Stormonu
Legend
In that case, I’d rather listen to the (dramatized) Audio Book.
D&D Movie/TV D&D Cinematic Universe. What would it be like? What do you want to see?
OB1
Jedi Master
That's a great point. The villains in D&D are central to the experience, and if you cast that right (I think Hugh Grant was a stroke of casting genius for the first film) the rest may fall into place easier. And this dovetails with how 5e runs APs anyhow.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
I just want them to have fun with it. The thing that makes D&D well suited for this sort of thing is that they could come up with script pitches by rolling on random tables I'm the DMG. There doesnneed to be a profound, world shaking story, just fun stories in a fantastical world.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Yep. Everyone wants to have the MCU’s success without laying the groundwork Marvel Studios did to get there. If I have one hope for a potential “D&D Cinematic Universe,” it’s that they don’t fall into this trap.Quite right.
The desire to launch into a "cinematic universe" is always doomed unless the base is solid.
Let's assume HAT is very successful and popular. The next step would be to either make a sequel, or do another Forgotten Realms-set D&D movie, following different characters (perhaps with some minor crossover/link). If that too is successful and popular, you've got a fairly solid place to go from, but you need some seriously solid thinking about where the franchise is going to go, and to not move too fast. You can't expect to become the MCU, but you might well become something like Fast & Furious.
Basically though they need to land this one, then land another one set in the FR, then probably a sequel to this one, before anyone can even start talking "cinematic universe".
The only other settings which are likely to become relevant in the first few movies would be Spelljammer and Planescape, both of which would potentially work extremely well cinematically and are traditionally closely linked to the FR.
But the main thing would have to be to keep the quality of the movies up. If you wanted to cross over to another D&D world, Tal'Dorei would probably be a better bet than any WotC setting, at least initially. I could definitely see a movie where they ended up Sigil and then going through a few Prime Materials as part of a heist or scheme or the like, with brief visits to places like Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Greyhawk, and so on (carefully avoiding showing any key characters so you have casting freedom later).
Also, it would be really good if they could get an FR TV series or two going (as they'd been thinking) and ensure that they have "aesthetic compatibility" with this. The only slight concern I have about HAT is that the aesthetic isn't quite what I'd expect from "The Forgotten Realms" and is a little bit more "Generic Fantasy" (needs more oversized cabochon-cut gems!), but that's a key part of what's made both the F&F movies and the MCU work, and what's made the DCU have problems. Aesthetics. Kevin Feige is famous for becoming obsessed with a slightly horrible colour-grading scheme and forcing it on a bunch of MCU movies, but that plus other choices did give MCU movies (and later series) a fairly consistent aesthetic until they had a firm enough base to play with it in more recent stuff (but even, say, Ms. Marvel's more outre aesthetic is till MCU-ish). So they need someone in that Kevin Feige roll to be pulling everything together. That would be Mike Mearls, given he's "Franchise Creative Director". Hopefully he's up to the task and can avoid future scandals.
John R Davis
Hero
An Eberron TV series would be cool. Investigation type
Mercurius
Legend
There's really no single way I'd like to see a D&D cinematic universe play out. To be honest, the more (films and series), the merrier - as long as a basic threshold of quality is maintained.
That said, I'd much rather see them focus on series over films, if only because a single season of a 10-episode series provides 10 hours of watching per year vs 1-2 films providing 3-4 hours of watching.
And of course we should be reasonable in our expectations. If we project forward over the next five years (2023-27), what can we reasonably expect, and assuming the first film is a success? Maybe 3-4 films and/or 1-2 series?
Given the caveat that there is almost zero chance that a D&DCU would be anywhere near the popularity of the MCU (it doesn't have to be), let's look at the MCU and how it developed over its first five years:
2008: Two films - Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk
2009: No films
2010: One film - Iron Man 2
2011: Two films - Thor, Captain America 1
2012: One film - The Avengers
So in the first five years, there were only six films. The first TV series (Agents of SHIELD) didn't come out until 2013).
In the next five years, 2013-17, there were ELEVEN films and TEN TV series that began.
In the third trio of five years, 2018-22, there were THIRTEEN films and TEN new TV series.
So as you can see, the MCU started small - the first half decade saw an average of one film per year, with no TV series.
Now that doesn't mean we'll see the same pattern, though I'm guessing we won't see a D&D movie next year. They'll at least want to get initial returns before investing in further films and TV series. But they also might be able to accelerate the process a bit, given that they have a lot of recent history to draw from or various franchises.
My totally wild guess is that if we do see further films and tv series, the second film won't come out until 2024 at the earliest, and no later than early 2025, as they'll want to build some momentum (and even 2025 is a bit too long). Third and further films would probably be one per year, at least for the next few years, with a series not before 2025, and probably more like 2026-27.
So my guess for 2022-26 would be 3-4 films, and 0-1 series. After that depends upon popularity. We can hope that 2027-31 would give us 5-8 films and 1-3 series, but that might be a bit greedy. It wouldn't have to be anything like the MCU in popularity, but it would have to be very successful.
As for what they "should" do or what I want them to do, as I said, I just want good quality. I don't care as much if they're all set in the Realms, or if we get other worlds - at least at first. I suspect they'll stick to the Realms for the first few offerings at least. Maybe a third or fourth film (or series) will be set elsewhere.
That said, I'd much rather see them focus on series over films, if only because a single season of a 10-episode series provides 10 hours of watching per year vs 1-2 films providing 3-4 hours of watching.
And of course we should be reasonable in our expectations. If we project forward over the next five years (2023-27), what can we reasonably expect, and assuming the first film is a success? Maybe 3-4 films and/or 1-2 series?
Given the caveat that there is almost zero chance that a D&DCU would be anywhere near the popularity of the MCU (it doesn't have to be), let's look at the MCU and how it developed over its first five years:
2008: Two films - Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk
2009: No films
2010: One film - Iron Man 2
2011: Two films - Thor, Captain America 1
2012: One film - The Avengers
So in the first five years, there were only six films. The first TV series (Agents of SHIELD) didn't come out until 2013).
In the next five years, 2013-17, there were ELEVEN films and TEN TV series that began.
In the third trio of five years, 2018-22, there were THIRTEEN films and TEN new TV series.
So as you can see, the MCU started small - the first half decade saw an average of one film per year, with no TV series.
Now that doesn't mean we'll see the same pattern, though I'm guessing we won't see a D&D movie next year. They'll at least want to get initial returns before investing in further films and TV series. But they also might be able to accelerate the process a bit, given that they have a lot of recent history to draw from or various franchises.
My totally wild guess is that if we do see further films and tv series, the second film won't come out until 2024 at the earliest, and no later than early 2025, as they'll want to build some momentum (and even 2025 is a bit too long). Third and further films would probably be one per year, at least for the next few years, with a series not before 2025, and probably more like 2026-27.
So my guess for 2022-26 would be 3-4 films, and 0-1 series. After that depends upon popularity. We can hope that 2027-31 would give us 5-8 films and 1-3 series, but that might be a bit greedy. It wouldn't have to be anything like the MCU in popularity, but it would have to be very successful.
As for what they "should" do or what I want them to do, as I said, I just want good quality. I don't care as much if they're all set in the Realms, or if we get other worlds - at least at first. I suspect they'll stick to the Realms for the first few offerings at least. Maybe a third or fourth film (or series) will be set elsewhere.
Rabulias
the Incomparably Shrewd and Clever
Agreed on the idea of a Kevin Feige role (see also Dave Filoni and Star Wars for a similar role) overseeing the "big picture" for a shared universe, but I don't know if Mike Mearls is the right person for the job. Not sure who I would nominate in his stead, though.
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