pic does get the idea behind scale across, in terms of Marines IMO. It's not about the fact that they look down at you while talking to you. It's about the fact that their armoured fist is about the size of your whole head. And there have been instances in the lore where a Marine has killed a regular human by simply grabbing their head with one hand and crushing their skull.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
Yeah, I like that one. There are some extremely talented people out there who are part of the WH40K fandom. Here is another one that's less on action, but still pretty well done IMO:
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
I don't know much about the universe, but I'll check it out.
I do have that awesome Space Marine game on steam.
__________________ Chicken Boo, what's the matter with you? You don't act like the other chickens do. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man you're a Chicken Boo.