D&D Movie/TV First Footage of D&D Honor Among Thieves: Dungeons, Dragons, Teamwork, With Superhero Vibe

EN World member OB1 saw some of the first footage of next year's Dungeons & Dragon movie, Honor Among Thieves, confirming "dungeons, Dragons, and party teamwork with a bit of a superhero movie vibe". The roughly 30-seconds of footage was shown as part of Paramount's promotional reel played at CinemaCon.

Here is a quick hit of what I saw. Note that the 30 seconds or so was split up over 7 or 8 smaller shots interspersed in a larger product reel for other Paramount product. I was focusing hard to recognize when they were showing Dad Hat (All credit to my co-worker for realizing that the title shortens to Dad Hat) footage, but it made it very tricky to really get the details for the scenes. I will say that the overall look was absolutely amazing for being this far out. Easily on par with what you would expect from a Marvel theatrical release. Costumes all looked good, sets all looked good.

• Chris Pine on horseback riding next to Michele Rodriguez talking about 'needing a team for this'
• A blue? dragon flying overhead away from camera while characters flee underneath on horseback
• A big city, I'm guessing Waterdeep, from an overhead, aerial view
• Sophia Lillis (I think) pulling back on a slingshot wristband to fire something (there were two moments of this)
• Big action sequence in an outdoor arena like setting with pillars growing out of the ground that some heroes jump across while others fire off bows/magic,etc
• Rege-Jean Page on horseback heading towards some ruins, reminded me of something straight out of an old module but I can't put my finger on which one. Sort of half, simple stone wall buildings on a hilltop spread out over 100 meters or so
• A character in a long shot (I think Chris Pine but not sure as it was very quick) dancing? under an archway - reminded me more of being under Otto's Irresistible Dance than something he was doing on purpose. On the flip side, it could be a bard character spellcasting as I think he had an instrument in his hands (sorry bard haters)
• A spell that felt like a wizard casting shield against an attack. I think it was Rege-Jean but can't be certain.
• Don't remember seeing Hugh Grant in the footage, and no plot details
• Definitely had a fun, action packed vibe to it. Definitely not grim-dark

As for the superhero vibe I got, yeah, it felt somewhat like a fantasy version of Guardians of the Galaxy. I could imagine the marketing campaign for this leaning into this is Marvel meets Game of Thrones as a way to make the concept accessible to a larger audience not fully familiar with D&D style medieval fantasy.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The first ever D&D adventure I read had a large house in it, and house had loos. Ever since then, I'm unable to take dungeons/mansions/etc. seriously or really believe in them if they're missing loos.

Toilets in dungeons is something of a running gag with our group. They get more excited when the find a toilet than when they find a dragon horde. Scarcity I guess!

But people notice things that relate to there own specialisms. I often wonder, "how many more things do I not notice because I don't know about that stuff?" I mean there is an awful lot more stuff I don't know about than I do.

So many genre movies hinge on that. It's the difference between that time the protagonist of Yor, Hunter from the Future uses a dead pterodactyl as a hang glider and Tony Stark not having died of countless secondary crash impacts in his first movie. One has us cheering the action and the other, well, maybe charitably we'd cheer its absurdity.*

Tony Stark just has lots of hit points (although nothing like as many as Indiana Jones). Really, when people talk about the willing suspension of disbelief, it's not just a case of believing magic (or superpowers) are real, it a matter of turning a blind eye to all the other absurdities that go with the genre.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ironically, at least one of the Thieves World authors went on to write ... D&D novels.

One of the reasons the TSR novels managed to be so constantly poor might be tight deadlines. Many of the authors might have been capable of doing better had they not been writing in such a rush.

But any fantasy novel well known enough to turn into a movie doesn't need the D&D branding.

 

[Al2O3]

I'm not a big fan of movies as a format in general, but an entertaining Guardians of the Galaxy-like D&D-movie does sound interesting!

And in terms of basing it on a novel, I'm glad they didn't. I think the most interesting novels tend to not translate well to film. The thoughts and perspectives that make novels such as those in the Brimstone Angels saga good don't really work in the more visual format.

Also, the series I mentioned above is one of my favourites av all time, so I certainly disagree that there are no decent D&D novels. Of course, if you haven't read D&D novels in the past decade, you would have missed them. I didn't read any D&D novels and had no interest in the Forgotten realms before 5e came out.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It may go the other way though, the movie will probably get a novelisation. I wonder who they will get to write it? I expect Salvatore will at least be asked, but I have doubts about his ability to write humour, given he created Pikel the dwarven doodad.

Now, if they could persuade Neil Gaiman to write it we might finally get a decent D&D novel.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It may go the other way though, the movie will probably get a novelisation. I wonder who they will get to write it? I expect Salvatore will at least be asked, but I have doubts about his ability to write humour, given he created Pikel the dwarven doodad.

Now, if they could persuade Neil Gaiman to write it we might finally get a decent D&D novel.

Or Jim Butcher

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Or Jim Butcher

Yeah, he could do it. I suggested Gaiman as the person best capable of channelling Terry Pratchett, but Butcher can mix serious and humorous.

 

[Dioltach]

Or Ben Aaronivich.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I would love a D&D adjacent series from Butcher or Aaronivich in an Urban Arcana setting

Not the stuff they are doing butt utilizing some D&D tropes. Or fam any writer really.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Saw this earlier today. Now, which one will be the most successful?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Or Ben Aaronivich.

I've just started reading False Value, Metamorphosis Alpha called out in the first chapter!