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Jun 10, 2016 · Warcraft: Directed by Duncan Jones. With Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper. As an Orc horde invades the planet Azeroth using a magic portal, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war.
- (274K)
- Action, Adventure, Fantasy
- Duncan Jones
- 2016-06-10
- Overview
- Story
- Cast and crew
- Locations
- Development
- Lore differences
- Reception
- Premiere
- Promotions
- Sequel
(released internationally as Warcraft: The Beginning) is a 2016 fantasy epic film based on the Warcraft series and set on the world of Azeroth. It opened in more than 20 countries at the end of May 2016, and was released in the US on 10 June 2016. It is rated PG-13. The film's trailer made its debut on 6 November 2015 at BlizzCon 2015. The film was shot over 123 days, from 20 January through 23 May 2014.
Set in the era of the First War, the film stars Anduin Lothar of Stormwind and Durotan of the Frostwolf clan as heroes set on opposite sides of a growing war, as the warlock Gul'dan leads the Horde to invade Azeroth.
The film is set in an alternate version of the Warcraft universe, featuring well-known characters, locations and events, but with many differences from the history seen in the games and literature.
From May 14 to May 25, 2018, Legendary partnershiped with Prop Store Auction with an exclusive Warcraft Auction for the movie.
After turning Draenor into a barren land with the use of fel magic, Gul'dan creates a magical portal to lead the orcish Horde to a new world, using draenei prisoners as fuel for the gate's opening. A large war party of orc warriors pass through, with the intention of capturing humans to use as fuel to bring through the rest of the Horde.
Among the many fel-corrupted warriors are some who join the party only reluctantly, wishing no part in Gul'dan's dark magic but hoping nonetheless to find a new world. Among them are the warchief of the Frostwolf clan Durotan and his mate, the pregnant Draka. Draka is forced prematurely into labor by the passage through the Great Gate, but the baby is stillborn. Gul'dan siphons the life of a nearby deer and gives it to the newborn, saving its life but turning its skin green.
General Anduin Lothar is visiting the dwarven king Magni Bronzebeard when word reaches him of an attack on one of his kingdom's garrisons. Upon returning to Stormwind City, Lothar finds that Khadgar, a young mage, has been caught by the guards while searching the bodies of the victims. Questioned by Lothar, he explains that something called the fel is at work, but refuses to say more, saying only that the Guardian of Azeroth must be summoned. Reluctantly Lothar takes Khadgar to meet King Llane Wrynn. At first the king is skeptical, but as reports come in of more attacks on the kingdom's villages, he agrees, and sends Lothar to summon the Guardian.
Taking Khadgar with him, Lothar and the mage travel on gryphon to the home of the Guardian, the magical Tower of Karazhan. After greeting the castellan Moroes, Lothar meets with the reclusive Medivh, once a close friend but who has withdrawn into seclusion for the last several years. While the two discuss the situation, Khadgar explores the tower's extensive magical libraries. After spotting a strange, ethereal presence, the young mage is guided to a particular volume, and quickly hides it in his cloak before Medivh angrily discovers him. Seeing him as a usurper to his position, Medivh uses magic to pin Khadgar against the wall of the tower, but releases him when the mage mentions the fel. Questioned by Lothar, Medivh reluctantly explains that the fel is a dark and dangerous magic that offers great power, but exacts a terrible price. Accepting that he must indeed attend to the matter personally, Medivh teleports himself, Lothar and Khadgar to the throne room of Stormwind City, where they meet with the king.
While investigating an area corrupted by the fel, Lothar, Medivh, Kadghar and their band of soldiers are ambushed by a group of orcs, quickly overpowering the humans and killing many of their party. Lothar defends his son Callan, and fights with the warchief Blackhand, destroying his hand with a dwarven boomstick. Recovering from a strange trance, Medivh casts a spell that target the orcs corrupted by the fel magic, killing most of the orcs and leaving only Durotan, Blackhand, and another orc, who are still uncorrupted, to flee the scene. As Durotan rides away, he spots Gul'dan's slave Garona, and after a moment's hesitation severs her chain. Garona runs from the orc but is swiftly captured by Khadgar.
Returning to Stormwind, Lothar, King Llane and the others interrogate Garona, and discovering that she can speak some Common, having learned it from the humans taken prisoner by the Horde. She explains that the orcs are from another world, now dead, and will soon bring through the entirety of the Horde to take Azeroth as their own. The king promises to protect Garona in exchange for her help in freeing the human prisoners. Queen Taria Wrynn later visits Garona in her cell, and shows her compassion and kindness, offering to remove her chains and slave collar, and winning a little of her trust.
Cast
The following tables show the full cast of the movie: Main Minor Cut
Crew
•Director - Duncan Jones •Executive Producer - Stuart Fenegan •Co-Producer - Chris Metzen •Producer - Charles Roven •Producer - Alex Gartner •Producer - Thomas Tull •Producer - Jon Jashni •Writer - Charles Leavitt •Visual Effects Supervisor - Bill Westenhofer •Score Composer - Ramin Djawadi
•Azeroth
•Black Morass
•Dalaran
•Deadwind Pass
•Karazhan
•Burning Steppes
Blizzard first began talking with Legendary Pictures about the possibility of a Warcraft film more than ten years before the film would eventually release, in May 2016.
In a 9 May 2006 press release, Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures (makers of Batman Begins and 300) announced that they would develop a live-action film set in the Warcraft universe. Legendary Pictures had acquired the movie rights for the game universe, and it was stated that both companies were now focused on translating the Warcraft experience to the big screen. Further details about the movie were revealed at BlizzCon 2007.
On 22 July 2009, Blizzard Entertainment announced that Sam Raimi would become the Warcraft movie director. Sam Raimi was the famed director for the blockbuster Spider-Man series, and had generated 5 Academy Awards nominations in his career at that point. Raimi also wrote and directed the cult classic The Evil Dead and its two sequels, produced 30 Days of Night, and wrote and directed the thriller Drag Me To Hell. In addition to film, Raimi's television credits included producing such fantasy series as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The live-action film was set for release in 2009, but was later rescheduled to 2011.
Uwe Boll attempted to apply for the job of director, from which Blizzard CEO Paul Sams replied "We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you."
IMDB stated that the manuscript writer would be Chris Metzen. (Jesse Wigutow was mentioned, but had been removed). IMDB information on pre-release movies should be taken as suspect, though. IMDB generally only removes false information if someone reports it. Mike Morhaime stated in February 2009 that there was a draft script. Chris Metzen mentioned that the film would be action-packed and violent, stating "We're definitely not going to make a G or a PG version of this. It's not PillowfightCraft."
During BlizzCon 2010, Chris Metzen said that they had the story ready, that Raimi and his team had agreed to it and that Blizzard was just "waiting for the big green light in the sky". Nethaera said in March 2012 that "It's still on the radar. We just don't have any current updates to provide."
While firmly set in the Warcraft universe in the period of the opening of the Dark Portal, the film deviates from official lore in numerous areas, some critical. For lore purposes the film is considered to take place in its own version of the Warcraft universe, closely related to the one seen in the games and other canon sources, but with a number of differences.
For a list and discussion of the differences between the film universe and the main universe, see Warcraft film universe. For a list of differences between the film and its official novelization, see Differences from the film.
opened to highly negative critical reviews. While a few critics praised the film for its depth and emotional engagement, most panned the film for a number of reasons, ranging from excessive detail, a rushed pace, and too many characters, to negative comparisons with Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The film was widely criticised as another example of a failed attempt at a video game-inspired movie, with little appeal except to fans, although some reviewers suggested even fans of the series would be disappointed by the offering. The film holds a critics rating of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, up from a one-time low of 16%, while Metacritic's weighted assessment of critical opinion gives the film 32/100, indicating "Generally Unfavorable Reviews".
In contrast, the film's initial box office performances were highly successful, opening in the #1 slot in 19 of 20 territories during its opening weekend, and in 45 out of 51 territories as of its third week. Ratings from cinema-goers were also far more favourable than those from critics. IMDB reports a 7.1/10 score, based on over 140,000 viewer ratings, Rotten Tomatoes' audience rating gives the film 75% approval, based on over 50,000 viewers, and the Chinese online review site Douban lists an average 7.8/10 score, based on more than 145,000 viewer ratings. Offline, CinemaScore's opening night exit polls reported a B+ score for the film in the US, while PostTrak's audience polls from the US opening reported a 78% positive result, with 56% "definite thumbs up". Audience ratings have cooled as scores from non-fans watered down the initially fan-dominated numbers, but remain notably at odds with critical opinion.
The film's performance in international markets was strong, with sales reaching more than $160M (excluding China) by the end of the film's box office run. The film found its strongest opening weekend reception in Russia and Germany, followed by France, and set records in some European countries. Coming three weeks later, US performance was widely predicted to be a flop (due in part to stiff competition),[100] and despite a second place opening weekend earned only $47M in cinemas, adding up to a very poor American outing.[101] The film performed extremely well in China.[102] Ticket presales had already amounted to nearly $21M two days before the film's release, with its first two days of screenings amounting to $92M in ticket sales, making it the first film ever to gross RMB 300M two days in a row, as well as the fastest international film to top RMB 900M (stealing both records from Furious 7).[103] The film dominated with 81% of the market on its second day, showing on 67.5% of all movie screens across China,[103][104][105] and also broke records for the the fasted film to earn RMB 1B,[106] the biggest weekend for an international film, biggest Thursday box office numbers of all time, and several records for IMAX including the biggest presales ($8.2M), midnight run ($1.4M) and opening day gross ($5.3M).[104][106] It claimed only the second biggest midnight and one-day totals, behind Furious 7, although it broke the record for the biggest non-weekend opening day (Furious 7 having opened on a Sunday).[103] The film's five-day opening run in China took around $156M.[107]
The film's global box office total stands at $433M,[108] with around $47M from the US, $221M from China, and $165M from other international territories,[109] making a 51% contribution from China, and just less than an 11% contribution from the US market. The film's DVD release starting in September may add to its overall earnings. The film had a budget of $160M and press and marketing outlay of $110M, but due to the nature of the film industry,[110] is estimated to require $450-500M in order to break even. A net loss of $15-40M is predicted, although some sources say the deficit will be smaller, due to special arrangements in China for merchandising and digital rights.[111] The film was the ninth highest-grossing film of 2016 following its worldwide release in mid-June 2016, but by July had been pushed down to tenth place by a soaring Finding Dory.[112] The film has stolen the title of most successful video game film of all time, with the previous record holder, Prince of Persia, standing at only $336M.[113][114] It is also the first film based on a video game ever to reach a global total of $400M,[115] and only the third video game film (just behind the almost simultaneously-released The Angry Birds Movie) to break $300M.[116] Overall the film achieved unprecedented box office success for a video game movie, but only moderate success in the larger scale, and failed to recoup its substantial outlay.
Two months after the end of its cinema run, the film began a staggered global release on DVD and Blu-ray. In the US, the film topped both the Blu-ray and combined DVD/Blu-ray charts for the week of its release.[117][118] The proportion of Blu-ray sales in the opening week were high, with 72% of US customers choosing the format, while other titles debuting that week saw only around 40% Blu-ray sales.[117]
The film's success in China is believed to be due in part to the strong popularity of the Warcraft franchise in the country, which is estimated to be home to half of all World of Warcraft players in the world.[119] As a result China was predicted to be a key market in determining the commercial success or failure of the film, and therefore the likelihood of a sequel being produced.[119] The unprecedented disparity between the film's US and Chinese success[120] has inspired widespread commentary about the developing balance of power in cinema,[121][122] with some stating that Warcraft could be the film that proves the validity of aiming for success in China over success in the US, currently still the world's biggest cinema market.[123][124][125] Some commentators have even speculated about the possibility of a sequel not even releasing in the US, instead focusing on China and international markets.[126] Warcraft has been widely compared to Pacific Rim, which also saw a very strong response in China, and thus managed to secure a sequel, despite its failure in the US.[125] Despite this, in December 15, 2017, Jones blamed the US box office when saying he could have had "so much fun" with a sequel, implying there would be none.
The film's global premiere was held 6 June, 2016, at The Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, four days before the release of the film in the US. The event was streamed on the official Twitch channel, where it was presented by Michele Morrow and Jesse Cox.
The premiere was attended by numerous cast members and crew including Toby Kebbel, Paula Patton, Rob Kazinsky, Ben Schnetzer, Daniel Wu, Clancy Brown and Duncan Jones. Numerous Blizzard personnel were invited to the screening, including Warcraft developers such as Mike Morhaime, Ion Hazzikostas, J. Allen Brack, Tom Chilton and Rob Pardo, and those from other games such as Hearthstone's Bob Fitch.[127] Several noted Warcraft streamers and fansite personnel were also invited, including Bajheera, Perculia and TradeChat. An unexpected addition was the actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her son Tom, who cosplayed as an orc shaman and warrior, respectively, as well as Ben Schulz, better known as Leeroy Jenkins.
Free game and game time
Purchasing a ticket for the film at certain cinemas in certain countries will grant a free digital copy of World of Warcraft, and in many cases an additional 30 days of game time. Those purchasing the tickets are given a card with a code which can be redeemed on the official site to unlock the free copy.[130] These promotions are time-limited. Countries with cinemas participating in the promotion include the United States, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.[131]
In-game items
Players logging in to the game between 24 May and 1 August, 2016 will be awarded four unique transmogrification items depicting gear from the film.[132] Each item is restricted by both faction and race. Alliance characters can use the [Replica Lion's Fang] (sword) and [Replica Lion's Heart] (shield), while Horde characters can use the [Replica Blood Guard's Cleaver] (axe) and [Replica Staff of Gul'dan] (staff). Lion's Fang depicts Anduin Lothar's Dragonsword, while Blood Guard's Cleaver depicts Durotan's Sever, and the Staff of Gul'dan of course depicts Gul'dan's staff. The items corresponding to the current faction will be mailed to the first Alliance and Horde characters to log on for each account,[133] contained in the [Alliance Strongbox] and [Horde Strongbox], respectively. Logging in during this period will also earn the [Fight for the Alliance]/ [Fight for the Horde] achievements.
Jones originally hoped to direct one or more sequels to the film,[134][135] having already discussed future storylines and a possible trilogy with Chris Metzen, but said this would depend on how well the film performed. In June 2020, Jones elaborated that he had planned for a trilogy of films[136] telling one cohesive story, after which he would have handed the reins to someone else to adapt other, better known parts of Warcraft lore.[137]
In January 2017, Jones tweeted that he "truly [didn't] know" about the chance for a sequel to happen, and that it was not up to him,[138] but to Legendary.[139] In July 2018, Jones apologized and stated that he was afraid a sequel to the film was not likely, with notably too many companies involved to "thread that needle".[140] Ultimately, Warcraft struggled because it had too many storylines and tried to serve too many threads at once.[141] In June 2020, Jones stated that he had "no idea" if a sequel would be made and added that no one he worked with on the film even worked at Blizzard anymore.[142]
A second movie would have focused on Go'el's imprisonment in Blackmoore's gladiator camp and his violent bid for freedom for the orc side of the story. In the camp, Go'el would have befriended a tauren who'd tell him of a land to the west where Go'el might find allies and a new home.[136][143] (In June 2016, Jones tweeted that he was "desperate to do taurens" if he got the chance.)[144] The second film would also have featured Orgrim wearing the Doomplate armor,[145] with the orcs learning to make armor in the new world of Azeroth.[146] The Alliance focus meanwhile would have included, among other things, Khadgar "unleashing Pandora's Box", a Lothar arc, and Varian. The flying city of Dalaran would have landed in the Alterac Mountains, and magic would've proliferated as the Kirin Tor tried to be more open after the death of King Llane.[147]
The third and final film would've seen Go'el gathering the Horde and freeing orcs around the Eastern Kingdoms before making the dangerous trip across the sea to Kalimdor and founding Orgrimmar. In essence, the trilogy would revolve around the fulfilling of Durotan's promise to give his people a new home.
Blizzard still holds the licence to the IP. As of November 2018, they have had conversations with Legendary, and are still trying to figure out what's best for the franchise, whether it's something episodic, a theatrical movie, a feature film, or anything else.[148]
Development on a sequel titled "Warcraft 2" began in 2019. It would've brought back characters from the first film and introduce new ones. However, the Covid-19 pandemic began just as early development began. Stars who were attached to the project dropped out, and filmmakers were eyed, but were ultimately unavailable. As the project fell apart, discussions began internally about whether the studio and Blizzard wanted to reboot the franchise or continue with the established characters, actors, and lore from the first movie. As of 2022, sources indicate that Legendary decided to go with a soft reboot; still in continuity with the first film, but focusing on a new set of characters. Characters from the first film may feature, but will be older (for instance, a much older Go'el, now named Thrall).[149]
Jun 11, 2016 · Played By: Travis Fimmel. There isn't enough time to explore the depths of Stormwind's military, but you don't really need to - Anduin Lothar pretty much embodies it. Although his own origins aren't explored in the film, Anduin grew up a childhood friend of both (future king) Llane Wrynn and (future Guardian) Medivh.
- Andrew Dyce
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Warcraft (2016) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Cast 49. Travis Fimmel. Anduin Lothar. Paula Patton. Garona Halforcen. Ben Foster. Medivh. Dominic Cooper. Llane Wrynn. Ben Schnetzer. Khadgar. Toby Kebbell. Durotan / Antonidas. Robert Kazinsky. Orgrim. Clancy Brown. Blackhand. Ryan Robbins. Karos. Daniel Wu. Gul'dan. Anna Galvin. Draka. Callum Keith Rennie. Moroes. Ruth Negga. Lady Taria Wrynn.
Nov 8, 2014 · Warcraft. June 10, 2016. The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a ...
Nov 7, 2014 · By Sandy Schaefer. Published Nov 7, 2014. Fans at the 'Warcraft' movie's 2014 BlizzCon panel were treated to official casting news, character details, and artwork from Duncan Jones' film.
