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.

 

[MNblockhead]

Yeah, Furiosa has something like a 90% score with both critics and audiences at Rotten Tomatoes and it's going to lose tons of money. (Yes, George Miller is a famously expensive action director, but Furiosa is hardly alone in underperforming.)

Post-pandemic, many Americans have home theaters that make going to the movie theaters seem a lot less exciting than it once did.

Yeah, I don't exactly have a home theater, but watching movies on my large TV with good headphones beats the experience of going to a movie theatre in most cases.

The same thing is happening with musicians having to cancel arena tours left and right this summer, because everyone knows they'll end up on streaming sooner or later -- if they actually happen.

Watching a concert by streaming rather than live--yuck.

 

[bloodtide]

I doubt that. First a lot of the producers, directors and actors grew up with and played D&D. World of Warcraft and other fantasy video game properties have also mainstreamed D&D-like fantasy. And when has D&D ever been seen as something for 5 year olds?

Except, as you can see so often....these people don't get into upper management. And, worse...they cave 100% and do as they are told.

Sci fi, fantasy, and IPs like D&D are seen as silly kids stuff. This is why all D&D media content is made for kids.

To even suggest anything MA in a D&D show will be met with shock and endless people saying "oh D&D is not like that" or "D&D does not need that".

D&D is a dark world full of monsters and people you kill....not bonk over the head with a turkey leg!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Oh...totally missed that one.

And the answer is yes...."Hat" is just a goofy Marvel film...with D&D on the front.

From the first trailer with the barbarian "fighting with the stone block" I knew it would be endless slapstick rated Y goofy humor....and it was.

This is the problem. Someone says "lets do a goofy silly dumb thing" in a D&D show and everyone will laugh and say "yea, cool, lets do it" happily.

Of course....pick a lot of other types of shows...like say drama. And say something silly goofy and people will not go along with it..."you will ruin the show" with the dumb comedy.

If you didn’t see it you missed out. It was a good movie. Also it was fun, not dumb, it’s tone was about the same as an actual D&D session.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Except, as you can see so often....these people don't get into upper management. And, worse...they cave 100% and do as they are told.

Sci fi, fantasy, and IPs like D&D are seen as silly kids stuff. This is why all D&D media content is made for kids.

To even suggest anything MA in a D&D show will be met with shock and endless people saying "oh D&D is not like that" or "D&D does not need that".

D&D is a dark world full of monsters and people you kill....not bonk over the head with a turkey leg!

Pretty sure beating someone with a turkey leg probably happened in the 80s. D&D doesn’t have nearly as dark or light a tone as you are suggesting.

 

[Parmandur]

Except, as you can see so often....these people don't get into upper management. And, worse...they cave 100% and do as they are told.

Sci fi, fantasy, and IPs like D&D are seen as silly kids stuff. This is why all D&D media content is made for kids.

To even suggest anything MA in a D&D show will be met with shock and endless people saying "oh D&D is not like that" or "D&D does not need that".

D&D is a dark world full of monsters and people you kill....not bonk over the head with a turkey leg!

D&D really doesn't need anything not PG-1e though, and it has always been campy and goofy from the earliest tables.

 

[TiQuinn]

Personally, I just see this as another sign of the times regarding how much money companies want to spend on new shows. We’ll see how shows like Rings of Power and House of the Dragon continue to do.

 

[MNblockhead]

Except, as you can see so often....these people don't get into upper management. And, worse...they cave 100% and do as they are told.

Sci fi, fantasy, and IPs like D&D are seen as silly kids stuff. This is why all D&D media content is made for kids.

To even suggest anything MA in a D&D show will be met with shock and endless people saying "oh D&D is not like that" or "D&D does not need that".

D&D is a dark world full of monsters and people you kill....not bonk over the head with a turkey leg!

Well this is the issue with trying to make a D&D movie be reflective of a D&D game. Is varies so much table to table. The only thing to differentiate it from any other fantasy is to use D&D IP. D&D settings, famous characters, and iconic monsters.

I would also like it if everything in the movies was in line with the mechanics of the game. Something that general, non-D&D-fan audience, wouldn't notice, but that fans would get.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Seen way too much "behind the scenes" shows to be surprised by this. Just think there is too many variations of what D&D should be, it would be better just to create a fantasy show.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

it’s also that movies in the theater in general aren't by doing that well right now. And it’s going to get worse. Any future will be in streaming.

The ones near me have shut down! I couldn’t go if I wanted too.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Guardians of the Galaxy

I don’t know about “setting” the tone.I felt GotG had ripped off the tone straight out of D&D!