According to rumors and reports, a second Warcraft movie may be in the works! Following up the original production that was released in 2016, the aptly named Warcraft 2 is something that many hoped for, but few had much expectation of after years of silence.
It seems that Legendary has other ideas in mind, though. With the newest World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands, releasing a bit more than a month from today, the amount of interest and hype surrounding the game has surged higher every day.
What better time to announce a movie release than now? While it isn’t quite announced, there’s a good amount of authority behind the rumors – including Chris Metzen, former lead writer for World of Warcraft, retweeting an article on the subject.
The first Warcraft movie was released a bit more than four years ago, and despite many believing to the contrary, was a massive success. Grossing $439,000,000 worldwide, the film remains the highest-grossing video game movie adaptation of all time.
Still, anyone familiar with the genre of gaming movie adaptations would likely tell you that the movies tend to be… lackluster. Warcraft received poor reviews for a number of reasons, and while far from being as bad as many other adaptations (looking at you, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), many agree that it was far from stellar.
Regardless of the overall quality and reception from critics, the film was nominated for three awards. While it showed poorly in the domestic box office of the United States, it showed massive success in international territories – which was to be expected.
Among fans of the game, many were just happy to see a film released in the Warcraft universe after years of fans wishing to see such a thing. You won’t find a single cinematic from the title on the internet without the comments filled with players asking to see a movie of the same quality released.
Despite this, it also received great criticism for not sticking to the lore that was written before, changing much of it. Based on the first Warcraft, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, the movie told the story of the Orcs leaving Draenor through the Dark Portal, sparking the First War and showing the creation of the original Alliance.
With many changes being made – the manner of Durotan and King Llane Wrynn’s death, Khadgar not being aged prematurely by the Sargeras-possessed Medivh, and plenty of other much smaller changes – some are curious to know where the next movie will go, as these events set the stage for the sequels.
As of now, wondering where the movie will go story-wise might be a bit premature, given that we can’t even confirm that the movie is truly happening. One can only hope that we aren’t far from seeing the next Warcraft movie on the big screen.