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.

 

[Hussar]

We don't really count the couple seconds.

But we should count a couple of poorly drawn boobs in black and white as mature material?

 

[bloodtide]

But we should count a couple of poorly drawn boobs in black and white as mature material?

Well, we could ask an authority on the subject: Any Parent. I can kinda guess what they will say....

Disney has a long list of changes....Like Splash. A couple seconds of a mermaid in the water that shows some skin....Ban, delete, alter the scene!

 

[Hussar]

Well, we could ask an authority on the subject: Any Parent. I can kinda guess what they will say....

Disney has a long list of changes....Like Splash. A couple seconds of a mermaid in the water that shows some skin....Ban, delete, alter the scene!

OOOOHHHHH.

You mean Family rating, not PG-13. I'll agree that D&D has never been Family rated. But, there are MILES difference between Family and PG-13 and Mature.

That's where this conversation is falling down. You seem to think that ratings have remained the same for the past forty or fifty years (Splash - NOT a Disney movie, nor was Disney involved in it in any way). But, this does explain a lot. You obviously have no experience with YA fiction and are basing your views on very outdated ratings.

Look at it this way. Take the A series of modules. The Slave Lords modules. Now, there's a perfect series of adventures that could get an M rating right? You're going into a Slave Pit. That should be M, right? But, wait. There's zero in the module that would rate anything higher than PG. There's no graphic violence. There's no rape. There's no scenes of torture or mutilation. Nothing in any of the modules would rate higher than PG-13. Which is exactly what D&D was aimed at - high schoolers.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Also pretty sure the movie didn’t underperform for anything about it. It just had competition that many preferred to see instead.

 

[Parmandur]

Have you watched TV lately? Seen a movie that wasn't G rated? You don't have to have slasher movie buckets of blood, plenty of mass entertainment is for better or worse quite violent. Heck, my dad loved old westerns and people were killed by they wagonload on those. But one constant? The white hats never killed anyone "on a whim". Neither do the PCs in any D&D game I run or will continue to play.

Whether or not you want to grapple with moral dilemmas is, of course, up to you. But most games (and entertainment in general) draw pretty clean lines between good guys and bad guys since it has the luxury of not being the real world.

It is worth noting that just about every mature, "adult" themed movie from classic Hollywood is G rated. Casablanca dealt with serious issues and themes, and violence...within the structure of the Hayes Code.

 

[Parmandur]

OOOOHHHHH.

You mean Family rating, not PG-13. I'll agree that D&D has never been Family rated. But, there are MILES difference between Family and PG-13 and Mature.

That's where this conversation is falling down. You seem to think that ratings have remained the same for the past forty or fifty years (Splash - NOT a Disney movie, nor was Disney involved in it in any way). But, this does explain a lot. You obviously have no experience with YA fiction and are basing your views on very outdated ratings.

Look at it this way. Take the A series of modules. The Slave Lords modules. Now, there's a perfect series of adventures that could get an M rating right? You're going into a Slave Pit. That should be M, right? But, wait. There's zero in the module that would rate anything higher than PG. There's no graphic violence. There's no rape. There's no scenes of torture or mutilation. Nothing in any of the modules would rate higher than PG-13. Which is exactly what D&D was aimed at - high schoolers.

Right on all counts.

The modern rating system is a spectrum rather than a binary for a reason: there is room for gradations between Cinderella and Barbarella.

 

[bloodtide]

OOOOHHHHH.

You mean Family rating, not PG-13. I'll agree that D&D has never been Family rated. But, there are MILES difference between Family and PG-13 and Mature.

As an adult, anything below MA or R is for kids.

That's where this conversation is falling down. You seem to think that ratings have remained the same for the past forty or fifty years (Splash - NOT a Disney movie, nor was Disney involved in it in any way). But, this does explain a lot. You obviously have no experience with YA fiction and are basing your views on very outdated ratings.

Wow....have things changed a lot. Just check out the huge list of content made for kids in the 70/80 and then look at stuff today. Big Huge Difference.

Well...Splash was made by Touchstone Entertainment...an offshoot of Disney that focused on movies for older teens and adults. I guess that counts as Disney not involved in any way. Still, when it was put on Disney Plus...Disney edited it.

Look at it this way. Take the A series of modules. The Slave Lords modules. Now, there's a perfect series of adventures that could get an M rating right? You're going into a Slave Pit. That should be M, right? But, wait. There's zero in the module that would rate anything higher than PG. There's no graphic violence. There's no rape. There's no scenes of torture or mutilation. Nothing in any of the modules would rate higher than PG-13. Which is exactly what D&D was aimed at - high schoolers.

Well, now see it does depend. And it is my point.

You could show "slavery" by saying the word once and show some people standing around. Or you can show other things. See the big difference.

And maybe when you played through the module your character peaceful talked each of the foes, monsters and Slave Lords into surrendering. Know, what 99% of other games did: killed them. And this is the point here too. You can do the pg-13 "tap the foe with my sword and they fall down" or you can do it other more graphic ways.

After all...back then Jaws, Poltergeist, The Temple of Doom, Gremlins.......and Big....Dragonslayer...the Beastmaster......Watership Down.


But it does not matter much in 2024.....because when they make a pg-13 something.....they are going to the far end of G to make it "for kids", not up to "MA" to make it for adults.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Can you believe episodes of Sesame Street from decades ago couldn't be allowed by the current criteria?

And there is a great difference between "parental guidance is suggested", "not recommended but not restricted" "parental accompaniment" and "exclusively for older audience".

And there are different levels of age rating: all audiences, +7, +10, +13,+16 and +18.

If Hasbro wants a new generation of D&D then they need titles for all audiences.

* What if Mario Bros the plumber was an isekai character who travels to a fantasy world to become the father of the "magitek plumbing"?

 

[Hussar]

As an adult, anything below MA or R is for kids.

No. It is not. You are simply wrong here.

Wow....have things changed a lot. Just check out the huge list of content made for kids in the 70/80 and then look at stuff today. Big Huge Difference.

Well...Splash was made by Touchstone Entertainment...an offshoot of Disney that focused on movies for older teens and adults. I guess that counts as Disney not involved in any way. Still, when it was put on Disney Plus...Disney edited it.


Well, now see it does depend. And it is my point.

You could show "slavery" by saying the word once and show some people standing around. Or you can show other things. See the big difference.

And maybe when you played through the module your character peaceful talked each of the foes, monsters and Slave Lords into surrendering. Know, what 99% of other games did: killed them. And this is the point here too. You can do the pg-13 "tap the foe with my sword and they fall down" or you can do it other more graphic ways.

After all...back then Jaws, Poltergeist, The Temple of Doom, Gremlins.......and Big....Dragonslayer...the Beastmaster......Watership Down.

ALL of which are made for teens. Temple of Doom was never R rated. Poltergeist was PG. Gremlins, PG. Nothing you just listed was R rated.

But it does not matter much in 2024.....because when they make a pg-13 something.....they are going to the far end of G to make it "for kids", not up to "MA" to make it for adults.

ROTFLMAO

You really, really don't know what you're talking about. Like, at all.

 

[Hussar]

Can you believe episodes of Sesame Street from decades ago couldn't be allowed by the current criteria?

And there is a great difference between "parental guidance is suggested", "not recommended but not restricted" "parental accompaniment" and "exclusively for older audience".

And there are different levels of age rating: all audiences, +7, +10, +13,+16 and +18.

If Hasbro wants a new generation of D&D then they need titles for all audiences.

* What if Mario Bros the plumber was an isekai character who travels to a fantasy world to become the father of the "magitek plumbing"?

What episodes or parts of Sesame Street from decades ago would not be allowed?

Again, you guys just have zero idea of what you are talking about. Note, Sesame Street is Family, not PG and certainly not PG-13.

FFS, JAWS was PG. Not even PG 13.