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.

 

[bedir than]

This is why movie studios move movie dates. Them releasing up against Mario (effectively) was something they could and should have avoided.

They'd already moved the date six times, only one of those due to the pandemic.
One of those moves was even after 100% of production was done.

March was very busy with expected hits (most didn't).

https://www.movieinsider.com/movies/march/2023

The 2023 glut of films that had been held out of theaters and otherwise delayed due to covid made several movies that would have had decent runs in a 'normal' environment windup as failures or mediocre

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If Hasbro wants a totally child-friendly animate show, then LEGO: D&D.

Whilst that would work, I think that at the moment LEGO would see it as a direct competitor for their Dreamzzz series. What’s in it for them?

Ravenloft is perfect for horror one-shot stories. No previous lore is necessary to be known.

That’s the problem, there is nothing distinctly D&D about it. Just another gothic horror show. Why pay for a licence when all the original stories are out of copyright!?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They'd already moved the date six times, only one of those due to the pandemic.

OK, and not moving it when it was clearly about to get run over by Mario -- and I know there are people on this board who were surprised by that, but no one with young kids was -- was an obvious error that was called out even at the time.

 

[payn]

OK, and not moving it when it was clearly about to get run over by Mario -- and I know there are people on this board who were surprised by that, but no one with young kids was -- was an obvious error that was called out even at the time.

 

[bedir than]

OK, and not moving it when it was clearly about to get run over by Mario -- and I know there are people on this board who were surprised by that, but no one with young kids was -- was an obvious error that was called out even at the time.

IIRC they flipped it with Scream's most recent update

There's an alternate reality where D&D had the first three weeks of March with competition like Creed

 

[bloodtide]

The thing is, the need much more than D&D fans to make a show successful.

This just starts the circle of bad ideas.

The first is....what is a D&D show? And to any non-D&D person it is only one thing: going on quests and fighting monsters. So with shock and horror they don't want to do that, and end up making a bland show about nothing for no reason. They won't even think about adding romance, drama, mystery or anything else.

But, oddly, try any other show. Take a cop show. a non cop show fan would say the show is just "criminal does crime cop catches them". And yet....somehow they ignore that and make a show with drama, romance, mystery and everything else. But it is still a cop show.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would be for the animation, and a show would be several one-shot stories with different groups.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

This just starts the circle of bad ideas.

The first is....what is a D&D show? And to any non-D&D person it is only one thing: going on quests and fighting monsters. So with shock and horror they don't want to do that, and end up making a bland show about nothing for no reason. They won't even think about adding romance, drama, mystery or anything else.

But, oddly, try any other show. Take a cop show. a non cop show fan would say the show is just "criminal does crime cop catches them". And yet....somehow they ignore that and make a show with drama, romance, mystery and everything else. But it is still a cop show.

Maybe that's the secret - Make an Eberron/Waterdeep cop show.

 

[bloodtide]

Maybe that's the secret - Make an Eberron/Waterdeep cop show.

Well, maybe not a secret. But my point is when making a show in other genres, no one ever says "well, we need to make it not like a cop show to attract a more general audience." They simply make a good cop show. They don't worry about anyone else.

The secret, they can never know...is if you make a good show, people will watch it. Really the genre and setting don't matter to everyone.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maybe that's the secret - Make an Eberron/Waterdeep cop show.

I've played in that campaign. It completely rules.