40K TV series - your ideal pilot episode

[b1soul]

After a bit of thought, my very rough ideas (set just before/around GS)

 

S1: An old Inquisitor and his young Interrogator discover a Genestealer cult among Hive plebeians. The concept of the Emperor, the Atronomican, and Warp travel are introduced in the first episode.

 

S2: The Inquisitor/Interrogator duo face a new threat in the form of a Slaaneshi/Fulgrim-based cult consisting of Hive patricians. This introduces the audience to the concept of the Chaos Gods, the HH, primarchs and Traitor primarchs. The Inquisitor is severely wounded and does not survive the season, paving the way for his Interrogator to be placed under the tutelage of his colleage, who happens to be based on Terra, the Holy Throneworld.

 

S3: This new Inquisitor and the Interrogator discover a conspiracy to ship a deadly cargo to Terra. What follows is an adaptation of Wraight's Carrion Throne.

 

S4: An adaptation of Watchers of the Throne from the perspective of the Inquisitor and Interrogator.

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by b1soul

[Urriak Urruk]

I was thinking the other day how easy it would be to do a 40k animation series. If you're a studio like WB or Netflix, you could easily call up GW and say, "hey we like your IP and want to make a series, can we use your audio-books to make stuff?"

 

Then because the Horus Heresy series is to my knowledge all in audio, I just take that content, get some stellar animators, and make a series around all the voice-acting that already exists. Not too different from what that YouTube series Helsreach is trying honestly, except with a lot more funding behind it.

 

And because you don't have to worry about the costs of casting and most of your production costs are animation, you could do some pretty good animations. Maybe even Warcraft cinematic quality.

[Ficinus]

While all of the Horus Heresy series exists as audiobooks, they aren't audiodramas. Only the audiodramas have different voice actors playing different roles in what is sort of a play. In the audiobooks a single person reads the book, adopting feigned voices for diffferent characters (and, note, the narrator is not a talent that rivals Mel Blanc or Billy West in his ability to adopt voices).

[Claws and Effect]

I have a great many ideas on this subject, but I'm currently at work. I'll go into them in the morning.

[Claws and Effect]

Took me longer to get back to this than I anticipated. Anyway, here goes. 

 

I would focus on a single squad of raw recruits in the Imperial Guard and follow the journey of the survivors through the series. I'd say no more than 4 of the 10 survive the first season. 

 

Here's how I'd do the pilot.

 

Open the show with the blurb from the rulebook that ends with "But the universe is a big place, and whatever happens, you will not be missed.....", delivered in an ominous voice (James Earl Jones maybe?). Maybe alter it subtly so it isn't obviously the intro to a game. 

 

Cut to a troop carrier in orbit around a random world and zoom into the hold where the troops are preparing for deployment. Pan past a sergeant leading his squad in prayers to the God-Emperor, then past another squad prepping their weapons. This serves two functions. 1) It establishes the dominant religion of the universe in a subtle way, and 2) It reinforces that this is a sci-fi show (because the weapons are obviously more advanced than anything found today). 

 

Then we meet our protagonists for the first time in such a way to establish their base personalities from which to build their characters. As follows: 

 

The Brash Hero: Establish him as cocky and confident, leading the audience to believe he will be the main character we're following. He's not. In fact, he's dead by the end of the pilot episode. 

 

The Overly Pious Twerp: Prays every chance he gets, including constantly on the battlefield. Survives an obnoxiously long time by blind luck, but attributes it to the Emperor favoring him. 

 

The Real "Hero": A born survivor. Inherits squad leadership but doesn't really want the responsibility (because he knows it means he'll get shot first). 

 

The Heavy Weapons Team: A female gunner who is easily the physically strongest member of the team, and her ammo feeder, a rat faced little guy who is totally smitten with her. 

 

The Cute Girl: The Imperium doesn't care about her appearance, just her ability to shoot straight. Really just wants the more idiotic guys on the team to accept her as a squadmate and not a sex object. Ironically ends up a Slaanesh cultist eventually. 

 

The Killer: Something's wrong with this girl. Joined voluntarily so she could kill more things (she says). Rumors are circulating that she really signed up to avoid murder charges. Actually makes a really good Guardsman when you get down to it. Has a thing for stabbing things with large knives. 

 

The Redshirt: Nervous and looks too young to be in a uniform. Totally incompetent at, well, pretty much everything. Except surviving by using every dirty trick in the book. Directly responsible for The Brash Hero's death. For some reason was given the plasma gun. (yeah, he's pretty much set up to die and keeps defying the odds). 

 

The Comms Guy: Carries the vox caster. Sorta fades into the background until later. 

 

The Veteran Sergeant: The only one of the squad with any prior combat experience. His left hand has been replaced with a bionic power fist and the rest of the squad places bets on how he lost it. 

 

So there's our protagonist squad. Only about 4 of them will survive long enough for the audience to really care about them. 

 

The basic idea is not to spoon feed the audience with the information they need to follow what's going on, but rather make them learn about the universe without realizing they've done so. 

 

The recruits' first battle is against a cult uprising instigated by an Alpha Legion Sorcerer. He'll be a major villain for a while. 

[Walter Payton]

Basically just Xenos up until the point where Eisenhorn gets caught by the Glaws.  Last line: "Step away from the Pontius, scum."

[Doghouse]

I think the Inquisition would be a really good starting point as these can interact with a huge spectrum of races or characters from the setting. They'd have access to pretty much all aspects of Imperial society and their dealings with the likes of xenos and chaos alike. 

[Slave to Darkness]

Something based on a hive world, focusing on three rival gangers, one Brat, one Tech and one Scavvy. Later they get inducted into a Space Marine chapter and we see them bond fighting in the same scout squad. After they finally make it as full Marines they do a boarding action on a Tyranid hive ship... 

 

So basically just make Ian Watsons Space Marine book into a film. That way we get to see everyday life for those living in a hive, from the Spire down to the Sump. Then we get to see the various other types of Imperial worlds and we are introduced to Chaos and learn a bit about the Heresy. Then we get to see the inside of a Hiveship and we learn of an intergalactic menace that wants to eat everything. 

 

Personally I would love to see inside a Hive and a Tyranid ship. 

[Frater Cornelius]

This cutscene, but more in depth. Spread of decadence, transition into Chaos, Exterminatus, then BAM, TV series about an Inquisitor.

[Donkey Kong]

I'll third Leif Bearclaw and Xwingt65 and I'd take a hacksaw to Gaunt's Ghosts and give the Sabbat Worlds Crusade the Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles/ Band of Brothers/ The Pacific treatment. But, I wouldn't start with First and Only; I'd start with Necropolis. Then I'd go Honour Guard, Sabbat Martyr, His Last Command, and Only in Death.

 

Also, I'd want it animated.

[Guest Triszin]

A TV Series about Inquisition and rogue traders would be cool. I think if Space marines or anything like that would be too hard to do in terms of budget allocated for it.

Ya, spacemarines need to be saved for awe and fear moments. They can out be common. Maybe once a season you see them briefly.

[Excessus]

I would love to see a TV show that starts with: "I was there, the day Horus slew the emperor". :)

[b1soul]

A HH series wouldn't be a good intro to 40K IMO

 

I think there's a bit too much to explain.

[Anvilarium]

A HH series wouldn't be a good intro to 40K IMO

 

I think there's a bit too much to explain.

 

I disagree. Start small with the events of Horus Rising, concentrate on Loken (the hero for the first couple of seasons)  and his relationship with Horus, with the Luna Wolves fighting a minor Xenos race. Slowly expand the universe over the first few episodes to introduce the elements of the Imperium, Horus' brothers & the Emperor, and then towards the end of the first series introduce the Word Bearers, Erebus and something dark & sinister in the shadows... The second series could deal with the introduction of Chaos/The Primordial Annihilator and start on Horus' downfall.

 

Of course I think it would need a HUGE budget to realise, (like Game of Thrones). But the Heresy series would be perfect for Sky Atlantic, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video to pick up, as it is a great story (at it's core), with TONS of characters and sub-stories. Perfect fodder for seven or more seasons of primetime big budget TV, with the options for spin-off series etc.

 

Plus with the Heresy Series coming to an end pretty soon the TV companies wouldn't end up running into the situation they have currently with Game of Thrones, where they have overtaken the author and had to make up their own ending!

Edited November 30, 2017 by Urza

[Ficinus]

While a Horus Heresy TV show would be awesome, I feel like it's way too big. Each book would probably require multiple seasons/series and there are, what, 50 some books. I could imagine it taking a literal century to complete, haha.

 

What would be cool with the Horus Heresy is if they did 18 shows simultaneously, one show for each legion showing what they were doing at each point in the Crusade/Heresy. Of course, such a massive multi-show project would never happen, but it's fun to dream.

[Anvilarium]

While a Horus Heresy TV show would be awesome, I feel like it's way too big. Each book would probably require multiple seasons/series and there are, what, 50 some books. I could imagine it taking a literal century to complete, haha.

 

What would be cool with the Horus Heresy is if they did 18 shows simultaneously, one show for each legion showing what they were doing at each point in the Crusade/Heresy. Of course, such a massive multi-show project would never happen, but it's fun to dream.

 

I'm pretty sure they could condense the main storyline into 8 Seasons of 12-16 60 minute episodes each. The abridged audiobook versions of each of the opening trilogy books are approx. 5-6hr long. so each one could comfortably be fitted into a season, or even fit all three into a single season.

 

The main storyline really only needs to encompass elements from the following events. A lot of which could be shortened down to the main beats as per Game of Thrones or the Harry Potter movies:

 

• The opening trilogy (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames)
• Isstvan III / V (including the fall of Fulgrim / Death of Ferrus / Eisenstein)
• Word Bearers / First Heretic
• Prospero
• Calth / Imperium Secundus / Pharos
• Ruinstorm / Vulkan / Old Earth
• War in the Webway / Praetorian of Dorn
• Siege of Terra

If it became popular, they could run an accompanying Anthology series, or a mini-series or two covering some of the lesser events:

• Martian Civil War
• Dark Angels / Night Lords campaign
• Shattered Legions/Meduson
• Tallarn
• Garro / Knights Errant

 

At the end of the day, GW are incredibly protective of their IP, and I can't see them allowing some other corporation to water it down for TV/Movies. we've all seen what corporate meddling has done to the DC Comics Cinematic Universe, who of us could bear to see something like that happen to the Horus Heresy/40k Universe?

Edited November 30, 2017 by Urza

[DanPesci]

80s saturday morning kids cartoon style

Every episode ending with  abbadon going "Ill get you next time CREEEEEEEEEEEED",

and then cut to creed and co cracking an episode specific pun round a table.

End on freeze frame mid hi-five/heretic burning.

 

awwww yeah.

Edited December 1, 2017 by DanPesci

[b1soul]

I think the HH should be the series after the initial intro 40K series becomes a hit.

 

I think the Inquisition is an easier entry vehicle so to speak.

 

Layers of the setting could be introduced via the Inquisition and Inquisitors would be some of the select individuals in the 41st millenium who have somewhat accurate info about the Great Heresy War.

 

I think it would make sense to build a mystique around the HH before diving into it.

[D3L]

I think it would be a terrible idea

unless you got Neill Blomkamp to direct it, but then again, ADAM (done in unity) is pretty much the existence of either Ash Nomads (Necromunda) or scavengers on the moons of Baal 

[sarabando]

Gaunts Ghosts starting as the books do in the trenches, flash backs showing the death of Tanith, Season one ending with the battle of Vervenhive. Season 2 starting with the act of consolidation. Live action, practical effects as much as possible style wise some where between BoB and BSG.

[Bulwyf]

I had the plans for this for years. I would do the show as an Inquisition agent and his retinue in 40k timeline. They would interact over the episodes/seasons with all the different Imperium factions and all the enemies of the Imperium. You could then have spin off series for those other factions. If nothing else you still have the main group in the Inquisition that would showcase the other factions and thereby introduce new viewers to all the wonderful factions in 40k.

[Warhead01]

I've thought about a 40K movie or show and I think I'd do it like farscape. So it would be a lot like that. Centered on a rogue trader and the ships crew. This will let the 40K universe unfold a little at a time. There can be recurring characters that we see in from the beginning but are explained and flushed out through out the show/series. Maybe an Inquisitor and their band hitching a ride once or twice. We could have dealings with xenos races in the form of pirates, passengers and  warbands to further flush out the back ground and push interesting stories. 

Later in the season or series we could have enough threads for a longer term story line. 

At some point the story could be passed off onto some other characters for a fresh point of view and new stories making the cast we know background characters that turn up and when they do we're all excited to see them. this can happen a few times even changing races, maybe Ork free bootas or a particular set of passengers who inevitably bring trouble on themselves and the crew.  doesn't have to be full on grim dark from the start. I'd avoid having space marines in the show as characters but as interactive background and I'd keep them threatening and mysterious for as long as possible. I want enough story built to have good flash backs in the show. explaining everything from motivation to inside jokes. It could be something even bigger in scale like Battle star was but better. Things like Key pilots being sent off with security with rifles is right out. 
 

 Just some thought.

 

edited for brain damage.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Warhead01

[b1soul]

A rogue trader series would be cool...forgot about those guys hehe

[Commissar Ibram Gaunt]

If i were to do something it would be Doubke Eagle. You wouldn't need to know any background and it is a self contained story.

[Trevak Dal]

So there is a part in The Punisher where

 

Frank/the Punisher has a flashback on his time in Khandahar,

where Agent Orange sends them on a bad op that ends up being a trap, and Frank goes on a gratifying kill frenzy on them, ending with him smashing a Taliban in the face presumably with a rock

 

Something like that but darker.

 

Have it be a ganger kid who is selected to be a space marine.

Edited December 16, 2017 by Trevak Dal