‘Warcraft’ Movie To Revive The Classic Games?
World of Warcraft is a popular game, and with the Warcraft movie coming soon, Warcraft has been getting a lot of attention. So much so that the classic Warcraft games, the ones that came before the World of Warcraft, may be revived.
The movie is said to take some of its history from the first Warcraft game. Chris Metzen states that this is an ideal realization of stories told in/round Warcraft I. Warcraft I, Warcraft II and Warcraft III are strategy games, with the first game of the series being released in 1994. There was a great fan base for Warcraft before World of Warcraft came to be, which created demand for a Warcraft IV, but once World of Warcraft was developed the focus was placed there.
“The interesting thing is, we were building [previous WoW expansion] Warlords of Draenor while they were developing the film, so a lot of that Draenor history—the orcs and the development we did on those characters—all came into play relative to the film. Now that we’re looking at Legion, yeah [there’s some overlap]. Gul’Dan’s back. Khadgar’s back. The characters that are still alive from the filmic era, if you will, are coming back into play. Some of the themes are coming full circle. So they definitely inform each other. Legion is obviously a different time, different place, different scale, but they inform each other.”
Duncan Jones, the director of Warcraft, believes that it is time to change the negative response that is often received when a video game has been turned into a movie. He states that comic books have been going commercial and having critical success once turned into movies. He believes that the same can be done for video games and believes that his generation are the ones to achieve it. As someone that played Warcraft, Jones is truly driven.
“You could make a film out of just about anything so long as there is a clear vision about the story. Be it a video game, comic book or cheque book, the question always is: what story do you have to tell?”
Metzen agrees with the vision that Duncan has created for Warcraft and believes that he was the right man for the job.
“This was something that was super important to us. We sat down with Duncan and he showed us his vision, and we were like, he was pulling thoughts out of our head. This man has lived Warcraft. He gets the details. He appreciates the nuances.”
Once fans heard word of the movie in 2006, it created a buzz among Warcraft and World of Warcraft fans who have all been anticipating any update. Duncan came on the project in 2013 and was happy to take to his Twitter account once he had an image available to share.
Can't tell you what a relief it is to FINALLY have at least something released from Warcraft for you all to see! ? pic.twitter.com/RUDUijxo8R
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) May 18, 2015
The real excitement came when the Warcraft trailer was released on Friday, the buzz and excitement created from Warcraft players and non-players a like was overwhelming. This reaction truly has raised questions regarding the revival of the classic games. Will there will be a Warcraft IV, or will the older games be recreated for today’s video game world? Metzen stated that there is nothing official yet in the works but it has been discussed
“We’ve talked about it. We would love to play with those early games, but when you think about it, it’s like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of work we’d have to do to go back, and reinvent basic game mechanics to get them playable.’ Even just, like, right-click. We’ve talked a lot, and we may continue to think that way. But nothing’s [officially in the works right now]. It’d be pretty rad, though.”
Jones’ aim was to show an open audience why people play and care about Warcraft. If the response from the trailer is any indication, classic Warcraft could be looking at a revival.
[Image by Warcraft]
