Shooting recently wrapped on Duncan Jones’ adaptation of the Warcraft game series, and with the director now preparing to quest through an extremely long post-production process, his cast is on to other jobs and able to talk a little bit about the film without fear of being beheaded by their shot-calling overlord. Ben Foster took a moment to chat with IGN about his role in the film, so if you’re looking to escape even the slightest spoiler, avoid the next paragraph.
"The character in Warcraft that I play is named Medivh. He's a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer," Foster tells IGN. "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."
Game fans will recognise that in the virtual Warcraft world, he is responsible for the Orcs invading, and somehow manages to cheat death to return, warn those around him and start to make amends for his past. How much of that back-story will be filtered into the film remains to be seen, but it’s certainly a good character note.
Foster also admits he was impressed by Jones’ commitment to keeping the film balanced in its portrayal of the big clash. "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,” he says. “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?"
The actor’s opening up about the film follows Dominic Cooper, who offered his own impressions back in January.
With a March 11, 2016 release date locked in place, we’ll have to wait a while to see anything from Warcraft, though you can get an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek in Empire**’s issue 300, which you can still find in digital form.