King Art Games unveiled the Necron faction cinematic for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV, and the studio has delivered a genuinely menacing piece of sci-fi spectacle. The trailer centers on the Necron Chronomancer Thothmek, a xenos warlord awakening from a 60 million year slumber with an obvious chip on his shoulder about reclaiming Kronus, a Tomb World long before humans or Mechanicus tech priests ever colonized it.
This is the third narrative cinematic King Art Games has released for the upcoming real-time strategy game, and it marks a sharp creative rebound. The earlier Adeptus Mechanicus trailer stumbled badly, somehow making the galaxy's most feared assassins look like they belonged in a Stormtrooper firing squad. The new Necron entry flips that script entirely, restoring the faction's aura of existential dread.
The standout moment arrives on the Necron bridge sequence. Rather than lean into bombastic action, King Art lets atmosphere do the heavy lifting. The Necrons march with an almost glacial inevitability, their green-hued alien technology humming with implied lethality. There's a weight to it, a purposefulness that makes you believe these ancient machines are about to level entire armies. The restraint is exactly what the scene needed.
Dawn of War IV will launch with four factions: Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus, Necrons, and Orks. That leaves just one cinematic remaining, and the pressure is immense. The Dawn of War franchise built its reputation on iconic Space Marine cinematics, so expectations for the final trailer are naturally stratospheric.
The game arrives on PC on September 17, 2026. For now, the Orks CGI trailer still holds the crown as the franchise's most entertaining reveal, but the Necron entry has cemented itself as the technical and narrative high point of the rollout so far.
Author Emily Chen: "The Necrons finally got the trailer they deserved, but the studio's still got a Space Marine shaped mountain to climb."
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