Ben Foster Will Play Medivh In Warcraft Movie

[Steven Bogos]

Ben Foster Will Play Medivh In Warcraft Movie

The X-men actor has revealed he will be playing the legendary Warcraft archmage Medivh.

Blizzard has been keeping a pretty tight lid on the plot details for its IGN [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134775-Warcraft-Movie-Officially-Finished-Filming]. Anyone who's had any experience with Warcraft will no doubt have heard the name before: Medivh is the legendary human archmage who opened the Dark Portal.

"He's a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer," Foster added. "He came up in a time protecting an area, and the way he protected this area was through magic. As peace returned to this land he took a break. He hung up his staff, so to speak, or let his guns get dusty. We meet him as his friends are returning asking for his help in a battle."

From Foster's description, and if the movie does stick by the official Warcraft lore, it seems like it would take place in between Medivh's battle with the blue dragon Arcanagos and when he opens the dark portal - a time of relative peace before the first war between humans and orcs.

Foster's further comments again hint at a war, which gives further legitimacy to the theory that the movie will feature the first war.

"What's exciting about Duncan Jones' take on this video game is that it shows both sides of the war. It shows both sides of a conflict, which is exciting to me. It's not just a video game turned into a movie. It's asking, hopefully, an important question of, where do we limit our compassion for what we consider to be the bad guys?"

Source: IGN [http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/30/ben-foster-reveals-his-character-in-the-warcraft-movie]


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[Ferisar]

It's kind of funny that he says that since ever after WC3 we've known that both sides of the conflict are not necessarily bad people (granted, the Orcs before the third war were manipulated by very clearly bad guys).

 

[Skipper3]

The way Foster was explaining his part as Medivh doesn't really bode well for me. He doesn't seem very enthusiastic about the role.

 

[evilnancyreagan]

So, what is Warcraft, is it another series of books about magical creatures, like Twilight?

 

[viggih7]

The First War starts when Medivh opens the Dark Portal.
The Second War starts when the Alliance (first one, not the modern one) pushes the Orcs back to the Dark Portal.


You might want to fix the article.

This part:"Foster's further comments again hint at a war, which gives further legitimacy to the theory that the movie will feature the second war."

 

[Commander Obvious]

So, what is Warcraft, is it another series of books about magical creatures, like Twilight?

Warcraft is an RTS video game set in the world of Azeroth. Its story line takes place before the well known "World of Warcraft" MMO begins.

 

[Saviordd1]

Please please please be good, I want this so badly to be good. Warcraft lore before WotLK is actually decent High Fantasy. Please don't fuck that up.

 

[Rag Doll]

So the film is going to depict either the first or the second war, huh?
That means no Thrall, a major Audience surrogate character on the horde side, and that the storyline is a few decades before the 3rd war and all the events of WoW that most fans are familiar with.

A bold move, that might either ruin a stand-alone film, or start a franchise....
And this film hasn't had a trouble-free prodution...

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

You have to wonder why, what with Game of Thrones and Hobbit being so incredibly popular these days(arguably more popular than the book source material) why would anyone bother with a Warcraft movie? 50% of people will say its a blatant rip off of Game of Thrones because they never played or even heard of the games. The other 50% will be pissed the producers made it SO much like Game of Thrones as to be a moot movie.
It feels like the fantasy equivalent of the Justice League movie - too little, too late.

 

[Atmos Duality]

This movie is being made about 10 years too late; 7 if I'm feeling generous.

 

[ZodiacBraves]

This movie is being made about 10 years too late; 7 if I'm feeling generous.

That's because it was announced 7 years ago. I was at the Blizzcon where it was first announced. I stopped keeping track of it when Blizzard started shitting all over the lore so I don't know why exactly it took so long to get this far, but I do agree it's at the point now where the people that did care about the lore don't anymore.

 

[DoPo]

"He's a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer," Foster added.

What people just felt is Mr. Foster's insight sweeping across nations and brings enlightenment to minds shrouded in the darkness of ignorance.

This movie is being made about 10 years too late; 7 if I'm feeling generous.

They took, like 5 years to just pick the actors. And went through about 3-4 directors, if I remember correctly, before settling on one finally. The movie comes pretty much on time. On Blizzard time.

 

[Evonisia]

So this is going to be set during the first wars. Interesting. I would be angry if they brought Medivh back if it was set between WC3 and WoW (as previously rumoured). Medivh was always an odd character, I certainly hope Foster does him justice.

That means no Thrall, a major Audience surrogate character on the horde side, and that the storyline is a few decades before the 3rd war and all the events of WoW that most fans are familiar with.

No Thrall means no, as some WoW fans refer to him, Green Jesus world shamanz aspect of teh earth. This can only be a benefit. Besides if you want the film to be successful you don't market towards the fans (who will just hate it for getting stuff wrong), you market it towards the average person.

 

[Ferisar]

So this is going to be set during the first wars. Interesting. I would be angry if they brought Medivh back if it was set between WC3 and WoW (as previously rumoured). Medivh was always an odd character, I certainly hope Foster does him justice.

The very unfortunate part here is that Medivh is entirely re-usable given his less-than-dead state of WC3. Even if not for this movie, certainly for the rest of the universe. I mean, they already brought back Cenarius through "Dream portals" or somesuch nonsense, so... Bluuuh, right?

EDIT:
And yes, thank the gods for no Thrall. I'd rather learn about his dad and the other orcish clan leads than get further overexposed to the Leaf-colored Shaman playing villain whack-a-mole.

 

[Scorpid]

So the film is going to depict either the first or the second war, huh?
That means no Thrall, a major Audience surrogate character on the horde side, and that the storyline is a few decades before the 3rd war and all the events of WoW that most fans are familiar with.

A bold move, that might either ruin a stand-alone film, or start a franchise....
And this film hasn't had a trouble-free prodution...

But it'll have Lothar and Ulther, and maybe even Durotan. My hope is that it restores some actual pretense of story to the franchise. As much as I loved WoW it hasn't done any favors for the Lore. I really hope Blizzard does something that makes it clear that all the lore after Burning Crusade or vanilla WoW is none canon and perhaps make Warcraft four or maybe even that Thrall adventure game or something like that that they had planned (but I really have no hope of the former).

 

[Clarste]

Focusing on the 1st war actually makes the movie tie into the upcoming WoW expansion pack which features time travel (sort of). In other words the movie will make people who didn't play the older games care a bit more about the expansion. It's pretty well planned in that sense, much more logical than doing something about Arthas or whatever who's already double-dead in WoW.