D&D Movie/TV Paramount+ Will Not Proceed with Dungeons & Dragons Live-Action TV Show

Deadline reports that the live-action Dungeons & Dragons television series will not continue at Paramount+. The show was originally announced in January 2023 as Paramount+ placed an eight episode straight-to-series order. Normally that’s the best you can hope for in terms of a guarantee of the show happening as the show would produce the entire first season instead of needing to make a pilot to be approved.

Two big corporate changes happened since then, however. First, Hasbro sold the show’s co-producer Entertainment One to Lionsgate in December 2023 and shifted the production to Hasbro Entertainment. Currently, Paramount is searching for a buyer for the company with the current front runner according to reports being Sony Pictures, who have partnered with private equity firms to place a rumored $26 billion offer for the studio.

Little was announced about the plot other than it would be character-focused and involve the Underdark. These tidbits plus the fact that the character of Xenk from the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was originally intended to be Drizzt Do'Urden but changed during pre-production led to speculation that the series would be an adaptation of the Drizzt novels, particularly the origin story novel Homeland.

Creator Rawson Marshall Thurber (Red Notice, Easy A, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) and showrunner Drew Crevello (The Grudge 2, WeCrashed) are still attached to the project. Hasbro will repackage and update the pitch for the show and stop it around to other distributors.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah... im gonna disagree a bit here. I think the Boys had a funny concept for a hot min, but the writing is very very bad.

You are absolutely allowed to be completely wrong.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sounds about right for budget. While I enjoyed how different Shadow and Bone was, it wasnt that great of series overall.

I liked it for what it was and it was better than it should gave been. Imho of course.

Better than say RoP. GoT S8, or WoT S1.

 

[payn]

You are absolutely allowed to be completely wrong.

Take a look at Reacher. Good first season, then Amazon took it under its wing and its now garbage. They saved the Expanse and then ruined it. Wheel of Time, Ring of Power, I could go on but its obvious that Amazon isnt top notch.

 

[Reynard]

Take a look at Reacher. Good first season, then Amazon took it under its wing and its now garbage. They saved the Expanse and then ruined it. Wheel of Time, Ring of Power, I could go on but its obvious that Amazon isnt top notch.

I was referring specifically to your assessment of The Boys' writing. It has some of the best written complex characters in current genre fiction, miles better than its source material.

I have not seen any of the other shows you mentioned except RoP, which I like even if it is not Tolkien.

 

[sevenbastard]

I enjoyed it, because I didnt compare it. Fury Road is excellent and stands on its own; I didnt go into Furiosa expecting it to be better, a good summer movie, but Fury Road continues to stand on its own.

Furiosas is 100% worth seeing. My whole post was hopefully to get people out and hopefully generate a little more cash for it to support quality cinema.

That's said I would say it's the third best Mad Max movie as Road Warrior is also a master piece.

On my original point that studios hate risk it is also why we have a lame pg 13 Thunderdome. Who knows what we would have got if they would have allowed this movie to be R rated and not pushed some ewok/kid nonsense.

 

[Mistwell]

For me if they switch to animated might as we not make it at all. I just don’t do animation as an adult.

We're the same.

But there is no reason to go animated. Cutting the budget and doing more with less should be the path forward. They're just not getting a lot for the last $100M on these blockbusters.

 

[Mistwell]

You are missing out on some phenomenal storytelling.

As an adult with a family and a job that takes a lot of hours, I can't see all that many shows in a year. There are well more than enough well written shows that are not animated. I enjoy good acting.

 

[GrimCo]

We're the same.

But there is no reason to go animated. Cutting the budget and doing more with less should be the path forward. They're just not getting a lot for the last $100M on these blockbusters.

Yes, but where do you cut budget? Fantasy relies heavily on visuals. And good visuals cost money. Good actors also cost money. 10 mil per episode is kind of standard for big production with solid cast and visual effects. That's 80 milion for standard 8 episode season. Show with that kind of budget need wide mainstream audience. They need to play safe.

On the other hand, animated series is around 300k per episode. And you can go all out with monsters, spells, scenography, over the top action. Plus, voice actors are cheaper. With cheaper product, you can take more risks. You can go with R rated content. Make anthologies. You can do lot of different things.

 

[bedir than]

Cheap fantasy recently was Shadow and Bone. 60 odd million a season pre covid though

It was 40 million a season.

'Shadow and Bone' Season 2: Netflix Release Date & Everything We Know So Far

Netflix has officially unveiled when the new season will be on Netflix.

www.whats-on-netflix.com

 

[Professor Murder]

I'm definitely not of the "f*ck WotC/Hasbro" camp but I can't help but feel that all their inept bumbling of fan goodwill over the last couple years killed a very real and intangible resource of fan enthusiasm which could have helped push these sorts of projects over the finishline.