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.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I imagine a level of violence like Star Trek or Star Wars. When I was a little child I could watch "V", the sci-fi serie about an invasion by mice-eater reptilian aliens.

* Do you remember the meme "Call of Duty + Pokemon, Target and actual audience"?

* Other option could be a new spin-off of my little pony where the main characters are ha'ponies ( halfling+pony centaurs, canon in 2nd) in a fantasy world with a little touch of magitek and 50's look, and space for other Hasbro franchises as easter eggs or guest artists: Transformers, G.I.Joe (a harengon green beret against yuan-ti terrorists), Jem and the Holograms ( I want song dragonborns) and Power Rangers (Mystic Force!).

 

[Jaeger]

See, that's the problem. No the customer base isn't over 21. Most of the customer base is under 25. By like a whole pile.

Most of customer base for what? D&D ttrpg or D&D inspired toy line? Or D&D media?

There are clearly many different ways to look at the numbers...

What i found on the web, from 2023, is that 48% are milenials (so 28+), 33% are gen Z (12-27), and 19% are genX and older. 18+ are adults, so by this chart, 75% of the players are adults. Sorry but if majority of players are adults, you can't really peg it as teen game.

GrimCo gets it.

All we can really do is look at Wotc's own numbers:

WotC - Comparing EN World's Demographics to the D&D Community's

WotC released some figures this week. I thought it would be fun to compare them to the demographics of our own little community here on EN World for the same period (2019). WotC uses a metric it refers to as 40,000,000 'D&D Fans', but that's not defined. For the purposes of this, I assume a fan...

www.enworld.org

While Wotc may be targeting a more 'kid friendly' format, D&D players are by their own metrics a 75% 18+ crowd.

That's why, personally, i think that if they try to make new media project, they should do separate movie/show for kids and for adults. We may be playing same game in theory, but games played by adults and by kids are very different games by theme and style.

^This^

While I don't think that a D&D film or tv show needs to go full R or tv-MA, Clearly it can't go amiss buy leaning into mature PG-13 territory.

Lego D&D, and a D&D Quest board game is all you'd need to fill the desire by some at Wotc to appeal to children.

Because the numbers show that the real spending money is in the 18-45 zone.

And in my opinion; the game should reflect that.

 

[Zardnaar]

I imagine a level of violence like Star Trek or Star Wars. When I was a little child I could watch "V", the sci-fi serie about an invasion by mice-eater reptilian aliens.

* Do you remember the meme "Call of Duty + Pokemon, Target and actual audience"?

* Other option could be a new spin-off of my little pony where the main characters are ha'ponies ( halfling+pony centaurs, canon in 2nd) in a fantasy world with a little touch of magitek and 50's look, and space for other Hasbro franchises as easter eggs or guest artists: Transformers, G.I.Joe (a harengon green beret against yuan-ti terrorists), Jem and the Holograms ( I want song dragonborns) and Power Rangers (Mystic Force!).

Back in 80s I was allowed to watch R and R18 content. Aliens is the scariest movie ever (aged 8 or so).

Actual horror movies bored me vs scared me eg Nightmare on Elm St.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Hot take, but WotC should have taken a idea from CR and make the next D&D thing a anime animated series, cut the risks and costs by a truck load and show networks that there is a market for D&D shows.

 

[Azzy]

Hot take, but WotC should have taken a idea from CR and make the next D&D thing a anime animated series, cut the risks and costs by a truck load and show networks that there is a market for D&D shows.

It would be cool if they got a Japanese studio to do it. My choice of studios would be Ufotable—they do some beautiful work.

 

[payn]

Hot take, but WotC should have taken a idea from CR and make the next D&D thing a anime animated series, cut the risks and costs by a truck load and show networks that there is a market for D&D shows.

D&D keeps getting beat to the punch. Jumanji ate their people fall into game lunch, and Vox ate their anime D&D breakfast. Will seem derivative now and really need to hit a home run to succeed.

 

[Parmandur]

Hot take, but WotC should have taken a idea from CR and make the next D&D thing a anime animated series, cut the risks and costs by a truck load and show networks that there is a market for D&D shows.

I mean, they may still do so. And that can be done in an all-ages way, tio: The Last Airbwnder is still very popular.

 

[Hussar]

D&D keeps getting beat to the punch. Jumanji ate their people fall into game lunch, and Vox ate their anime D&D breakfast. Will seem derivative now and really need to hit a home run to succeed.

DUnno about Jumanji really. It's not like Isekai isn't a thing. People fall into a game is an entire genre now.

 

[payn]

DUnno about Jumanji really. It's not like Isekai isn't a thing. People fall into a game is an entire genre now.

No idea what that is. Not so much a genre but a gimmick at least in live action American film and television.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

"Zathura: A Space Adventure" wanted to be the next "Jumanji" and it didn't work.

An animated LEGO: D&D show sounds interesting but here Hasbro and LEGO have to agree about a lot of things. Spelljammer sounds awesome as a LEGO line, exotic but not too weird. It is not a bad idea, but even if it was greenlit by Hasbro, it would need some time.

Planescape could be better for a mature tone, with plots about the conflicts between the factions and guilds. Something style Ricky&Morty or Star Trek: Lower Decks. But the fights would be mainly in the Gatetowns, and Sigil working as a neutral zone.

We know James Bond is a character who has been with a lot of women, but the movies didn't show too much. I doubt showing nudity was necessary. And this could be worse with female small humanoids (haflings, gnomes, goblins..).. in webs like Rule34.

Spaghetti western movies were for adult audience, but if we censor some scene, almost of them could be +13 for our current standars, or at least most of them.

Not everybody wants grimmdark. Some adult people are happy watching My Little Pony. And family-friendly shows don't need complex plots.

* How would be a D&D version of most popular isekai anime? Not like a true crossover but more a reimagination or mash-up.