Life is cruel. And unfair. It’s rude. No one man should look this good and be so completely, utterly this much of a dork.
Henry Cavill—Man of Steel, Witcher for hire, reloader of arms, and owner of a once truly magnificent piece of facial hair—has been long known as a diehard nerd. He’s openly talked about his former time as a hardcore World of Warcraft raider, a commitment he took so seriously he nearly missed the call to be cast as Superman while gaming.
Part of why he wanted to play Geralt of Rivia on Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher was that he loved CD Projekt Red’s game adaptations, playing each entry in the trilogy to completion. Guys, those games are like, five billion hours long. I’m just me and I don’t have time to even think about finishing one, let alone multiple times. And I definitely do not also look like Henry Cavill.
And now, Cavill’s adding another deeply geeky notch to his belt: He’s painting Warhammer 40K models. The actor shared his work over the weekend on Instagram in a post about him dabbling in hobbies old and new during the novel coronavirus pandemic lockdown. The Games Workshop habit is one of the old ones—an “almost life long [hobby],” Cavill says in his post, “that I’ve been following but not actively doing.”
Well, now he is doing—and it’s not even just your bog-standard Space Marine, either, which is what you might expect a lapsed 40K player to go for, because, well, they’re the Space Marines, the giant-armored poster boys of the franchise. No, friends, that’s a goddamn Custodian Warden from the Adeptus Custodes, the personal chapter guard of 40K’s godlike Emperor of Mankind. That’s a pretty deep cut and an indicator that Cavill knows his way around a codex or three.
What’s his army list look like? Is he doing 40K Custodes, or Horus Heresy era Legio Custodes? What are his thoughts on Vertus Praetors? Has he read Emperor’s Legion, or is he diving into the Siege of Terra series? I don’t know. But now I have to.
I do know this: We all make sacrifices in our lives for the things we love. We cannot have it all. Unless you’re Henry Cavill, apparently, which means you get to look like Superman, play Superman for a living, and then spend your downtime painting legions of plastic models.
Like I said. Sometimes, life just isn’t fair.
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