Hollywood type and Best History Boy Dominic Cooper is fresh off the Need for Speed flick, which early accounts suggest has worked out rather nicely. Need for Speed, though, doesn’t have lore. It doesn’t have a decade of continuous fiction behind it, nor a playerbase with long-held ideas about the way its world looks and its characters talk.
That’s why Cooper’s pooing himself a bit about the upcoming Warcraft movie.
Meeting fan expectations for the Warcraft film is “scary”, said Cooper, because Azeroth is a “very specific world”.
“That really does have people who exist in that world and probably live more of their life in that world than they do in the real world, which is terrifying in itself,” he told CVG.
“But what that means is there have been people creating that world for many years and it’s got a very specific look. And the characters within that, people have already made their minds up about who they are and what they mean to them.”
Cooper admitted to “quite a lot of pressure” as a result, and a sense that he was “obligated” to fans who’ve spent the majority of their life playing WoW. But eventually, he said, the film’s characters have to be “this thing in their own right”.
“These characters have to be what I make them,” he said. “There’s no other choice.”
Cooper went on to say that he wasn’t a WoW player himself, as he no longer has time for games that are “all-consuming” – and is rightfully wary of WoW’s raid culture.
“I’ve heard stories of people who have got into Warcraft, where you are responsible for others’ success in that world. That means you get trapped in it, essentially, from what I can gather,” he said.
“If people are relying on you to meet up at a certain time to go back online to play this game for four hours, you’re in deep trouble. And I couldn’t get myself into that because there’s not enough time.”
Cooper has been cast alongside X-Men: The Last Stand’s Ben Foster, Mission Impossible’s Paula Patton, True Blood’s Rob Kazinsky, Prince of Persia’s Toby Kebbell, and The Vikings’ Travis Fimmel. Colin Farrel was tentatively attached to star, but has never been confirmed. Are you familiar with any of the rest?