Duncan Jones speaks candidly about Warcraft’s failure and a sequel

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

WARCRAFT didn't exactly break the mold of video games-turned-films, but it does have its audience (mostly in China). Still, the film hardly churned out the profits studios were hoping for, and director Duncan Jones acknowledges as much in a recent interview with Thrillist. It's a good read, for those interested, and while he doesn't come out and bash WARCRAFT or anything like that, he does take some time to acknowledge what he think went wrong, as well as the possibility of a director's cut and a sequel.

Duncan Jones regarding the imperfections of WARCRAFT:

Trying to make a movie like Warcraft, and trying to do it in a unique way… you get killed by a death of 1,000 cuts. Not just editing cuts. It's little changes that seem really innocuous. As a filmmaker the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically. Every choice that I make, whether it is story or character or costume, all works together. When you make a little change it doesn't seem like a big deal. When you keep making those little changes, especially over three and a half years, suddenly you're basically spending all of your time trying to work out how to patch up what has been messed around with. Trust me, if anyone is frustrated about the pacing of the film and how that turned out, it's me. It's not because I didn't know what was happening, but as I said, death of 1,000 cuts.

On the possibility of a director's cut:

A lot of people ask me, "When is the director's cut coming out?" There will never be a director's cut. With a film like this, where there are so many visual effects, every concession that you make you lose those shots. They cease to exist because the effects work never gets done. Some of it's not even at that stage. You go through a writing stage right up to the deadline of shooting the thing. [You lose] ideas in the writing process. Then sets change for whatever reason and notes come in. You're changing things around a three-and-a-half-year process. You get these little changes which are constantly course-correcting you. So there is no possibility of there ever being a director's cut. It's purely in my head.

Whether or not he would make a sequel:

If there were an opportunity for us to make another film in the Warcraft universe I really feel like we did the hard work in the first movie as far as setting the table. I would love to capitalize on three and a half years of hard work and be able to have some fun in that world now that I've done the hard work. [So] who knows? Maybe I'm just being a masochist.

I can't say I was a fan of WARCRAFT, but I do admire Jones in trying to create something different than what we've seen in the likes of LORD OF THE RINGS and GAME OF THRONES. The film was a long and large endeavor, so it's hard to give Jones any grief for doing his best. Furthermore, I'm just as excited as ever to see his upcoming project, MUTE, which is said to take place in the same universe as MOON!

Duncan Jones' next film, MUTE, is currently in pre-production.