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.

 

[Oofta]

The ratings and more so the money does. For hour long scripted TV shows you see cop, detective, law, medical drama and related shows are the the most popular TV shows on Ye Old Network TV. You see the same, adding crime shows, for Ye Old Cable. And now we have streaming to add a sprinkle of horror and fantasy.

When you look at any top ten show(hour long scripted) list you sure see a lot of mature stuff....Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Twin Peaks, The Wire, and Game of Thones are on most lists.

Adults want to watch adult entertainment.....not "bonk I hit the bad guy on the head with a turkey leg!"

A quick Google search says that you're mostly wrong. GoT was top. But the others you list? Not even in the top 50. In fact quite a few are, for example, the Arrowverse shows which you don't seem to think are worthy because they aren't "adult" enough.

 

[Parmandur]

A quick Google search says that you're mostly wrong. GoT was top. But the others you list? Not even in the top 50. In fact quite a few are, for example, the Arrowverse shows which you don't seem to think are worthy because they aren't "adult" enough.

Arrow is obviously a show for babies, just like CSI: Miami.

 

[bedir than]

The shows that come up on best shows of all time are generally R rated as well.

Game of Thrones early seasons, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire usually get mentioned.

Prestige TV very much aimed at adults.

They may get mentioned, but again, as usual, the facts don't show support for TV-MA being the most popular or most highly regarded.

The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time

Variety breaks down the best TV shows of all time. From The Sopranos to Community, these are the best series ever aired.

variety.com

But continue supporting this concept that Roots was a kiddie show

 

[Zardnaar]

They may get mentioned, but again, as usual, the facts don't show support for TV-MA being the most popular or most highly regarded.

The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time

Variety breaks down the best TV shows of all time. From The Sopranos to Community, these are the best series ever aired.

variety.com

But continue supporting this concept that Roots was a kiddie show

Stop strawmanning me. I never claimed R rated was more popular.

The shows I mentioned have very high reviews and often get brought up in pop culture best TV shows of all time.

Eg

Top 250 TV Shows

Top 250 as rated by IMDb Users

m.imdb.com

 

[bedir than]

Stop strawmanning me. I never claimed R rated was more popular.

The shows I mentioned have very high reviews and often get brought up in pop culture best TV shows of all time.

Eg

Top 250 TV Shows

Top 250 as rated by IMDb Users

m.imdb.com

by that chart the best rated fantasy show is Y7, an actual kiddie show

 

[MNblockhead]

We'll get a live action D&D at some point. It will almost assuredly be PG -13 or straight up PG. Just like D&D has always been since day 1.

 

[Zardnaar]

by that chart the best rated fantasy show is Y7, an actual kiddie show

More pointing out those earlier shows that got mentioned are rated very highly and are not kids shows.

The D&D movie has already been forgotten for the most part. Even if it made more money its tone is similar to all the other mass produced slop aimed at a mass audience.

What I'm saying is (with the snapshot success og BG3) is that there's room for a nature D&D show.

It might suck and tank, it might be good and still tank. Quality and rating are no guarantee.

But if they make HaT 2.0 I expect it will tank again. I suspect they won't even bother.

And until they actually produce and release sonething I wouldn't get to excited about D&D show or movie announcements.

 

[Hussar]

View attachment 366953

And.... that's not PG 13?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I doubt Hasbro wanted now to publish something like the Witcher or Game of Thrones. I don't say they don't want but to create a new epic fantasy franchise isn't easy. Several writters are trying to create the new "Song of Ice and Fire" and not always it's possible.

My opinion is Hasbro wants a new franchise like "My Little Pony: Friendship is magic" because the franchises for all the family are better to sell merchandising.

We shouldn't be too surprised if they created an animated show based in the Radiant Citadel as a mixture of Pepa Pig and the Hobbit.

Nentir Vale could be the option to be adapted because not everything will be Forgotten Realms.

 

[GrimCo]

I doubt Hasbro wanted now to publish something like the Witcher or Game of Thrones. I don't say they don't want but to create a new epic fantasy franchise isn't easy. Several writters are trying to create the new "Song of Ice and Fire" and not always it's possible.

For new show like GoT, they would need competent writers. Even in GoT, you can see quality drop when they run out of literary material and had to write original stuff.

My opinion is Hasbro wants a new franchise like "My Little Pony: Friendship is magic" because the franchises for all the family are better to sell merchandising.

We shouldn't be too surprised if they created an animated show based in the Radiant Citadel as a mixture of Pepa Pig and the Hobbit.

Nentir Vale could be the option to be adapted because not everything will be Forgotten Realms.

You mean, like Hasbro did back in the day? I mean, Hasbro practically invented that stuff. Saturday morning cartoons from 80s/90s where just half hour long animated commercials for their toy lines. They did it to circumvent regulations about advertising for children, but still. That's OG Hasbro business model. Toy line plus cartoon about that toy line.