It’s official — Henry Cavill, the lantern-jawed hero of a dozen Hollywood films, is heading into the grim darkness of the far future, where there is only war. He will star and executive produce a TV series set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, or 40k for short, which will be shown on Amazon Prime.

This won’t just be a one-off either. In an Instagram post, Cavill wrote that this was a “starting place” in the 40k universe, so a whole range of series are a possibility, depending on the success of this first show. Should that happen, there is also the option for Amazon to make television shows set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

If all that means nothing to you then you are hardly alone. The Warhammer universes, one set in a fantasy world and one in a science fiction world, are wildly popular globally but they are seen as the reserve of nerds. That’s because they involve assembling, painting, and fighting battles with armies of small plastic or lead soldiers. 

To many people, this might seem niche. But Games Workshop, the company behind these settings and who own the intellectual property, is now worth £4.6 billion and is listed on the FTSE 100. That means they are bigger than easyJet or Manchester United. It turns out that a lot of people like accidentally sniffing glue as they build model kits. Indeed, the Games Workshop store is a staple on many high streets, with over 500 stores and their products are available in more than 6,000 independent retailers. 

The BBC could have taken a great British success story like 40k and told it to the world

But its success goes beyond mere brick and mortar (and plastic). At a time when men are increasingly not reading, the Black Library — Games Workshop’s publishing imprint — has been an enormous success. Every year it publishes dozens of books set across a dazzling range of settings, from witch hunters in the far future to cursed elven anti-heroes, to human soldiers battling interstellar demons. Its genres span from crime to war to thrillers and it regularly has books in the bestseller lists. It turns out that men will read books, just not the ones the literary establishment want them to.

That soft power is often underrated precisely because books like this tend to be relegated to a geeky ghetto by the literary set. Yet, as the prominent X/Twitter user Nemets observed, it is Black Library books which many combatants in the Ukraine war choose to read for pleasure and which have formed how they see the world. That’s why Ukrainians call the Russians “orks” and why some Russian troops stencilled logos of 40k factions on their vehicles. Some have even suggested that the style of the new Russian Cathedral of the Armed Forces is directly inspired by the aesthetics of 40k.

Games Workshop have also had success licensing its IP to video-game companies, with the most recent incarnation being Space Marine II, a fairly standard third-person action game, except that the player takes on the role of a Space Marine — a genetically modified soldier and religious fanatic encased in power armour — to bolt-gun and chainsaw their way through a race of vicious, scuttling aliens. Reviews have been excellent. 

It seems likely that the same audiences will flock to the upcoming 40k TV series. The trailer for a short animated film set in that universe has received over 1.6 million views in just over a week. It might also help expand its audience, allowing it to really break into the enormous US market. 

All this has been done whilst remaining focused on Britain. Operations are run out of their HQ in Nottingham, whilst the models and paints are still produced here. Yet, despite this, there is surprisingly little interest in the wonderful worlds they have created. Indeed, most articles on their success note the way in which they have quietly racked up enormous financial returns over the years whilst being ignored. 

No doubt a lot of this is to do with its nature: science-fiction and fantasy are nerdy, most of their fan base is stubbornly male, and the kind of people who enjoy the hobby don’t tend to be invited to the sort of events the cultural elite frequent — Henry Cavill excepted. Even the revelation that former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is a devoted fan who continues to paint models failed to change that.

This illustrates one of the biggest issues facing Britain today: that our elites are blinkered. Instead of a British production company adapting this home-grown IP, it is left to Amazon. Meanwhile we get the delights of “Smoggie Queens”, a comedy about drag queens in Middlesbrough on the BBC. Some might object that the subject matter of a universe at war is too big for Britain, but that merely betrays a lack of ambition.

The BBC already makes one big-budget science fiction show in the form of Doctor Who, which it has happily allowed to get woker and woker, leading to the lowest ratings it has achieved in 60 years. Instead of ploughing more resources into a show that is clearly past-it, the BBC could have taken a great British success story like 40k and told it to the world. 

Much like the band Iron Maiden, it’s another barnstorming British success which has never had the level of recognition it deserves because our cultural gatekeepers view it as low status. But if we want a prosperous 21st century Britain with a thriving cultural impact then perhaps it’s time to push the cultural elite out of the way and embrace Uncool Britannia.