After the dismal attempt at a Dungeons and Dragons movie in 2000, it seemed that no filmmaker would ever try to make a movie out of the classic roleplaying game again. However, 22 years later, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have written and directed their own vision for Dungeons and Dragons.
One problem with adapting a tabletop roleplaying game is that, by necessity, roleplaying games generally lack much in the way of plots or characters. Unlike a comic book, which already features fleshed-out characters and any number of story arcs to choose from, a roleplaying game will provide players with a world, character types, and not much else. That way, the players have free rein to tell their own stories. The main failing of the first movie was that it failed to craft anything specific from the source material, instead feeling like a generic campaign run by an inexperienced dungeon master. Aside from various easter eggs that were obviously included to excite diehard D&D fans, the movie didn’t scrape together a memorable story.
Will the new movie fall into the same trap? Maybe. Then again, the evidence we have so far suggests that Daley and Goldstein understood the assignment—and bagged the talent to bring their vision to life. Here’s what we know so far!
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves release date
Currently, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is slated to be released on March 31, 2023. The film was pushed back from its former release date of March 3. Filming wrapped way back in August 2021, so it may seem strange that the film is coming out almost two years later, but according to the Internet rumor mill, there appear to be a couple of things going on here. First off, two years gives the film plenty of time for post-production, meaning that we’ll likely see significant VFX work in the movie. (I mean, it has dragons in the title, so that’s not a huge surprise.) Secondly, it seems that Paramount might be postponing the release date in order to make sure that the Covid pandemic has subsided and people aren’t as hesitant to go into movie theaters. Although the pandemic is in a lull right now, more surges are expected as it (hopefully) gradually mutates into a seasonal virus, so Paramount might be hedging its bets because of that. The movie was originally supposed to come out on May 27, 2022.
Even before visual effects, though, Dungeons & Dragons promises to have some stunning visual backdrops. Parts of the movie were filmed in Iceland, where Game of Thrones got some of its most breathtaking scenery. Most of the movie was filmed at Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Who is in the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves cast?
The cast of Dungeons and Dragons is pretty exciting so far. Although no character names have been revealed yet, here are the leading actors we know of right now:
Chris Pine as the Bard. Pine is a fan favorite among the geek crowd that’s likely to see Dungeons and Dragons. He’s already starred in the Star Trek reboots, Wonder Woman 1 and 2, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as the voice of Peter Parker. His character is the leader of the group of thieves, an ex-lute player who prides himself on making really good plans.
Michelle Rodriguez as the Barbarian. Rodriguez is best known as Letty in the Fast and the Furious movies. Her character, the Barbarian, is not impressed with Chris Pine’s Bard.
Hugh Grant as the Rogue. Grant has a long and storied career, of course, from Four Weddings and a Funeral to Paddington 2. We don’t know exactly what the Rogue’s relationship to the rest of thieves will be, but it doesn’t look too friendly.
Regé-Jean Page as the Paladin. Page is a relative newcomer to Hollywood, but he’s already made a name for himself as the brooding but sensitive Simon, Duke of Hastings in Season 1 of Bridgerton. Fans were disappointed when it was announced that he wouldn’t be returning for Season 2, but at least we get to see him in a medieval fantasy epic.
Justice Smith as the Sorcerer. Justice Smith has also appeared in Jurassic World and Detective Pikachu.
Sophia Lillis as the Druid. Sophia Lillis has also appeared in It and I Am Not Okay With This. Her character, the Druid, can turn into a terrifying half bear, half owl creature.
Dungeons & Dragons will also feature the following actors: Chloe Coleman, Daisy Head, Nicholas Blane, Jason Wong, Sophia Eleni, Clayton Grover, Alexis Rodney, Natali Servat, Daniel Campbell, Shoti Kakibata, Dan Poole, Barry O’Connor, Laura Przybilla, Adrian Christopher, and Lati Gbaja.
The official Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves trailer and plot
You guessed it, the movie is about a gang of thieves! Trailers can be deceiving sometimes, but Screenrant found a page on the US Copyright Office website that reveals the official plot synopsis.
An ex-Harper turned thief escapes from prison with his partner, a female barbarian, and reunites with a no-talent wizard and a druid new to their team in an effort to rob the cheating conman who stole all their loot from the heist that landed them behind bars, and used it to install himself as the Lord of Neverwinter. Only the traitor is allied with a powerful Red Wizard who has something far more sinister in store.
Judging from Hugh Grant’s posturing in the trailer, it seems likely that his Rogue is the conman who’s now the Lord of Neverwinter. There’s also the matter of the unspeakable evil that the Bard and his friends apparently unleashed on the world.
As you can probably tell from the trailer and the synopsis, this movie is going to be madcap. In a 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Goldstein said that:
We want it to be fun. It’s not an out and out comedy, but it is an action-fantasy movie with a lot of comedic elements and characters we hope people will really get into and enjoy watching their adventures.
Daley echoed the sentiment, saying:
We never wanted to spoof the genre of fantasy or take the piss out of it. But we did want to find another way into it that we hadn’t necessarily seen before. Just the format of Dungeons & Dragons is so interesting and fun and all about critical thinking and thinking on your feet and figuring out ways to make things work after they fall flat. There’s a lot of the spirit of that that we’re trying to inject into the movie itself.
Keep an eye out for updates as more details come out!
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
Published: Nov 4, 2022 04:57 pm