Mike Flanagan explains why Warhammer 40,000 is a "brutally difficult adaptation".

Mike Flanagan has discussed the challenges of adapting Warhammer 40,000 into an Amazon TV series, calling it "brutally difficult".

Flanagan, the writer, director and showrunner of a number of beloved Netflix horror TV shows including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher, has signed a multi-year deal with Amazon to develop and produce original series for the studio. The first is an adaptation of Stephen King's horror classic Carrie, which recently hit Prime Video. Next up is a Warhammer 40,000 TV show that will be part of Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe. The former Superman actor is going to star in this series.

Meanwhile, Flanagan has another project that many fans can't wait for: The Dark Tower. But this adaptation of Stephen King's much-loved fantasy epic feels even more distant. In fact, Flanagan admitted over the summer that he's having a tough time getting The Dark Tower greenlit, even though he's fairly clear in his mind.

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But Warhammer 40,000 is not. Speaking to The Process Unlocked, Flanagan explained why Warhammer 40,000 was much more difficult to adapt than The Dark Tower.

I tell you, I feel like I'm climbing my adaptation Everest because I've been working on — and this is there so I can talk about it a little bit — but I've been working on it. Warhammer," he began.

Flanagan's approach to adapting The Dark Tower is clearly an adaptation of King's books. "I feel like I have it figured out," he said. “You do the books.

He continued: "Stephen King is a genius in the way he made The Dark Tower because he potentially starts this giant world-building, a huge story with two people in a landscape without details. It's the simplest beginning." It's one of the most perfect lines in any book: "The man in black ran across the desert, and the rifleman followed." It's two characters. There's a definite goal. One runs, one chases, and it's the desert. There's nothing else to look at. It's so simple and clean, and on top of that foundation, it adds the world one brick at a time.

And so this is the way to do it. The problem with other methods is people trying to jump in the middle, or people trying to jump in at a different point, because you can't throw the audience into this huge world first. It is exhausting. And King did it right. He takes you in, starts with two people and nothing else and takes you one step at a time. So my adaptation was just doing the books and doing them in order. And you make a few changes to fit the mold, but my Dark Tower approach is remarkably faithful. And so 70% of my work is done for me by Steve. So it's not that hard. You know, the problem is figuring out how to get in.

Flangander then went on to note that the Warhammer 40,000 universe has 700 novels to its name, compared to eight for The Dark Tower. This is a confusing background to build on.

"They're novel length," he said of the 40,000 Warhammer novels. "They're not small. But there are so many characters. It takes place over thousands of years. There's so much. The challenge is how do you get in? It's a really wildly difficult adaptation, but it was a lot of fun."

That's right: there are hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of official, full-length Warhammer 40,000 novels produced by Games Workshop's book business, Black Library. They tell the stories that underlie the board game's "bitter dark future" setting, touching on everything from the machinations of the Chaos Gods to the trials and tribulations of oppressed humans. The 41st millennium is a vast environment filled with legends over the decades. And a lot of it doesn't make much sense either. Fans should remind themselves, as Warhammer 40,000's unreliable canon unfolds, that any story they consume is presented only from a certain point of view. In fact, the Emperor himself is perhaps the most unknown creature in the galaxy.

This is why you often see newcomers asking grizzled veterans to give them a starting point when it comes to Warhammer 40,000 novels. Dan Abnett's excellent Eisenhorn series is a popular recommendation, as it follows investigators Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Reverend in a fairly basic detective story. From there, perhaps dip your toe into the larger images of the likes of the Ultramarines, Robot Guilliman, or venture deep into the fundamental heresy of Horus. But whatever you do, don't force it. Who knows what really lies in the darkest corners of the story?

So that's Flanagan's challenge: How do you create a Warhammer 40,000 series when the Warhammer 40,000 universe has no obvious entry point? How do you make something accessible to newcomers when you're adapting a world that has no real beginning, middle, or end?

I keep coming back to Eisenhorn. In fact I think Henry Cavill will play Eisenhorn in the Warhammer 40,000 TV show. I wrote extensively about why earlier this year. In short, writer Dan Abnett has somehow suggested that the series has something to do with Amazon, and he's sitting on the latest entry while he waits for Games Workshop and whoever else is involved to get their ducks in a row.

An Eisenhorn adaptation would, at least in theory, be more limited in scope than some of the larger Warhammer 40,000 stories, helping with production management. The Eisenhorn Omnibus series features space marines, but they only make brief and rare appearances. The story focuses more on Gregor Eisenhorn and ordinary humans than on giant, genetically enhanced warriors.

I hope it won't take long to find out.

Wesley is the managing editor of IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at @wesley_yinpoole or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.