Ten Space Marine Chapters We'd Love To See More Of

TV & Film

Mar 13

Warhammer 40,000 (more colloquially referred to as Warhammer 40K) has been kicking about since the 80s. But, just like D&D, has had something of a surge in the last decade of mainstream media not just as a tabletop game, but in the form of video games, animated cinematics and talk of a live action movie tentatively set to drop in theaters in 2026 and starring Henry Cavill.

While Games Workshop does have Warhammer TV, a website dedicated to the franchise that produces animated shorts and mini-series, expanding to larger and more inclusive platforms is bound to aid in bringing new blood and players, much the way hundreds of YouTubers playing D&D made it more accessible and palatable to people who'd largely only heard of it from afar.

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That being said, Warhammer 40K has incredibly rich lore and a staggering cast of characters and factions. Yet as you play and watch you will notice some groups tend to show more than others, particularly the Ultramarines.

The boys in blue are honorable, dependable and more or less the Master Chiefs of their franchise: badass, bold and not a little bit basic. As much as we love our heavily armored blueberries, there are tons of other exotic, wacky and unique Space marine Chapters that we feel deserve their time in the spotlight. As such, here are ten such Chapters we’d love to see more of.

10: The Space Wolves

Technically named Vlka Fenryka or Wolves of Fenris (names are very on the nose in 40K), this chapter (legion, really) is an OG, and infamous to boot. The Space Wolves tick off all the cinematic boxes: vikings (in space), werewolves (in space) and fully functioning alcoholics (in space).

Loud, belligerent and fierce, these warriors, despite their often brutal outlook and history nevertheless have a regal sort of honor, something that would be fascinating to see on screen.

9: The Ashen Claws

In Warhammer 40K, it's easy to be distracted by the eternal war between Loyalist and Traitor Space Marine Chapters and Warbands. But the galaxy is not so black and white and the Ashen Claws are prominent examples of this. While every Chaos Marine is technically a Renegade, not every Renegade falls to Chaos. The Ashen Claws are some of those rare breeds of Space Marine, who's history is even more impressive when one realizes they've avoided corruption for the better part of 10,000 years in some of the worst parts of the galaxy.

At least, corruption of the soul; these guys tend to fight for themselves first and foremost, and aren't afraid to get mercenary at best and pirate-y at worst. Still, while they hold no love for the Imperium, they usually hate the other guys more. And in the grim dark future, sometimes even an unreliable ally is better than none.

8: The Space Sharks

Despite their name, often known as the Carcharodons, Space Sharks don't tend to engage in underwater operations, instead spending most of their time in the void of space on the far reaches of the Imperium's borders. Rarely speaking and even rarely being seen, they're nevertheless fierce and loyal Space Marines that certainly commit to their aesthetic. Hunting their enemies through the stars, the sharks are silent, deadly and brutal.

Their chapter master is known to loom above even other Space Marines, with pale skin, black eyes and a tendency to never speak louder than a whisper. And, just like their seafaring namesake, the Sharks aren't fond of waste. These Marines will pick a battlefield clean of loot like they’re in a Bethesda game and will diligently maintain every piece of equipment they own, with some having armor and ships that have lasted well over 10,000 years.

7: The Blood Angels

As Star Wars’ Clone Wars have taught us, xerox-ing DNA is not easy. Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. Switched around. Or in the case of the Blood Angels, incredibly dramatic. Another Chapter that's been around since the beginning, the Blood Angels are what you get if you took Morbius and made him far, far cooler and far, far angstier.

These Marines struggle with their very DNA, as it draws them in two directions: the Red Thirst, which brings about an increasingly insatiable thirst for blood and the Black Rage, in which a Marine can fall into an uncontrollable berserker fury of epic proportions. To witness this struggle onscreen would be excellent, as rather than the often stoic and precise Ultramarines, we would be able to see how messy and tormented even the most loyal can get. And speaking of messy…

6: The Marines Malevolent

To the average human in 40K, the Space Marine is a holy symbol of the Emperor's glory, his perfectly crafted Angels. When it comes to the Marines Malevolent, it's easy to think that the Big E might have blinked during the creation process. No one knows what Primarch or Legion these guys come from and frankly, no one really cares.

Pragmatism and rage is the name of the game for these yellow M&Ms and civilian casualties are simply a part of life. Arrogant, cold-blooded and not a little bit cruel, the Marines Malevolent stringent loyalty is nevertheless a constant (and often the only thing protecting them), and it would great to see what is an unequivocally a chapter of utter jerks will do, not only to see how far they would go, but how brutally they get humbled in turn.

5: The White Scars

Imagine the Sons of Anarchy (in space, of course). Remember that everything in Warhammer 40K is extremely on the nose. And now absorb the fact that the White Scars Primarch is a man named Jaghatai Khan, and you'll probably get what their whole deal is.

These speed fanatics make Lightning McQueen look positively restrained, with a love of open fields, disdain of restraints and specialized hover bikes designed to go fast even by Space Marine standards. The White Scars have perfected the high-speed assault and the only thing said to be more terrifying than these seven foot tall giants riding in on vehicles that require superhuman strength and reflexes to control is the sound of their booming, gleeful laughter echoing across the plains.

4: The Dark Krakens

The Dark Krakens are some of the new kids on the block, a successor chapter composed entirely of the new and improved Primaris Space Marine, a bigger, stronger variant than their older brothers. Descended from the Salamanders and thus their Primarch Vulkan, these rarely mentioned Marines take to water the same way their cousins take to fire. Recruited from the water world of Naktis, the terrifying sea monsters they battle on a daily basis is a reminder that our oldest horrors didn't come from the stars but from the depths.

Beyond the fact that underwater combat is a tricky thing to navigate on screen, it would be interesting (and hilarious) simply to see these eight foot tall giants in massive power armor swimming gracefully and presumably not sinking like a stone. Couple that with their primary weaponry being the sci-fi equivalent of an overpowered Nerf gun, and these homicidal PowerWash Simulators would be a great addition to a cinematic roster.

3: The Iron Hands

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. Despite it having been co-opted into numerous creepypastas and superimposed onto people with video cameras strapped to their faces, this line was actually part of the opening to 2018's Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus and it essentially sums up everything about our favorite technophiles.

All of this is a very long segway into mentioning everyone's second favorite: the Iron Hands. And lucky enough, the speech applies to them as well, if not more so. Saddled with an unhealthy amount of guilt, paranoia and self-hatred, this chapter is known for slowly but surely replacing limbs, organs and everything in-between with steel and cybernetics, to the discomfort and disgust of their fellows. This type of body dysphoria among Space Marines, who tend to see their enhanced forms as divine instruments of Emperor's will, is rare and would be an interesting challenge to portray on screen.

2: The Lamenters

For a long time, the aforementioned Blood Angels sought a solution to their Red Thirst/Black Rage problem and a little tampering by the Mechanicus seemed for a time to solve it. Unfortunately, it seems to have produced a new one, as the successor chapter Lamenters have discovered. Defang Edward Cullen and mix him with Wile E. Coyote, and you'll get these walking French mustard adverts, brimming with depression and bad luck to an almost comical degree. Despite their unwavering loyalty and heroism, every victory the Lamenters manage to achieve tends to be a pyrrhic one.

Most of the fellow Space Marines think they're a walking jinx and the few that didn't ended up roping them into a massive tax evasion scheme that almost saw the Chapter wiped out by the very Imperium they served. Couple that with a century-long penitent crusade and an awful fight with a fleet of the ever-encroaching Tyranids, and the already thin ranks of the Lamenters are hanging on by a thread. That being said, these guys are not ones to give up, regardless of the cards stacked against them. The stage is set for this awkward Space Marine chapter to make a triumphant (or at least a less terrible) return.

1: The Salamanders

The absolute best boys. The first children of Vulkan, bigger than their cousins, and master blacksmiths to boot, what makes these Sons of Nocturne shine even among some of the most prodigious of Chapters is their beliefs in protecting not simply the Imperium, but it's people. Most Marine Chapters will fight the enemy in the name of the Emperor, because their edict calls for eradication of the alien, the mutant and the heretic. They believe in the notion of the Imperium but care for what—or rather who—makes that Imperium run often falls on the wayside.

To a Salamander every life is not only precious, but worthy. The fear, pain and loss the average Imperium citizen feels is to be acknowledged and their fleeting joys celebrated and upheld. These jolly green giants will gladly throw themselves in front of a person because they, more so than almost any other being in the galaxy, cherish each person not for what they can provide to the Imperium, but because it is their solemn duty to serve as protectors to all. As far as the Imperium goes, the Salamanders (and many of their successors) are the closest there are to being true knights of the people.

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