Warcraft 2 Movie: "The Beginning" Sequel Could Be A Reboot

When you think of video game franchises that have seemingly endless stories to tell, the Warcraft franchise immediately comes to mind. Probably because I played Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft, and the game's lore has nearly endless potential for at least ten stand-alone movies.

To be fair, nobody wants to see a movie about the modern developments in WoW, since they lack the depth of earlier plot lines (especially the Shadowlands expansion was just a big disappointment). But who wouldn't want to watch Arthas' fall from grace, Illidan becoming the Betrayer and first Demon Hunter, or the dramatic decisions Prince Kael'Thas made in order to save his people.

For another Warcraft movie, what would maybe make most sense to adapt is a story about Thrall. He's a fan favorite, cool as hell and flashy to boot – and since his birth was featured at the end of The Beginning, a sequel could focus on him as a main character.

That's the kind of stories the franchise offers in theory, and we want to see them on the big screen. But a second Warcraft movie never happened – so will the franchise ever be continued with a new movie? We've checked the latest developments and rumors for you.

Warcraft 2 Movie: If It's Coming, It Will Probably Be A Reboot

To understand why a Warcraft 2 movie has never happened, you only have to take a look at the box office results. While “The Beginning” performed quite well in China, it unfortunately pretty much flopped in the US – and a movie that doesn't make enough money is naturally unlikely to get a sequel. Director Duncan Jones always hoped to get permission to make another Warcraft movie, but in the end it never happened.

It seems that Blizzard and Universal Pictures have been thinking about making another Warcraft movie for years, but then came the pandemic and... well... you know the rest.

However, rumors in early 2022 suggested that Blizzard and Universal wanted to include a soft reboot of the story. According to these rumors, they intended to focus on new characters and undo some decisions from the first movie. So maybe even the cliffhanger with Thrall at the end of The Beginning could be resolved.

But in the end, the question remains whether this movie is going to happen at all; it's been more than two years now since the mentioned rumors arose, they have never been confirmed, and there is still no sign of a new Warcraft movie. One explanation for that could be the sexual harassment scandal at Blizzard that was a big topic in 2021 and 2022, resulting in a lot of negative PR for Blizzard. Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard could also play a role. So maybe the plans for a new Warcraft movie have not been cancelled, but just postponed.

There are actually some good reasons why the movie could still happen: World of Warcraft is still an extremely popular game, TV series like The Last of Us or Arcane have proven that the curse of bad video game adaptions has its exceptions and in the long run the franchise just offers too much financial potential to ignore it.

We're pretty convinced: It's not about if a new Warcraft movie is coming, but rather about when it is coming and what it will be about. Taking all the information and rumors into account, my educated guess would be that a new Warcraft movie will be announced until 2025, with a release to follow in 2026.

According to Blizzard executive creative director Chris Metzen, the Warcraft movie pretty much kick-started the change from World of Warcraft into a Warcraft-Universe that spans multiple IPs, like Warcraft Rumble. Whenever an idea for a new addition to the franchise comes up, the first question is how it will shape the Warcraft universe and whether it fits into Metzen's vision.

So, the only thing standing between us and a Warcraft 2 movie is whether someone will come up with the right idea to make it happen. But time will tell – Lok-Tar!

That's everything we know so far, mixed with a little bit of me, but we'll see how it goes.