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Comment by Athas | Hacker News Reader

What are they supposedly trying to do with Warhammer (40k)? I am aware that Amazon has the rights and are working on developing something, but apart from the Secret Level episode (which was good), has there been any details?

While some of what Amazon has made is terrible, much is good. They produce so much that the average quality is pretty close to the global average, so I find predictions challenging.

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Just Warhammer, not 40K. I would turn my mother over to the Inquisition to get to see the latter. Venerate the Immortal Emperor!

The rage bait on the internet claims they are changing the lore to accommodate DEI. Don't shoot the messenger plz. I'm just saying I understand why the creative content owners are concerned about Amazon retconning lore and maybe want to see how things like Warhammer play out first.

It might be a moot point anyway. If we can consider Disney a bellwether¹, expect more content producers to step back on the diversity front.

Personally I think it completely depends on the story and artistic direction. Wolf Hall (casting mostly reflects historical appearances of characters portrayed) can exist next to Bridgerton (explicitly colour-blind casting). Both have their merits.

1: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/18/chanel-stewart-...

Actually Games Workshop started that, probably just being accelerated by Amazon.

I think most rage bait about the Warhammer series is manufactured by content farm channels to generate clicks - the series wasn’t even officially in development until a few weeks ago.

There’s an entire subgenre of YouTube channels that consist solely of creators updating videos promising that they have inside information on the creative conflicts at Lucasfilm/Amazon/etc, all of which happen to align perfectly with whatever the fandom is outraged with that week.

https://youtube.com/@mikezeroh

This guys channel is a great example - most of the channels discussing “female custodes Henry cavil warhammer 40k tv series” Amazon follow a similar format.

Edit:

I’d also add that I don’t think Rings of Power is bad because they cast minorities - most of the actors are fine, really. The plotting and pacing is just horrendous. In a show that has 5+ active plot lines and threads scattered all over the world, they’ve spent a quarter of their screen time on a plot line that’s completely disconnected not just from the lore but from the wider story being told and doesn’t look like it’s going to connect anytime soon. Which is funny, because I’d imagine Amazon execs felt that they were obligated to include that plot line (the Hobbit one) to appease viewers.

Amazon has a diversity team in the entertainment side of business that literally changes casting and content to fit their DEI goals. It often happens in awkward and forced ways, and that is affecting things like this Bond controversy. Most of this is motivated simply by Amazon’s own DEI culture. But part of it is because the award shows have criteria for eligibility (for best picture etc) that require meeting diversity and other requirements that have nothing to do with how entertaining the show is. Since those creating or participating in these shows don’t want to be ineligible, they do whatever it takes, including retconning.

I worked for AWS for 3.5 years. Their only culture is to treat all employees like shit, a PIP culture and one that they know they can continue being tech’s worst employer (despite the newest Leadership Principle) because all of the H1B visa holders will do damn near anything to keep their jobs.

This isn’t an H1B Visa holder rant. It’s an indictment to the program that keeps them beholden to a company.

Both can be true. They're even complementary I'd say: the DEI policies are like social greenwashing for how poorly they treat their employees.

As an internal employee I never saw anything but a perfunctory “ally” programs and a bunch of talk about “diversity” and of course we had to watch the videos and use language that didn’t offend anyone.

FWIW: I’m Black and I found some of the things that were suppose to trigger me or some of the “green washing” that were suppose to give me a warm and fuzzy eye rolling.

To be clear, I had a customer facing role (AWS Professional Services). Amazon wasn’t about to send anyone incompetent to talk to their large clients I don’t care what kind of initiatives they had.

> But part of it is because the award shows have criteria for eligibility (for best picture etc) that require meeting diversity and other requirements that have nothing to do with how entertaining the show is. Since those creating or participating in these shows don’t want to be ineligible, they do whatever it takes, including retconning.

Perhaps I'm a little bit too rebellious to be a culture fit for the movie industry, but if this is the case, I would be very encouraged to create an a show that is outstanding, but violates the DEI criteria of the award, so that the awards become a target of ridiculation for not including "my" show because of stupid DEI criteria.

I wonder if these are the same people who whined about DC casting a black woman to play an orange alien from Tamaran?

They also criticized Disney for having a Black Captain America in the movies even though it was clear to any Marvel comics fans that this was always going to be the case.

Those fans would probably be as vocal if a white actor was casted for the main role in a Black Panther movie.

Actually, a lot of them complained that Black Panther had too many black people in it. They considered it unwatchable and impossible to relate to.

The difference is that the role of Captain America had plenty of holders in the comics - including Sam Wilson.

GW have been trying to add diversity to Warhammer for ages. Most of it is good actually?

That Secret Level episode was amazing. Did an excellent job of portraying Space Marines as pinnacle warriors.

There have not been any details. There have been YouTubers making things up and desperately pretending Henry Cavill is their champion standing bravely against "woke".

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