The first official trailer for Warcraft is being released this week and Blizzard fans can hardly stand the wait. After years of production and delays, the Duncan Jones directed epic based on the RTS series is finally less than a year away. Following the trend of other major Hollywood releases, the studio teased the trailer earlier this week with a 15 second preview.
Although the 30-second flurry of action flies by incredibly quickly, we've played enough Warcraft and World of Warcraft to spot some interesting details in the teaser. Years of watching Blizzard's amazing cinematic trailers on repeat have trained fans well on the art of breaking down every detail of a chaotic teaser. Before we get into the detailed breakdown, let's take another look at the teaser...
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Reddit user Tyrsenus posted an interpretation that started a discussion about the teaser and plenty of other super-fans have pitched in to help decipher what is happening in teaser. Be warned, minor lore spoilers will be scattered throughout this analysis. These events took place in the games over twenty years ago, so you've been warned.
Barefoot Lothar
The teaser opens on a human character walking towards the ledge of a tower. Although we never see the character's face, we're pretty confident that this is Lothar, being played by Vikings star Travis Fimmel (catch up with our Warcraft character guide). At first glance many viewers assumed that Lothar was stepping out onto a balcony at Stormwind, but there is evidence to suggest that might not be the case.
One of the main things that stands out in this scene is the hero's lack of armor or even footwear. A popular theory is that Lothar is actually away from home, possibly in a prison tower. As he leaps off of the tower it becomes pretty clear that, unless there are some major architectural changes, this structure is much taller than any of the towers at Stormwind.
That's no moon...
Before Lothar jumps off of the tower and flies away on his gryphon the geography appears to have four rivers running towards the tower. As the scene continues, it quickly becomes clear that the rivers aren't flowing bodies of water at all. It's hard to say for sure, but the rivers appear to be some kind of aether or maybe even Ley Lines. Either way, some serious magic is definitely involved.
Funeral at Stormwind (Lore Spoilers)
The next transition scene offer the first look at the Kingdom of Stormwind, which will likely act as the Alliance base of operations during the movie. This scene, at the Cathedral, is likely the funeral of King Llane, although no body can actually be spotted in this scene. Lothar and Taria stand at the top of the stairs, in front of what looks like a funeral pyre.
Tyrsenus has some solid theories for who the rest of the characters might be, as well...
"The man in red might be Daniel Cudmore's character, but there's no info on him yet. Could be Antonidas. We can rule out Khadgar since he's on the left, and probably rule out Medivh since he just let the Horde into Azeroth, so he's probably not hanging out in Stormwind.
The boy on the left is Varian. The man comforting him is Khadgar. The woman with Varian could be Kultiran (Valérie Wiseman), Aloman (Anna Van Hooft) or neither of them. (Or Lady Prestor? She has dark hair and a pinkish robe after all."
The Alliance
The next transition flips the camera around and we see the crowd of people who have likely come to pay respects to King Llane. Some elves can be seem seated near the front row and there is either a very bearded and short man or a dwarf at the far right of the second row.
The Horde
The next jump changes things up and takes us to Westfall, an Alliance controlled zone, where the Horde seems to have left its mark. Durotan and Ogrim share the screen along with some other orcs. a female orc can be spotted in the lower left-hand corner.
The Dark Portal
The next scene takes us back to Lothar on his mount. The lone warrior flies over a battlefield and the Dark Portal can be seen just above his head. At this point, the portal doesn't seem to be open.
Nightstalker
After a short clip of the Horde troops in a snowy setting, the action jumps to a forest. There isn't a lot of context here, but Elwynn or Stranglethorn seem like fine guesses. Durotan's wolf, Nightstalker, shows that pets are good for more than just accidentally aggro'ing side mobs.
Dwarven Tech
After a shot of a stormy mountain, which is likley Karazhan, we see an unnamed Alliance character wielding a gun. The interesting thing here is that guns are Dawrven made, so this could be confirmation that we'll see other races showing up throughout the film.
Bringing Down the Hammer
The teaser closes on an orc slamming a hammer or an axe down on an enemy. The shadows are too dark to determine which character we're seeing in this seen. As many Reddit users pointed out, the finale seems like a perfect homage to the end of the cinematic trailer for the original World of Warcraft release.
Check Back Tomorrow
The full trailer launches tomorrow and we can expect to see plenty more action when that hits. The teaser showed a lot of promise and there's no doubt that fans of the franchise will be buying tickets to see the movie on the big screen. The real question is whether or not a more general audience can connect with this world and these characters.
Did we miss anything in the teaser that you noticed? Do you think Warcraft will be a financial and critical success? Let us know your thoughts in the comments?
Warcraft is slated to open in theaters on June 10, 2016.