Warcraft movie sequel and what it might have look like

Lore Story Forum
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I know this Story forum is meant for the lore of WoW and not the movie Warcraft but I wanted to say something on this. But I don’t really have any other “platform” to say it on (especially one where I feel my voice will at least be heard). So if you would be willing to humor me, I am making the post here in hopes we can have a discussion and maybe reminiscence what could have been…

Spoilers from the movie ahead by the way.

Over the weekend, the director of the Warcraft movie Duncan Jones was asked on twitter what his idea of a Warcraft trilogy would have been.

Here’s what he said:

A fair question and a brief answer.
Yes. I had three films I would have loved to make for the first “story” before handing the reins to someone else for the better known Warcraft lore.
This is a VERY brief summary of what films 2 & 3 would have been built around.

https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon/status/1274782037619048449

3 films.
Part 2 would have been Go’el/Thrall as a young orc slave in Blackmoore’s gladiator camp. Here he meets & befriends a Tauren who tells him of another land to the west where his people come from, & where he might find allies & maybe a new home…

https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon/status/1274779010942169088

three, the gathering horde army and freeing of orcs around the Eastern kingdom before a dangerous trip across the sea to Kalimdor, & the founding of the 1st Azerothian city of Orgrimmar.

Basically the trilogy was the fulfilling of Durotan’s promise to give his people a new home.

https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon/status/1274779705732927489

My thoughts: As a long time proponent of a Warcraft film universe (and I will always appreciate the work Mr. Jones and the rest of the crew did on the Warcraft movie) I think I would have hated this idea if it came to pass. One of the problems fans had with the Warcraft movie was the changing of the context of some notable events.

Example: Llane letting Garona kill him on the battlefield because he believed it could help foster peace between orcs and humans (instead being killed by Garona in the throne room on the orders of Gul’dan and the Shadow Council).

It seems that a second and third film would have follow this trend.

I think doing it again in subsequent films would have been a mistake (and drastically changed the story as a whole even more than the first one did). Such as Thrall’s motivation for traveling to Kalimdor, lack of Taretha who helped mold Thrall into the orc he is today, etc… (also going to assume by “azerothian” city, he meant Kalimdor…I hope).

It also seems like the first, second, AND third war would be glossed over (so you know Arthas’ fans are going to be really peeved at that). Which makes no sense as the plot of the first movie was focused on the orc / human conflict. Logically the second and maybe third film would at least cover the first two wars (or merge them into one Great War) and close those chapters before embarking on the next one which would be…(and this is where I interject what my idea would be)

A Thrall movie (or series) that could be made as a sort of buffer between the first trilogy and the next trilogy which would be…

Warcraft 3 (and where Arthas story begins).

For what it’s worth, Jones, when asked if he would return to the franchise, doesn’t seem interested.

Nah. I had a thing in my head I thought was worth pursuing, but it didn’t come to pass. Still think the plan was a good one, but the US box office numbers didn’t support it.

https://twitter.com/ManMadeMoon/status/1274785842016382976

Tl;dr: Duncan Jones ideas for a Warcraft sequel included a focus on Thrall. Personally, the idea of a Thrall movie is a fine, with minimal changes from the source material, but not as a direct follow up to the first Warcraft movie. Also, I still want another Warcraft movie but just maybe not from Jones.

p.s. Thank you to anyone who read this far. I really appreciate it.

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So basically an Orcgasm, that would have been such a bore to sit through. I’m glad it never got off the ground.

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Harsh but I respect your opinion. I still want a sequel, though maybe not from Jones.

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It’s an interesting idea from Mr. Jones, but like you mentioned skipping over the second and third war would’ve left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Though to be fair, trying to fit all of what I consider key moments of the second and third war into two movies would be impossible. If I could choose how an entire series of Warcraft movies played out, a lot of people would probably get pretty bored after I make like seven movies out of the events of Warcraft 3 alone.

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A daunting task indeed but I would have enjoyed those 12 movies.

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Yeah, I just assumed that they’d just loosely adapt the 2nd and 3rd WC games. It’s weird that it would just become The Thrall Show.

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He’s made it known in the past that he was invested in Thrall’s story more than really anything else. I just didn’t think that idea would have been the follow up to the Warcraft movie.

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I mean over exposure to Thrall and Orcs is what made people sick of him in this game. Repeating the mistake in movies is just taking the same issue and doing it again.

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I know and I agree. That’s why I said I still want a sequel but without Jones at the helm.

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I don’t think the movies did poorly because of him.

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Didn’t it do poorly because it was half generic fantasy and half incomprehensible without a degree in wow lore video game movie?

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Thralls overexposure didn’t work because it felt like he was being shoved in places where he didn’t belong. A film focusing on him exclusively wouldn’t have that same problem. And frankly? Young, eager and idealistic Thrall is the most popular version of the character. I’d be up for a movie about him. Though maybe not a massive big blockbuster.

Honestly I feel like Blizz would’ve been better served by setting their expectations a little lower for WC films then the silver screen. Building something like the DC animated, direct to DVD movies; a semi-anthology series that can cherry-pick the best works to adapt, would’ve fit better.

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If I were going to pick a story for a big blockbuster I probably would have gone with the climax of WC3, the forces of the world rallying against Archimonde and his forces to prevent the end of their world. High stakes, no heavy focus on one character and a big action moment when Malfurion destroys Archimonde. Maybe a bit ambitious but it would have been more interesting than the movie adaption we did get.

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Some friends and I went to gold class to watch the movie - the only good thing about it was being told that my friends, whenever a really awful part happened (often) they’d look to me and see me reacting very… amusingly. Oh to have seen me.

Movies do not work for video game adaptions - I daresay, ever. SIlent Hill and the RE franchise are basically 0% related to their respective games, before anyone says something. Netflix or another of the trillion streaming services picking “Warcraft” up would be the only way to guarantee it to, at the very least, potentially not be woefully woeful, which the WoW movie was.

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I would say if you took the first Silent Hill and Resident Evil movies as inspired by rather than direct adaptions they’re actually pretty good movies. It was Silent Hill trying to move closer to the games that made it worse. Silent Hill is whatever you want it to be, they could have told their own stories.

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Sonic did pretty well.

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I liked the Silent Hill movie we got. I mean, the aesthetic was there, but the story could have been handled a lot better. Gans did at least successfully capture the look and feel of Silent Hill at the very least in my opinion.

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For every good one, there’s 10 awful ones.

The ones that were actually good (Detective Pikachu, maybe Sonic depending on whom you ask) weren’t based on a “game” in particular, it just took “inspiration”. Detective Pikachu afaik is totally OC, and the Sonic movie is just Sonic and Eggman in the human world (idk if there was some kind of isekai nonsense).

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The only game-to-movie I enjoyed was Super Mario Bros.

…and that was because I was 6, and it starred Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper.

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The only blizzard ips I can ever see working as movies are Diablo and Starcraft. Even then, they’d be hard sells. CGI is expensive, and they would probably cut some stuff.