Warhammer 40,000 Animations: 2026 Preview – Astartes 2 Clues, Devora Wilde’s Battle Sister, and a Blood-Red Charge

Games Workshop’s newest teaser for its Warhammer+ slate does what the best teasers do: it shows just enough to set forums ablaze. In a tight burst of shots we glimpse three tentpoles for 2026 – an Adepta Sororitas volley that rattles your bones, Aeldari of Saim-Hann screaming through the void against the Imperial Navy, and a Khorne Berzerker sprinting like a murder-comet. Then, in a blink-and-you’ll-pause-it moment, there’s a workstation shot of Astartes 2 in production. The result is a statement of intent: Warhammer+ isn’t just alive; it’s getting meaner, faster, and more confident.

Devora Wilde takes up the heavy bolter

The most developed sequence centers on the Adepta Sororitas. A Battle Sister braces behind a heavy bolter and lets faith and recoil do the talking. Confirmed in the teaser is actor Devora Wilde – known to RPG fans as Lae’zel in Baldur’s Gate 3 – voicing one of the Sisters. It’s a casting choice that makes instant sense. Wilde’s delivery in BG3 balanced steel and vulnerability, and that same timbre suits the Orders Militant: unwavering devotion without extinguishing humanity. If Warhammer+ wants characters, not just armor renders, this is the way – pair hard-edged animation with an actor who can punch through it.

From a production perspective, notice the muzzle discipline, weight transfer, and tiny armor articulations as the Sister rides the bolter’s rhythm. Those tactile details signal an animation team confident with power-armor physics – a throughline we’ve only seen nailed a handful of times on screen.

Saim-Hann vs. the Navy – speed as a storytelling choice

Another thread shows Aeldari from Craftworld Saim-Hann – iconic red, white, and warlike – tangling with Imperial Navy aircraft. It’s not just fan service; it’s a promise of tone. Saim-Hann are the show-offs of the Craftworlds, and dogfights let an animator broadcast personality via velocity. The camera cuts feel designed around acceleration and drift, as if someone asked, “What if the Aeldari flew like they think?” Meanwhile, Navy fly-bys land with the heavy, brute-force confidence of the Imperium. It’s a clash of philosophies rendered as flight physics: elegance versus mass, intuition versus doctrine. If the series leans into that contrast, those aerial battles won’t just look cool – they’ll read.

The Berzerker run and the shadow of Astartes 2

The shot that detonated speculation is the World Eaters Berzerker charging straight at the lens. It’s the gait – hips forward, shoulders eating ground, weapon kept low for balance – that triggered instant déjà vu. Many viewers clocked the similarity to the run cycles in the original Astartes, Syama Pedersen’s breakout short that re-taught the internet how Space Marines should move. Is the Berzerker part of Astartes 2, or a separate project borrowing the same kinetic language? Games Workshop isn’t saying, but the teaser quietly answers a different question: Astartes 2 is very much in the pipe.

On a production monitor we glimpse a grey-box sequence of a Terminator squad closing around a human. Even in that rough state, the silhouettes are unmistakable: the Inquisition-tasked Deathwatch composition teased years back. Heraldry nerds will recognize the pauldron set – Retributors, Mortifactors, Scythes of the Emperor, Sons of Medusa, Angels Vermilion – suggesting continuity rather than a reboot. It’s not a release date, but it’s a heartbeat, and after years of silence a heartbeat is headline news. The earlier confirmation of a 2026 window now feels less like a placeholder and more like a plan.

There’s also a meta-story running beneath the frames. Astartes became the gold standard not because it was official, but because it felt inevitable – every movement carried weight, every cut respected scale. That ethos appears to be informing more than one project in this reel. If Warhammer+ can preserve that physicality while expanding scope, 2026 could be the year the service stops being a curiosity and becomes a habit.

What this means for Warhammer+

Warhammer+ has sometimes been criticized for uneven cadence. This teaser counters with specificity: named factions, identifiable sequences, recognizable voice talent, and a peek behind the curtain. It reads like a quality-over-quantity pivot. If the service anchors its calendar around a few premium tentpoles – Sisters of Battle drama, a high-speed Aeldari/Navy aerial arc, and Astartes 2 – it gives subscribers reasons to stay through the slower weeks. The message to lapsed viewers is clear: the pipeline exists, and it has teeth.

Across the Mortal Realms: Blacktalon’s looming finale

Age of Sigmar isn’t left out. The teaser nods to the current Blacktalon season finale, with Be’lakor – the Dark Master – moving pieces in the shadows of Hammerhal. The setup is classic Be’lakor: destabilize the city, fracture the heroes, press the advantage when faith wavers. Neave Blacktalon’s squad feels battered and scattered, which is exactly when this franchise likes to spring a last-stand set-piece. It’s a smart counter-flavor to 40K’s steel and oil – more mythic, more operatic, still punchy.

One more spark from the front lines

Outside the animation slate, the wider 40K machine keeps humming. Captain Titus of Space Marine 2 has earned an in-universe promotion while taking the spotlight in the next narrative expansion – a reminder of how tightly the brand is weaving games, animation, and lore. The visual language that Astartes helped codify now feeds back into AAA games, which in turn raise expectations for the shows. That loop is healthy – and 2026 looks poised to capitalize on it.

Bottom line: the new Warhammer+ teaser doesn’t give everything away, but it trades in confidence. A star voice for the Sororitas, a speed-drunk Aeldari vs. Navy ballet, a Berzerker built for freeze-frames, and proof of life for Astartes 2 – it’s all there, hinting at a year when the grimdark finally gets the screen time (and the muscle memory) it deserves.