It’s been a great week for Warcraft fans with a plethora of promotional material coming from Legendary and Universal Pictures. As we reported last week, there was the brand new, gritty character art that was quickly followed by a new one-minute TV spot. Over the last few days we’ve also had a new official movie poster, and two new teaser trailers offering new footage.
While more teasers than trailers at just 30 seconds in length, and still rife with repeated footage (Lothar jumping onto his gryphon, for instance) there were new glimpses of characters and settings, and while brief, show that Warcraft is shaping up to be one seriously epic cinematic experience.
The very latest footage came during The Halo World Championships late yesterday, the official Halo twitter account announcing there would be a world premiere of “an all new Warcraft movie trailer” during the event. Fans uploaded the new trailer to YouTube, and you can see some of the brand new images from it below. Mostly they are of Travis Fimmel’s character, Sir Anduin Lothar, and the young mage Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) who in one scene tells the Alliance’s greatest hero: “Saving the world is not a one man job.”
On Sunday the official Warcraft movie twitter account posted a new teaser that was today posted on Legendary’s official YouTube channel entitled “TV Spot 4.” In it we see a clear front shot of creepy warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) and more of spell-caster Kadghar. We also see the dwarf again, and this time he speaks to Lothar, who he refers to as “big man.”
In both of these new teasers we get to see that charisma, as well as humour, that Travis Fimmel excels at in his portrayal of Ragnar Lothbrok in Vikings, and it’s great to see those quirky one-liners and classic facial expressions in action here as well.
A new international Warcraft poster was also revealed via Universal Pictures UK late on Friday, the first to include the entire main cast of the film.
The most exciting thing about the poster is the image of the hooded Medivh, who is portrayed by Ben Foster. There seems to be a shroud of mystery surrounding the powerful wizard, who we haven’t seen in any live footage from the movie yet, which is appropriate I guess, since his name means “keeper of secrets” in High Elvish.
In the poster we also see Garona (Paula Patton) take on a more human appearance, irking many fans who were quick to voice their annoyance on social media as to why “Garona wasn’t green,” while some pointed out that King Llane (Dominic Cooper) was on the wrong side of the poster. Fan rants aside however, visually the poster is quite stunning, some may say reminiscent of a Star Wars poster, which may be stating that this movie can be successful enough to enter trilogy territory.
Speaking of trilogies, one thing that Warcraft director Duncan Jones has made clear is that he wants the movie to appeal to fans who have never played, or even heard of, World of Warcraft, the Blizzard game on which the film is based, very much like the way Peter Jackson was able to entice people to theatres (in droves) who had never read a word of Tolkien.
One thing that has become evident in the new footage and imagery this past week is that Warcraft is shaping up to be a visual feast for lovers of high fantasy. Look closely and you will notice the intricate indoor architecture, complete with trappings such as banners, as well as elaborate costumes and armour. I particularly like King Llane’s crown.
I’m certainly ready for a new, epic fantasy adventure; a new magical world to discover, wizards corrupted by dark powers and unlikely heroes to root for.
Warcraft opens May 30 in the UK, June 10 in the US, and on June 16 in Australia.
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