The World of Warcraft movie is “not quite there yet”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The most recent news regarding the WORLD OF WARCRAFT movie was that the new director of the film would be Duncan Jones. That was back in January and since then, nothing. After Sam Raimi toiled for years to make a movie based on the video game/novel/CCG series, he finally let it move on where it has been sitting ever since.

Rumors had the film starting production in early 2014 but that has been refuted by Legendary Pictures head Thomas Tull during an interview with First Showing. Tull said the motivation behind WORLD OF WARCRAFT should be making a quality film and not try to cash in on a property with a built-in fanbase. He elaborated:

"So for us, it’s that we don’t know how to make a movie out of Warcraft, the video game. It’s the incredible story, the war, and these races, and everything these guys at Blizzard have come up with. They have 100 books, and just this incredibly rich world that they’ve created.

And so having Duncan Jones realize that for us was exciting. We’ve taken our time [developing this property], because we absolutely don’t want to screw it up. And I think we’re getting close to a place where we’re ready to go. And when the script is finished, and when we feel like, ‘Forget whether or not there’s a built-in audience. Does this stand on its own, and is it great?’ Then we’ll start filming. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re under suspicion of going there. And Duncan is one of those directors that you just go, ‘This guy gets it.’"

Duncan Jones is obviously deep into the pre-production to make WORLD OF WARCRAFT a viable film franchise, but there is always the risk he could drop out if it becomes too involved.  Any director is giving up a lot to dedicate themselves to a particular franchise and the vast scope of WARCRAFT has that potential.

Tull had one other quote in the interview saying that the next two years are going to be fun.  Maybe that puts the release of WORLD OF WARCRAFT sometime in or close to 2016.