Before Henry Cavill Took Over, Terence Stamp’s 2010 Warhammer 40,000 Movie Was the Ultramarines Blueprint

While everyone waits for Henry Cavill to finally roll out something concrete from his Warhammer 40,000 deal at Amazon, here’s a reminder: we’ve already got an official 40K movie worth revisiting. It’s animated, it’s grim, and it’s a legit piece of the franchise that actually landed back in 2010.

Quick refresher: Ultramarines (2010) actually happened

'Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie' is a feature-length animated film from 2010 that aimed right at the heart of the setting’s bleak, battle-scarred vibe. It didn’t get a big theatrical rollout, but it pulled in $383K in domestic video sales (per The Numbers) and, honestly, that early niche success feels like a preview of the money Games Workshop would be swimming in later.

It also came with real pedigree in the booth: Terence Stamp (yep, General Zod from the 1978 'Superman' and 'Superman II'), John Hurt, and Sean Pertwee. The voices do a lot of heavy lifting, and they give the whole thing a weight most franchise animation doesn’t even try for.

Dan Abnett held his breath, then exhaled

If you were nervous about an official 40K movie back then, you weren’t alone. Longtime Black Library writer Dan Abnett, who contributed during development, was watching closely and bracing for impact. He told SciFiNow he’d seen pieces of the animation come together and felt reassured by how seriously the team was taking it. After release, the relief was real: the feared franchise faceplant never came.

'When you have a property that’s 25-odd years old and obsessively loved by its fans across the world, then there’s always that general fear that someone’s going to come along and ruin it by making a movie of it. Just watching these people at work, they’re not setting out to Hollywood-ise anything, they’re genuinely trying to make the best 40K film they can.'

Why 'Ultramarines' still works

• It actually leans into the grimdark: less glossy sheen, more scorched-metal, post-apocalyptic mood.
• That voice cast matters: Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Sean Pertwee give the dialogue some real gravitas.
• In 2010, it was the first big official push beyond codexes, rulebooks, novels, and smaller video games, pulling casuals and die-hards into the same seat.
• The team didn’t try to sand down the edges or make it feel like a generic cartoon; it’s built to feel like 40K.
• $383K in domestic video sales for a niche, non-theatrical animated feature? Not nothing, and a decent early signal that there was real demand.

So where’s Cavill’s 40K universe?

The Amazon and Games Workshop partnership has been pretty quiet for roughly three years now, with no official release date. Plenty of chatter pegs it for Prime Video sometime around mid-2027 or early 2028, but that’s expectation, not confirmation. In the meantime, if you want a concentrated shot of what this world actually feels like, 'Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie' is available to rent or buy on Amazon Video in the US.