Warcraft Movie Details, Including the New Title

Published by Jeff Leins on: October 6th, 2009

Update: The IMDB page has been changed back to simply “Warcraft.” I received no response after contacting Blizzard’s PR department. I left the unbridled rumor and speculation below.

Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have updated the IMDB page for the upcoming live-action Warcraft movie. The title now reads Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King and a tentative release of 2011 (likely during the summer). As announced in July, Sam Raimi will be directing the feature film based on the 15-year-old video game franchise.

Right away the subtitle is an obvious reference to the most recent World of Warcraft expansion released in November 2008 titled “Wrath of the Lich King.” It was (and still is) the fastest selling computer game of all time, setting the record at 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours.

Speculation has begun that it could also be linked to the best-selling Christie Golden novel bearing the same subtitle. The book draws heavily from the lore established in Warcraft III and its Frozen Throne expansion pack and tells the story of Arthas Menethil from age 10. After some training, he becomes Prince of Lordaeron and leads Alliance forces against the growing armies of undead Scourge. Bent on revenge and surrounded by encroaching evil, Arthas takes up the magical Frostmourne sword. With it he destroys the demon Dreadlord leader before the cursed blade corrupts him, transforming him into a ghoulish Death Knight (the Lich King) and enemy of his former people.

That’s what I was able to piece together about the novel. Arthas’s story is often compared to Anakin Skywalker’s betrayal to the dark side. He’s essentially the Darth Vader character of the Warcraft world. There’s also a bit of a King Arthur parallel there. Word from the Blizzard Entertainment convention Blizzcon 2007 indicated the story would pick up about a year before the massive war and would focus on “cultures in conflict” rather than a Lord of the Rings style adventure.

This is good news that hopefully the movie will consist of epic medieval battles and richly realized characters. It also means there is potential for a series of movies depending on how far they extend into the Arthas storyline. Plus we probably won’t see the endless gold farming and meaningless Murloc slayings that make the massive multiplayer game, World of Warcraft, so tedious.

Producers have already confirmed the movie will be PG-13, but with Raimi and The Dark Knight’s Charles Roven of Legendary Pictures steering the ship the franchise and its more violent element are in good hands.