Yes, It’s a Prank — And It Absolutely Sings

April Fool’s has technically come and gone, but Games Workshop’s late entry refuses to be filed away. The Emperor Protects: A Warhammer 40,000 Musical arrives as a fully staged trailer where power-armored Space Marines and Battle Sisters burst into showtunes about heresy and holy fire, and it’s executed with the kind of polish that makes you do a double take.

“Experience Warhammer like you’ve never heard it before,” the YouTube page teases, and for once that kind of copy isn’t overselling it. The trailer showcases numbers like “Suffer Not the Alien To Live,” “My Collection,” and “There Is Only the Emperor,” billed as “the ballad of the Dark Millennium.” It’s ridiculous on paper, but on screen the commitment sells the bit—lights, staging, choreography, the works.

A Trailer Built Like a Real Show

“Witness the spectacle of galactic cataclysm as it’s never been seen before!” the announcer booms, and the visuals match the pitch. These aren’t flimsy Halloween capes; they’re detailed, camera-ready costumes that look ripped straight from a Games Workshop promo shoot. Initial worries that this might be a quick generative-AI gag fade fast. In the comments, fans say they recognize the performers—including a Battle Sister and a Necron, identified as Trazyn the Infinite—from the convention circuit.

The “ticket info” link leans even harder into the ruse. Instead of sales, it points to a behind-the-scenes featurette that plays the premise completely straight: rehearsal clips, staging notes, and producer sit-downs with Adam and Eddie. It’s the kind of package you’d expect a theater company to drop a month before previews, only this one happens to be about a grimdark space opera where the chorus line carries bolters.

“I think there’s some parts of Warhammer 40,000 that can only be expressed through music,” Eddie says in the video, delivering it with the earnestness of someone standing in front of a whiteboard that reads Act II Finale: Purge the Xenos. Later, he adds, “A lot of people thought that maybe an upbeat, very excited, poppy song wasn’t appropriate for an alien of infinite evil. But we made it anyway.” If you’re trying to keep a straight face, that line won’t help.