D&D Movie/TV There's A New Trailer For D&D: Honor Among Thieves

A brand new trailer for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie has just been released! The movie comes out March 31st. This trailer very much highlights the tongue-in-cheek nature of the movie and is filled with one-liners. The trailer also gives us a good luck at the Red Wizards of Thay, along with the mimic, the owlbear, and other iconic D&D monsters.

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[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have nothing against modern YA fiction, but Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell is one of the most delightfully against the grain of modern publishing trends books of the century thus far.

It is, but I think that's also led to it being very divisive. I know some extremely well-read fantasy fans who threw it against the wall when they couldn't finish it. (Obviously, it took two hands to do so.)

I have an English degree, so it was completely my jam, but I think a lot of people were put off by the writing, which is, of course, very intentional on Clarke's part.

Incidentally, if anyone who loved JS&MN hasn't read it, her short novel Piranesi is completely worth reading, although it's one of those stories that one should go into cold.

 

[Parmandur]

It is, but I think that's also led to it being very divisive. I know some extremely well-read fantasy fans who threw it against the wall when they couldn't finish it. (Obviously, it took two hands to do so.)

I have an English degree, so it was completely my jam, but I think a lot of people were put off by the writing, which is, of course, very intentional on Clarke's part.

Incidentally, if anyone who loved JS&MN hasn't read it, her short novel Piranesi is completely worth reading, although it's one of those stories that one should go into cold.

I actually listened to it as an audioloud (conve ient furing work), intend to go back and read it at some point, but it was great read out loid.

 

[Rabulias]

And you can have a very great movie have the studio execs decide they need to explain things in weird ways, because they are not confident in their product. As an example, Blade Runner had a dumb voice-over originally. But usually, that's not a good sign for the movie.

Maybe they want to introduce the characters in the trailer so that:
1) By cutting scenes together in the trailer to concentrate a bunch about the character in a short snippet, it makes it easier to introduce the characters in the movie itself to those who have seen the trailer (The movie says: "Remember this lady from the trailer?").
2) Giving people an idea about the characters in a movie and what they can do / how they act / who they are informs the viewer's choice about going to see the movie (The viewer thinks: "I (would / would not) like to see a movie with these characters.").

Here's another film that had to introduce its characters in the trailer (ugh!):

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yes, but if A24 was producing the D&D movie, it would be arty and we wouldn't know anything other than Florence Pugh is probably in danger. Isn't that the model for all trailers now?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Ah, fair enough - these have flown under my radar Except for His Dark Materials, but really didn't enjoy the book, so certainly wasn't interested in watching an adaptation. Nonetheless I thought His Dark Materials may be more well known than Pathfinder, with 17.5 million copies sold apparently. The others though I could imagine aren't, or at least maybe known of, but not widely purchased / read.

Yeah for all I know they are all actually more well known, it's hard to say for sure, but I think PF has exactly the "small, dedicated, passionate, fanbase" that studios exploit for free word of mouth advertising for such adaptations.

Never been a better time, either. Pathfinder is the face of the ORC license, which I've seen mentioned in multiple articles about the OGL debacle.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It is, but I think that's also led to it being very divisive. I know some extremely well-read fantasy fans who threw it against the wall when they couldn't finish it. (Obviously, it took two hands to do so.)

I have an English degree, so it was completely my jam, but I think a lot of people were put off by the writing, which is, of course, very intentional on Clarke's part.

Incidentally, if anyone who loved JS&MN hasn't read it, her short novel Piranesi is completely worth reading, although it's one of those stories that one should go into cold.

that makes me want to read it even more than I had been, having adored the show.

 

[Older Beholder]

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this already, but the movie was originally slated to come out in late March (I remember being excited because its release date was a few days off my birthday), but when I was at the theater yesterday, I noticed that the standees for the movie they've got say it's coming out in April. Has there been any word about it being delayed?

I think it may have been pushed back a few times, it had a release date of March 3 at one point… as mentioned in this article

I remember there were a lot of jokes about how pushing the date back is already a pretty accurate description of D&D

 

[demoss]

Just answer the question: Would WotC be willing to print an errata saying "max's earthen grasp can automatically hold and deflect other spells" and "Bigys hand can be blocked and held by any low level spell effect". Or things to that effect? Oh, I wonder why not? Or add a rule "the heroes spells act like the wish spell effect to do whatever they want"?

That's IMO not a good criterial for making rulings at a table. The better way is to reward creativity without painting yourself into a corner.

Here's one way to do it:

1. Someone tries something novel and interesting and it's not immediately obvious how it should go? IMO the correct response it to say yes, with what ever caveat you want (requiring roll, some drawback, whatever.)

2. AFTER the game as yourself: "What if they try that every time in a comparable situation?" If that seems bad, just let your players know "hey, btb, don't expect that thing you did to work every time"!

 

[MwaO]

Maybe they want to introduce the characters in the trailer so that:
1) By cutting scenes together in the trailer to concentrate a bunch about the character in a short snippet, it makes it easier to introduce the characters in the movie itself to those who have seen the trailer (The movie says: "Remember this lady from the trailer?").
2) Giving people an idea about the characters in a movie and what they can do / how they act / who they are informs the viewer's choice about going to see the movie (The viewer thinks: "I (would / would not) like to see a movie with these characters.").

Here's another film that had to introduce its characters in the trailer (ugh!):

Watching the trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy without spending the time to read any of the text because most people watching a trailer will not bother to do that — show, don't tell:
What do they all do? Do any of them have powers? Do we see any scenes that reveal any major plot points of the actual movie? Who is the main enemy? What even is the plot of the movie?

Guardians of the Galaxy's trailer is what the D&D Movie trailers should look like. Shows some cool images, establish it is a funny movie, doesn't actually give real information about anything because they know they're about to get knock it out of the park reviews from movie critics.

 

[OB1]

I'm going to have to ask you guys not to sit near me at the movie theater.

Oh I wouldn't worry about me at the theatre, it's getting pie after where I'll be breaking it all down

And note that I don't NEED the movie to easter egg the rules into what is being shown for me to like it, but I find it fun to think about how what is on the screen translates to the rules (where as written or as ruled by the DM in any given situation). Like, I'm not batting an eye over the Tiefling wildshaping into an Owlbear, but it's fun to think about whether that's a DM (director) ruling or perhaps a hint at a new subclass. All I know is it's cool as heck in the trailer, so rock on!

And I would be willing to bet that what ends up on screen in terms of what powers the characters have will be close to what you would find at any average tabletop. One of the benefits the D&D movie has is a robust encyclopida of what can/cannot be done, so you don't end up in a comic book movie situation where powers just exist as needed for the moment.