November 6, 2015 by Paul Curtin
The massive multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft sadly isn’t what it used to be. Now down to less than half of its highest 2011 peak, Activision Blizzard just recently announced that it will no longer be providing the game’s subscription numbers due to the MMO’s constant decline. With Warcraft‘s online world dying, Universal, Legendary Pictures, and Blizzard are betting big on a $100 million film that might be a little too late to bring back the horde of fans who once skipped work and school to live online in the land of Azeroth.
Today at BlizzCon 2015’s opening ceremony, the developer/publisher of the franchise gave an official first look at the delayed film that will now be hitting theaters this summer. And like the epic battle between humans and orcs that the film with focus on, fans too are sure to be divided by what was revealed in the first trailer.
Blizzard is known for their visually-stunning CGI teasers, and Warcraft looks to be using a very similar style that should please fans. Close-ups of some of the orcs look more realistic than many would had hoped for… while some of the other wider shots with more going on are hit or miss. With seven months left until the film’s release, it’ll be interesting to see how much changes during post-production from now to then.
The first ever Warcraft feature film could very well be a huge hit that plays off the nostalgia of once die-hard fans — some of whom will surely make a return online after seeing the movie — for at least a month or two. Director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) has stated that he’s even a fan himself, going all the way back to the early days of the original Warcraft games — which should help fans have some faith that his potential allegiance to the Horde could help the story stay true to the lore.
Warcraft hits theaters June 10, 2016, and stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, and Dominic Cooper.
