It was cheesy, the practical suits of armour were a glorious ode to power shoulders from the 1980s and the story made about as much sense as trying to figure out what the number six smells like, but hot damn did I enjoy Warcraft when it came out back in 2016. Taken at face value, it was brilliant stuff: Visually imaginative, nostalgic and just a good ol’ dollop of action with some impressive CGI characters thrown into the mix.
At the box office, it did alright at best. As of right now, the film has a global tally of $439 million, which wasn’t too bad at all. Taking the usual Hollywood calculator of a movie needing to make double its budget back to factor in the marketing costs associated with it (WarCraft had a $160 million filming budget), and there was some profit to be had once all the receipts had been tallied up.
The problem is, is that WarCraft’s primary American audience only accounted for a small portion of the box office returns. With a domestic gross of over $47 million, that number just wasn’t good enough to warrant a sequel. It’s a pity, as WarCraft ended on a great cliffhanger and director Duncan Jones had plans to continue the story with two more films that would have created an almighty trilogy. And you all know that Hollywood has a boner for its favourite prime number, three.
So what would those sequels have looked like? According to Jones (Spoilers ahead for a movie that is now four years old), the first sequel would have made good on the ending of the film. By the time the end credits had rolled, Not a massive genocidal cock and Orc chieftain Durotan would still be dead thanks to evil Orc warlock Gul’dan, alongside Alliance leader Anduin Lothar and the spellcheck on this post.
Anyway, Durotan’s son Go’el had been left in a basket in a river, was found by a human and would eventually grow to become Thrall, WarCraft’s legendary Orc hero. WarCraft 2: War Craft Harder would have charted the rise of Thrall, while WarCraft 3: Tokyo Drift would have focused on Thrall fulflling his father’s promise to find a new home for the Orcs.
So will those sequels ever see the light of day? Jones isn’t banking on it. “I have no idea,” Jones added, “and no one I worked with on the film even works at Blizzard anymore.” What a pity.
Last Updated: June 25, 2020
Original Heretic
June 25, 2020 at 11:22
Such a shame. I also really enjoyed this movie. As did pretty much everyone I spoke to about it.
Lu
June 25, 2020 at 11:34
Yeah there was so much potential. Like with the third movie you could have the alliance side of things with Arthas and his fall, setting up another trilogy.
Also a proper post Frozen Throne storyline not tainted by World Of Warcraft.
Kervyn Cloete
June 25, 2020 at 11:54
It was just too rushed. That was my only criticism. They breezed through plot points without explanation. But I loved the rest of it.
Original Heretic
June 25, 2020 at 16:15
Oh it was very rushed. But that’s always the issue when trying to cram a couple decades of lore into a 2 hour movie.
Kenn Gibson
June 25, 2020 at 12:14
As a WoW fan boi, I absolutely loved it, but I get why people felt lost. There was too much riding on you understanding the world, and way too many Easter eggs that would have gone over non fans heads. A Frozen Throne / Black Temple / Legion Invasion story line would have been a better option as it could be told in a single movie or stretched to two
GooseZA
June 25, 2020 at 13:04
It’s a real shame this didn’t work out because there’s so much fantastic lore in the Warcraft universe. I still enjoyed the film but I can imagine that people with no knowledge of the game / lore would be a bit lost
Gareth Lagesse (eXCheez)
June 25, 2020 at 15:22
If someone made a cut that only focused on the Orc characters and story, it would be outstanding. The human story side of the movie was a mess, while the Orc side of the movie was something quite special.
Kervyn Cloete
June 25, 2020 at 15:27
I actually mentioned in my review that the CG orcs were actually more realistic and believable than the real humans.
Gareth Lagesse (eXCheez)
June 25, 2020 at 15:22
If someone made a cut that only focused on the Orc characters and story, it would be outstanding. The human story side of the movie was a mess, while the Orc side of the movie was something quite special.
MechMachine
June 25, 2020 at 11:34
Hey, I`ll take that isn’t all to bad ( meh ) money and laugh about how isn’t all to bad it is for the rest of my fabulous life…
Iskape
June 25, 2020 at 11:54
Maybe they’ll do a reboot sometime. Or maybe Warcraft has lost its appeal and there is no reason to do a movie!
Son of Banana Jim
June 25, 2020 at 15:44
Last I checked, they were down nearly 10 million subscribers. I remember back in 2010, they had hit 12 million. Nowadays, it must be under 1.5 million? I might sign up again when they go f2p.
RinceThis
June 25, 2020 at 11:59
It was soooooo rushed. As someone who knows only a little about the franchise, I was almost utterly lost as to why certain things happened, which is a damn shame. It had a lot of heart I thought.
CrAiGiSh
June 25, 2020 at 15:43
For a WoW movie … it was good.
Son of Banana Jim
June 25, 2020 at 15:44
It’s one of those few movies that actually gets better with age and repeated viewing. I still wish they had opted for a completely animated or CGI movie (the time was right for an adult-orientated WOW movie). Maybe Netflix will greenlight a series in the next few years, or we can finally get a proper warhammer series. Now that would be great.