It might sound unlikely, but Henry Cavill’s upcoming animated show has the potential to make the entire Star Wars franchise look small in terms of lore thanks to its expansive fictional world. There is a long-running, mostly good-natured argument online over which fantasy or sci-fi franchise has the most lore. For example, Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings prequel The Rings of Power makes the world of HBO’s George R.R. Martin adaptation, Game of Thrones, look small.
However, while HBO’s Harry Potter reboot aims to be one of the biggest TV shows ever made in terms of budget and marketing, Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire saga features far more lore than the entire Harry Potter universe combined. Similarly, the Star Trek franchise has developed plenty of immersive lore since The Original Series back in the ‘60s, but some fans argue that the Star Wars franchise has way more planets, alien races, and fictional history to keep up with.
That being said, there is no denying the reality that Star Wars is one of the biggest mainstream franchises in terms of lore. The movies, shows, tie-in novels, comics, and all the other assorted media associated with George Lucas’s iconic sci-fi saga make Star Wars almost impenetrable to the newcomer in 2026, since it is tough to know where to even start in the series timeline. However, Henry Cavill has an upcoming series that is set to blow Star Wars out of the water with its lore, and that show is Warhammer 40,000.
Warhammer Outdoes Even The Star Wars Franchise In Terms Of Lore
Cavill will be both the star and executive producer of Warhammer 40,000, an animated show based on the cult British board game franchise of the same name. Set around 40,000 A.D., Warhammer 40,000 blends elements from both sci-fi and fantasy in its story of invading aliens, demonic possession, orcs, elves, and never-ending war against these universally evil forces. Brutal and downbeat, the game is famous for embodying many of the elements of so-called grimdark fantasy as well as dystopian sci-fi.
While dystopian sci-fi shows like Battlestar Galactica have introduced complicated lore to viewers before, mainstream audiences may not realize quite what they are in for with Warhammer 40,000. Since the game’s history began as an affectionate satire of grimdark fantasy and dystopian sci-fi back in the ‘80s and gradually grew more sincere and serious, its tone changes drastically depending on the rewrite.
Speaking of rewrites, there are constant alterations to Warhammer 40,000 lore, with plenty of rewrites and updates contradicting each other and their predecessors. Add in unreliable narrators, innumerable factions taking part in the byzantine in-universe wars, intentionally morally grey characters, and the lack of a clear protagonist, and new viewers are left with something deeply complex and unwieldy. Of course, that’s not the only issue.
Warhammer’s Extensive Lore Is A Blessing And A Curse For Its Screen Adaptation
As its title suggests, Warhammer 40,000 covers some 40 millennia of imagined history. While The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan has been tapped as a writer for Cavill’s upcoming show, it is tough to see how any series that covers such a vast swathe of time could possibly hope to establish meaningful main characters.
To make this even more difficult, it must be underlined again that Warhammer 40,000 lacks heroic protagonists by design, so there isn’t even a main character to focus on. There have been successful adaptations of franchises with absurdly dense lore before, from Netflix’s live-action version of One Piece to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
However, most of these were at least based on works that had clear main characters and narrative arcs, something that is distinctly absent from Warhammer 40,000 since the franchise sprang from a game. As such, it will be interesting to see how Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 show turns more lore than the Star Wars universe into a more comprehensible, streamlined story.