Robert Krazinsky announced he will star as Orgrim in the upcoming Warcraft movie at Blizzcon 2014 based on the popular World of Warcraft game.

Warcraft Movie Panel – Blizzcon 2014

Warcraft director Duncan Jones, Senior VP of Story and Franchise Development Chris Metzen and VFX Supervisor Bill Westenhofer participated in the Blizzcon panel over the weekend, moderated by Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick. The trio spoke about how they went adapting a huge gaming universe into a two-hour film, and revealed that the film would attempt to tell the story of World of Warcraft giving equal weight to the human Alliance and the Horde of Orcs. “I thought it was very important that the film allowed you to be on either side of the conflict,” Jones said at the panel.

Westenhofer did not create the orcs out of green screens – actors played the creatures in motion capture – but he did transform the performances from human to Orc, and he admitted to the audience that, as an Alliance player, he worried his player bias would affect how he brought the Orcs to life. “Can I really do justice to the Orcs? It’s the enemy. Out of respect for all of you who have ganked me, we’re delivering some really good Orcs,” Westenhofer told the crowd.

The film is currently in post-production, and a majority of the cast had already been announced, but filmmakers took great pains to ensure that the characters featured in the film would remain as secret as possible. At Blizzcon, the filmmakers finally matched actors to Warcraft characters and debuted character posters.

Warcraft Cast & Characters Announced

Dominic Cooper, who plays young Howard Stark in the Marvel Universe films and the upcoming TV show Agent Carter, will be playing King Llane Wrynn, the leader of Stormwind.

Ruth Negga, another member of the Marvel Universe (she currently stars as Raina on Agents of SHIELD), will play Lady Taria, King Llane Wrynn’s wife.

Travis Fimmel, who currently stars on Vikings, will play Alliance hero Anduin Lothar – “He’s very dreamy and I’m getting lost in his eyes,” Hardwick joked.

Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand, The Messenger) is starring as Medivh ‘The Last Guardian,’ known as the magical guardian against the Burning Legion. And Ben Schnetzer, a relative newcomer, will star as Khadgar, a young mage.

Robert Kazinsky, best known for his sexy turn in True Blood, appeared at Blizzcon to announce his role as Orgrim, an Orc known for his weapon of choice: the Doomhammer. “Obviously, Orgrim is the best character in the lore. He’s the most handsome…I love playing him. You’ve got Durotan who is the wise, all-seeing chief, and you have the hard bastard next to him. Not very bright. You see the evolution of Orgrim from being someone’s brother, someone’s best friend to being a leader in his own right,” Kazinsky told the crowd.

Toby Kebbell, an actor experienced in motion capture – he starred as Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – is playing Durotan, the Orc protagonist. “We needed someone who the audience could care about, and trust me…you’ll see it for yourself,” Jones told the audience of Kebbell.

Clancy Brown (Sleepy Hallow), an actor known for his deep voice, will play Blackhand ‘The Destroyer.’ Fun fact: Brown was originally supposed to voice a character in an unreleased version of World of Warcraft.

Daniel Wu, a Chinese American film star known for The Man with the Iron Fists, will play Gul’dan, the leader of the Orcs.

Paula Patton (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) is one of the only actress of the group. Patton will play Garona, a conflicted half Orc warrior. As a hybrid, Patton will appear in the film not through motion capture, but live action.

Warcraft is set to hit theaters sometime in 2016.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.