Bryan Ansell, one of the godfathers of the Warhammer franchise alongside the other two co-creators, Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley, has died. He was 68-years-old.
Bryan Ansell was one of the original co-creators of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop, and he was also the leader of Games Workshop throughout the 1980s. The sad news comes straight from the Instagram account shared with his wife, Diane Ansell. The post reads, “With great sadness, we announce that Bryan passed away peacefully at home this morning surrounded by his family, 30th December 2023.”
Bryan Ansell’s biggest contribution to the Warhammer franchise was heralding it towards the tabletop with the Fantasy Battle lineup, which is what current fans call ‘The Old World.’ While Warhammer has been making a notable push towards the mainstream with a 40K x Magic: The Gathering collaboration and Henry Cavill’s incoming Prime Video series set within the lore of the realm, interestingly enough, ‘The Old World’ has been on the cusp of making a comeback in the way the creators envisioned Warhammer to be played, the tabletop.
The Old World that Bryan Ansell grandfathered has been given a facelift and, while honouring the original vision of the creators, has been brought back to full effect. As announced in October 2023, The Old World Revival will be available to pre-order through Games Workshop as early as next week, so the legacy of Bryan Ansell’s Old World will live on through the work he cultivated for decades.
Co-founder of Games Workshop, Ian Livingstone, took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his condolences on the passing of Ansell, claiming “without Bryan, Warhammer would not have launched.” While Bryan Ansell will surely live on through the wondrous world of Warhammer he co-created, the world is mourning such a visionary loss.
