Even when he's meant to be talking about watches, Henry Cavill's downright giddy over producing Warhammer 40k's upcoming Amazon series, says it's 'a challenge I'm enjoying enormously'

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 15: Henry Cavill attends the "The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare" New York Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on April 15, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/WireImage) — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Henry Cavill has, for the past few years, been ramping up to work on a Warhammer 40k series with Amazon after departing his role as The Witcher's Geralt in the Netflix series. A move which caused no end of upset, given his enduring love for the source material—and, let's be honest, pretty solid Doug Cockle impression.

It took a minute but, late last year, Games Workshop and Amazon officially worked everything out to set Cavill to work in earnest. And, per a recent interview with Esquire, Cavill is pleased as punch about the fact he's in the producer's chair this time around.

If you clicked the link above, you might be wondering: 'Harvey, why is this interview about watches?' Which is sort of the point, really. The article centres around Cavill's newfound love of watchmaking—specifically, it claims, when he took a trip to the Swiss Alps with his brother.

Cavill, moreover, seems pleased as punch to be in the producer's chair this time around, describing it as a "dream come true, but it's different from what I've done before, in the sense I haven't had my hand on the tiller of things … It is a tricky IP, and a very complex IP, and that's what I love about it. The challenges that come with putting this on the page in a way that is doing justice to that complexity, that trickiness, and that nuance, is a challenge I'm enjoying enormously."

A more cynical part of me wonders if this has something to do with Cavill finally getting a high-level say in how an adaptation comes about. Cavill's joked about being "effusive about being loyal to the source material" before, meanwhile The Witcher season 3 suffered from rumours of its writers "actively disliking" the books, though this was later rebuffed as a "mess of lies". On his way out, Cavill also noted that his co-stars brought depth and complexity to characters who were "often at risk of being over-simplified".

Whether that hints at a little bit of drama behind-the-scenes—or just the typical creative conversations you need to have while making an adaptation—is slightly more complicated, and I shan't throw more conjecture at it. I will, however, hazard a guess that Cavill's enough of a Warhammer 40k buff to be utterly delighted by being in the Emperor's—sorry, I mean director's—chair.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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