Thank you San Diego Comic-Con 2013...

During the middle of the Warner Bros. and Legendary Comic-Con 2013 panel presentation, there was a “delay” in getting someone on. The panel’s moderator, Chris Hardwicke, took a phone call and was told to fill the time by rolling footage for… something. It turned out, that “something” was the teaser for the World of Warcraft movie (simply titled Warcraft), due to arrive in 2015.
Here’s how it played out:

  • The footage begins in a desert setting, with large rock formations creating what seemed to be a barren battle arena. There’s greenish light from part of the sky. There’s an armored man getting himself pumped up for battle. He unsheathes his sword and it’s very loud against the quiet breeze.


  • The man notes a skeleton near him and picks up the dead soldier’s shield, then taps his sword against his shield. We see a slow-moving panning wideshot as we glimpse the rear torso of a large figure.


  • The shot keeps moving and the weapon of the beast revealed to be an Orc warhammer. This is where the Hall H crowd goes nuts and at least some are beginning to piece together what this mysterious footage is for (after thinking at first it could have been from 300: Rise of an Empire).


  • The solider sidesteps in the background – there’s a lot of distance between them. They begin charging and we get third-person view of the sprinting Orc and as he brings the hammer down we see the soldier’s perspective raising his shield as the massive hammer from the massive enemy crashes down.


  • The “mood piece” teaser cuts there and the animated WARCRAFT logo displays. Crowd goes wild.


  • Director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) then came on stage briefly, shared his geeky excitement, and revealed that they’re extremely busy preparing to shoot the film in early 2014.