As anticipation continues to build leading up to the theatrical release of writer/director Duncan Jones’ Warcraft this June, viewers are no doubt eager to learn just how adeptly the celebrated genre film director (of Moon and Source Code fame) will be at bringing the latest video game feature film adaptation to the big screen for general audiences. By the looks of things behind the scenes of the new Legendary Pictures production, fans of the original MMORPG from Blizzard Entertainment are in for a theatrical experience set to bring the fantasy world of Azeroth to vividly cinematic life.
After launching the first feature length trailer for the Warcraft movie adaptation in November 2015, distributor Universal Pictures and Blizzard are rumored to have plans to promote the film with the added incentive of a free month of World of Warcraft for anyone who buys a ticket to see Jones’ latest directorial offering. But if that isn’t enough to grab your attention, the latest TV trailer may help get you out of your seat and into the theater this summer.
In the Warcraft footage featured above, the movie’s two central protagonists Sir Anduin Lothar (Vikings‘ Travis Fimmel) and Durotan (Toby Kebbell, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) come head-to-head in climactic clash between the two warring tribes of the human led Alliance and the Orc Horde, respectively. The full 60-seconds of footage also sees the unveiling of a dwarf, certain magical elements to be brought into play in the war soon to come, and plenty of footage of the fated battle that will pit man against orc in a true battle royale in the movie.
In addition, a brand-new poster for Warcraft has been released online, with even more characters from the fantasy/adventure on display. You can have a look at the one-sheet, below:
There is little more to gleaned from the latest Warcraft footage with regard to the movie’s narrative, though anyone who has ever played the popular video game property form Blizzard will likely see plenty of the very same aesthetic nuances and acrobatic flourishes that has made the franchise so popular over the course of the past two decades. Whether or not longtime players of the property will be pleased when they see the studio-made version of the popular fantasy title remains to be seen, though the film should offer fans of epic fantasy adventure on the big screen plenty to ogle in a few months time.
It remains unclear whether or not Jones has a clear grasp of the material at hand, or if he is merely rehashing old visual themes and narrative tropes exhausted already by Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. For now, however, Warcraft appears to hold at least some promise of another blockbuster fantasy to hold the attention of those viewers who are most susceptible to its inherent charms – even as the task of adapting outstanding video game properties to the silver screen remains a seemingly insurmountable task to accomplish successfully.
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Warcraft will see theatrical release in the U.S. on June 10th, 2016.
