Dungeons & Dragons Comments On Possibility of Future Movie Projects

Wizards of the Coast is "exploring" the possibility of new Dungeons & Dragons movie and TV projects. In the build up to the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Hasbro seemed to have an ambitious D&D Cinematic Universe plan in place. Although the movie underperformed, Paramount+ still picked up a Dungeons & Dragons television show with Rawson Marshall Thurber as the pilot script writer and director of the first episode and Drew Crevello as the showrunner.

However, Hasbro's sale of eOne, its in-house entertainment studio seems to have caused those plans to come crashing to a halt. The Paramount+ TV show was announced as no longer moving forward last year and other loose plans to continue a shared D&D universe seems dead in the water.

Despite the underperformance of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the movie was spoken fondly of and often during an EN World press visit to Wizards of the Coast headquarters last week. When asked if this talk meant we'd be getting an update on a possible sequel, Jess Lanzillo, the VP of the D&D franchise at Wizards, said "Not officially, no."

However, it appears interest remains high in possible future D&D projects. "After I joined the team at the end of Q1 2024, we kind of reestablished our relationship with a lot of studios and partners," Lanzillo said. "And we're doing a lot of exploration. We basically have aligned our philosophy to we want to pair up with the best creators and let them tell the best stories that they already know how to do, because all of these people started telling stories through playing D&D. And through that, there are a series of explorations that we are very, very excited about. When we're ready to announce them, we will let you know."

Reading in between the lines, it appears that decoupling from eOne has opened up the possibility of other studios and partners jumping into a D&D live-action or animated project. We'll have to see if it will be another 12 years in between Dungeons & Dragons movies.

 

[Queer Venger]

I chuckle and the recurrent speculation of what wotc/hasbro want to do.
Hopefully, they don't self-sabotage themselves again.

once more, I'll say again: do an animated show that can appeal to kids, give up your vaunted efforts at a silly cinematic universe, we see how that turned out.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I chuckle and the recurrent speculation of what wotc/hasbro want to do.
Hopefully, they don't self-sabotage themselves again.

once more, I'll say again: do an animated show that can appeal to kids, give up your vaunted efforts at a silly cinematic universe, we see how that turned out.

Sounds like something an out-of-work Venger would say.

What makes you think you'd fare any better against a group of pre-teens now than you did in the 80s?

 

[Queer Venger]

Sounds like something an out-of-work Venger would say.

What makes you think you'd fare any better against a group of pre-teens now than you did in the 80s?

you got me LOL

 

[eyeheartawk]

you got me LOL

 

[AlViking]

I chuckle and the recurrent speculation of what wotc/hasbro want to do.
Hopefully, they don't self-sabotage themselves again.

once more, I'll say again: do an animated show that can appeal to kids, give up your vaunted efforts at a silly cinematic universe, we see how that turned out.

I think an animated show could be aimed at a fairly mature audience while still being okay for the kids. You don't really need explicit sex scenes or swearing to make a good DnD show, and keep the violence relatively blood free. I remember going to Shrek years ago and laughing at scenes that some kiddos in front of us just didn't get, but we both enjoyed the movie.

 

[delericho]

once more, I'll say again: do an animated show that can appeal to kids, give up your vaunted efforts at a silly cinematic universe, we see how that turned out.

Problem is, a few years ago we were saying not to worry about the cinematic universe and just focus on making a good film. They did that, and it still failed. Our track record with this isn't any better than theirs.

 

[Quartz]

Those of a sufficient age should read Elliot Kay's short story Days of High Adventure. If you can find the original, so much the better. Neither are PG so I won't give a link, but it's centred around D&D, involves wizards good and evil and a dragon, and the hook is one that will appeal. And there are assorted in-jokes. The tale is tailor-made for a movie.

 

[Zardnaar]

Problem is, a few years ago we were saying not to worry about the cinematic universe and just focus on making a good film. They did that, and it still failed. Our track record with this isn't any better than theirs.

People tend to over estimate how popular things they like are.

Movies are also really brutal. There's already videos up predicting top ten flops of 2025. A couple are probably kinda obvious.

 

[delericho]

People tend to over estimate how popular things they like are.

Movies are also really brutal. There's already videos up predicting top ten flops of 2025. A couple are probably kinda obvious.

Only ten?

 

[Ferrousbones]

Just going to point out that Honor Among Thieves made a profit.

Cost $150 million and made $200 million.

The production budget was $150 million. Paramount also spent $61 million marketing it. So it cost at least $211 million.

Also, the gross box office was about $208 million, but that is before being split between the studios and the theaters. Even if the studios got 2/3 of that, that would be about $140 million, which would be a $50 *$70 million dollar loss. (even if the studios got it all, box office is still less than total cost) Edit: Apparently my brain is a little rusty. Mathed the loss wrong.

So, no, Honor Among Thieves didn't make a profit in theaters.

It might have made a profit in streaming, but months after reaching streaming, Hasbro basically declared a $25 million loss on the movie in its next quarterly statement.