D&D Movie/TV Update on D&D TV Show -- Underdark, Small, 6-10 Episodes

Writer Derek Kolstad (John Wick) has shared an insight into the upcoming D&D TV show with Collider, which he says will be 6-10 serialized episodes with an Underdark element.

His approach is a "tinier sliver" of the world, compared to epic stories like Lord of the Rings. He compares it to Star Wars and Jaws. He mentioned that he's like to go "deeper and deeper into the Underdark".

"In the first Star Wars, you heard about Jabba the Hutt and you don't see him until the third one because you earn at that point, and whatever the budget was for the third one compared to the first one, who cares, right? And I think in Dungeons and Dragons, who has this massive, dedicated community of acolytes, I don't want to suddenly throw everything on screen and say, 'Here's the buffet.' You'd much rather keep the story intimate. When you think of our favorite movies, I'd rather do the First Blood version. It's a guy in the woods being hunted. And it's very small, but you allude to the other things through conversation."

As yet the show is untitled. Kolstad talked a bit about legal meetings and available characters for use. It sounds like he wants to set it towards the end of any 'metaplot' that D&D might have -- "... don't want to go in the middle of the mythos. I want to come near the end where everything is canonical, it's biblical, it's happened. Or, it's about to happen. That way you can revisit certain sequences and storylines that everyone loved in the past through flashback, but where we go is new"

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And stuff like that, that was hugely popular (and still in print and still sells btw) with an older generation, still has a good chance of having a successful adaptation. What appeals to people in the same culture only changes so much, and fans of the series will boost hype for the property.

It was never hugely poplar - at least not in the UK. During the late 80s early 90s it had a degree of popularity amongst the type of people who frequent the SF/Fantasy shelves of bookstores, and therefore would automatically check out any TV fantasy show anyway.

I asked my D&D group, I'm the only one who has read any Dragonlance, only four had heard of Dragonlance. And those because it had a "dodgy reputation".

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It was never hugely poplar - at least not in the UK. During the late 80s early 90s it had a degree of popularity amongst the type of people who frequent the SF/Fantasy shelves of bookstores, and therefore would automatically check out any TV fantasy show anyway.

I asked my D&D group, I'm the only one who has read any Dragonlance, only four had heard of Dragonlance. And those because it had a "dodgy reputation".

Yep, I got into D&D before Dragonlance existed, and kept playing despite it existing. And can you imagine the Twitterstorm over that "dodgy reputation" now, if they tried to make movies of the original books? Maybe the brand-new trilogy, if Weiss and Hickman clean up the issues from the originals.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It was never hugely poplar - at least not in the UK. During the late 80s early 90s it had a degree of popularity amongst the type of people who frequent the SF/Fantasy shelves of bookstores, and therefore would automatically check out any TV fantasy show anyway.

I asked my D&D group, I'm the only one who has read any Dragonlance, only four had heard of Dragonlance. And those because it had a "dodgy reputation".

Lol okay. Your anecdotes totally negate the book sales.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Lol okay. Your anecdotes totally negate the book sales.

Sold to a bunch of nerdy, teenage white males who could not understand the problematic issues if they walked up and punched them in the face. Fortunately, a lot of them have since matured and learned how screwed the world is for many people. Sadly, others have not. And no, I am not labeling you one or the other.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sold to a bunch of nerdy, teenage white males who could not understand the problematic issues if they walked up and punched them in the face. Fortunately, a lot of them have since matured and learned how screwed the world is for many people. Sadly, others have not. And no, I am not labeling you one or the other.

None of that actually relates to whether an adaptation would work and be successful, but it also is full of some false assumptions. I know from years of forum and social media traffic that the DL fan base is hugely female, for one thing.

The assumption that people who love the series are blind to the problematic elements is just asinine nonsense with no basis in reality, for another.

 

[Oofta]

Sold to a bunch of nerdy, teenage white males who could not understand the problematic issues if they walked up and punched them in the face. Fortunately, a lot of them have since matured and learned how screwed the world is for many people. Sadly, others have not. And no, I am not labeling you one or the other.

This is probably a separate topic, but the only thing I could find as an issue with the Dragonlance novels is that there's a passage describing the planes people that Moonwind is from as dark skinned. Whether all members of the plains people are dark skinned or not is never mentioned although Moonwind is light skinned with blonde hair.

Is that all? I mean, wasn't it like one line of description of specific individuals that may or may not have applied to other members? If I hadn't googled for it I never would have known - although it's been a long time since I read the books - that she had a different skin color than the rest of her people.

Or are there other issues?

 

[BookTenTiger]

Characters on TV don't have levels, just scripts.

It would be funny if they explicitly stated the levels of the characters in the TV show.

"Karmul, you 2nd level Barbarian blockhead, look out behind you!"

"Don't let that orc get away! We're 25 xp away from 3rd level!"

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

This is probably a separate topic, but the only thing I could find as an issue with the Dragonlance novels is that there's a passage describing the planes people that Moonwind is from as dark skinned. Whether all members of the plains people are dark skinned or not is never mentioned although Moonwind is light skinned with blonde hair.

Is that all? I mean, wasn't it like one line of description of specific individuals that may or may not have applied to other members? If I hadn't googled for it I never would have known - although it's been a long time since I read the books - that she had a different skin color than the rest of her people.

Or are there other issues?

Every time talk of a movie comes up in a thread here, and Dragonlance is suggested, there are other posters who point out quite a few issues with the stories and the characters. I am not going to go digging through all those old threads, but I think I remember some very regular members here being the ones posting the bad stuff about them, so maybe they will show up again and repost. I tried reading the first book all those years ago and could not finish it and did not touch the rest because of that. One I do remember is people not being happy with an all-white cast of characters, which today is very insensitive.

 

[cmad1977]

Aside from Dragonlance being... not very good anyways... there are a number of issues with the base work to overcome in production.

 

[hopeless]

So either they're using an existing scenario set in the underdark or we're going to have flashbacks explaining how they ended up there?
Somehow if any of them are killed off this might not be explained or maybe make them more relatable when they do?!
I can't see this working normally if its tongue in cheek it could be an evil party and its more like a fantasy suicide squad, but would this be interesting?