Warhammer 40K ‘Guardsman’ short hits the web

Over the past decade seemingly every major franchise has been made into a movie or TV series, even those that some considered doomed to fail. Blizzard’s Warcraft series has been successfully adapted into a movie, the Walking Dead has become a TV series spanning nine seasons, and seemingly every Marvel character in existence has gotten, or will soon receive their own filmic adaptation. 

This morning, a short movie called ‘Guardsman’ made its way to my desk, telling the story of ‘Guardsman Raines”, a soldier that sits behind enemy lines in a territory that is infested with legions of vile monsters. The short is directed by Richard Boylan and written by Boman Modine. Over the past 24 hours, this short has received over 70,000 views.

‘Guardsman’ is based in the Warhammer 40K universe, perfectly capturing the essence of the dystopian future, an era of technological stagnation where humanity sees constant war with the races beyond its Imperium and the infidels who worship the Chaos Gods from within. While this film is by no means official, it shows that a live-action Warhammer 40K film is possible, even if the armour sets of Space Marines look a little silly in person. 

There is no shortage of stories that could be told within the Warhammer 40K universe, with the series having too many books and graphics novels to mention within this short article. Even the long-running Horus Heresy series offers plenty of potential for a filmic adaptation of the Warhammer 40K universe. At the time of writing, the only real film under the Warhammer 40K banner is “Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie”, which itself was a direct-to-DVD release.