by Ever since Henry Cavill somewhat prematurely announced his collaboration with Games Workshop and Amazon on developing Warhammer for the small and big screen, there has been a lot of speculation. Some folks seem to want him to play the Emperor, while others have their own favorite Primarchs or Space Marines they want him to portray.
Smarter folks have been eager to see him portray Gregor Eisenhorn, a long-established character in the world of Warhammer 40,000 and definitely a favorite for folks who love the universe. Eisenhorn is an Inquisitor, and as such, he sees all manner of scum, villainy, Xenos threat, and intrigue at potentially every level of the vast and sprawling Imperium of Man.
Fans are somewhat impatiently waiting for the third book in the current Eisenhorn series, called Pandaemonium. Abnett is a highly skilled author who does a stunning job of bringing out the humanity in his characters despite the almost incomprehensible scale and threat of the setting in which his stories take place, so it’s hardly a surprise that people are eager to read his next installment. Where it gets interesting is that he recently took Facebook to fill people in on why the book is a little delayed.
By the way… my previous posts about this event (and, actually, pretty much anything I post) have resulted in many comments asking for Pandaemonium (Bequin book 3). Positively demanding it. And I’m delighted you’re keen, because so am I. But for those who don’t know, it is not MY decision when Pandaemonium gets finished and published. For reasons an NDA prevents me from discussing, Bequin 3 – and some other things – are held up for a while. It’s coming – and I’ll be delighted to bring it to you – but in the meantime, try to be patient… and maybe try to enjoy the things that I AM writing.
This message was brought to you by peace, love, and shooty-death-kill-in-space. See you Saturday.
People are tying this to a Reddit post from two months ago where a fan describes a meeting with Abnett. The fan claims that Abnett told him that the book is on hold because of the potential lore impact on the setting, and that Games Workshop wants to fully settle on the lore for the TV show before publishing it.
According to IGN, People are taking this to be a hint that the show will be about Eisenhorn, but if Eisenhorn is facing something that has a huge ripple effect on Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe, it just makes sense to get all their plans nailed down first, even if the show is not about him. We see how the community can react to changes in the lore; I can understand Games Workshop wanting to be pretty careful before they launch their full assault on the mainstream.
There is also the fact that Abnett is going to be bound by an NDA about the book he wrote either way. He can’t just wander around telling people what he has written or other things he may have learned about Games Workshop’s plans in the course of doing so.
Frankly, if Cavill, Games Workshop, and Amazon were smart, they would likely have constructed an advisory panel of people who have spent decades now building up the Warhammer 40,000 universe and mythos and allow Cavill to plunder their brains for advice, insight, and potential story threads to follow. If Abnett were involved in such efforts, you can bet your Bolter that he’d be NDAd to the teeth.
From what I can tell, the real message to take from Abnett’s message is to leave the man alone. If you have somehow read every Black Library book, do what the rest of us do and reread the Horus Heresy again.
Yes, the whole thing.
