D&D Movie/TV Hasbro Getting Out Of The Movie Business

While Hasbro is forging ahead with its own Dungeons & Dragons video game, following the massive success of Baldur's Gate 3, the future of its film involvement is less rosy. In an article with Bloomberg featuring Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, it was revealed that the company won't be co-financing future movies following the underperformance of Honor Among Thieves and Transformers One.

The focus is moving towards video games. Cocks said to Bloomberg, "We want to reach fans where they want to play, and increasingly that is through digital expressions of their favorite brands".

Sony and Lions Gate will continue to make movies based on Hasbro properties, but Hasbro won't be involved in the financing.

Hasbro Confirms New Unannounced Dungeons & Dragons Video Game in Development

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks has confirmed that an in-house studio is developing an unannounced Dungeons & Dragons video game. In a feature posted today on Bloomberg News, Cocks stated that Hasbro was actively developing a Dungeons & Dragons video game via one of its in-house studios. No further...

www.enworld.org

 

[KYRON45]

Couldn't disagree more. I want a fantasy movie.

Then by all means....I hope they keep trying to make a good one.

 

[payn]

I still think animation TV shows are the right approach.

I wonder if HAT would have done better without the DnD branding?

I dont think so. Despite there being a lot of (rightfully) negative reputation on quality of past D&D films, 5E has really arrived in pop culture. Typically, less known brands of fantasy usually end up in the streaming series. Looks like D&D might still be on that level instead of blockbuster potential.

 

[Zaukrie]

I dont think so. Despite there being a lot of (rightfully) negative reputation on quality of past D&D films, 5E has really arrived in pop culture. Typically, less known brands of fantasy usually end up in the streaming series. Looks like D&D might still be on that level instead of blockbuster potential.

I have more friends that don't play than do. Several went to the movie and were surprised how good it was, despite, in their words, being DnD. Purely anecdotal, of course....

 

[Superchunk77]

What would that even do for it? Let them make the fights bloodier? I can't see anything else.

They're fundamentally really tame stories with the most stereotypical possible characters. Drizzt's personality is "Generic Good Guy people are unfair to" (unlike the Underdark stuff, where there's more nuance - though not much), Bruenor's personality is "Generic Dwarf", Wulfgar's personality is "Generic Dwarf (Younger)" which might a be a good gag except Discworld did it way better with Carrot (who may be a loose satire of Wulfgar and similar characters on a certain level), Regis' personality in the three IWD books (not the bizarre later turn he took) is "Generic Comedy Coward", and worst of all Catti-Brie, who doesn't even appear at all until the second book (!!!), has the personality "Generic Love Interest", right down to being frequently helpless and getting kidnapped.

There's nothing wrong with liking those stories - everyone likes some pretty lame and cliched media really! But let's not pretend these are stories with potential appeal or traction with a wide audience in 2024 or later. They were dated by the time they came out, and did not age well.

Again, I don't share you take at all. Moving on.

 

[Joshua Randall]

How do you get out of something you were never really in?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would like the return of those characters, but this doesn't mean it has to be an action-live production, animation also could work. It wouldn't be the first time cartoon shows working as canon sequels of action-live movies.

My opinion is maybe this time is not WotC's fault but Hollywood isn't in its best moment and we are going to watch a painful catharsis before the return of the old glory days. Something is happening behind the curtains, and these troubles are being suffered by all the main cinematographic studios.

D&D is not enough powerful brand to be an interesting licence but it suffers the handicap about the coherence with the previous continuity.

If I am not wrong teorically Paramount has got the exclusive of the licence. This should mean no other studio can do a production about D&D.

Hasbro has got its own animation studios, and the reboot of "my little pony" was a great success, even better than the original G1.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Arcane at least supposedly cost as much, if not more, than a summer tent pole blockbuster.

You don't have to spend ridiculously like that, you keep it to Vex Machina budgets, don't over spend on big name voice actors ect...

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Hot take, but this is a really bad choice by Hasbros CEO who makes tons of them.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Cough cough......Deadpool and Wolverine

I did say it was hard, not impossible.

 

[Theory of Games]

Wow. Are they putting it all on video games?