D&D Movie/TV First Footage of D&D Honor Among Thieves: Dungeons, Dragons, Teamwork, With Superhero Vibe

EN World member OB1 saw some of the first footage of next year's Dungeons & Dragon movie, Honor Among Thieves, confirming "dungeons, Dragons, and party teamwork with a bit of a superhero movie vibe". The roughly 30-seconds of footage was shown as part of Paramount's promotional reel played at CinemaCon.

Here is a quick hit of what I saw. Note that the 30 seconds or so was split up over 7 or 8 smaller shots interspersed in a larger product reel for other Paramount product. I was focusing hard to recognize when they were showing Dad Hat (All credit to my co-worker for realizing that the title shortens to Dad Hat) footage, but it made it very tricky to really get the details for the scenes. I will say that the overall look was absolutely amazing for being this far out. Easily on par with what you would expect from a Marvel theatrical release. Costumes all looked good, sets all looked good.

• Chris Pine on horseback riding next to Michele Rodriguez talking about 'needing a team for this'
• A blue? dragon flying overhead away from camera while characters flee underneath on horseback
• A big city, I'm guessing Waterdeep, from an overhead, aerial view
• Sophia Lillis (I think) pulling back on a slingshot wristband to fire something (there were two moments of this)
• Big action sequence in an outdoor arena like setting with pillars growing out of the ground that some heroes jump across while others fire off bows/magic,etc
• Rege-Jean Page on horseback heading towards some ruins, reminded me of something straight out of an old module but I can't put my finger on which one. Sort of half, simple stone wall buildings on a hilltop spread out over 100 meters or so
• A character in a long shot (I think Chris Pine but not sure as it was very quick) dancing? under an archway - reminded me more of being under Otto's Irresistible Dance than something he was doing on purpose. On the flip side, it could be a bard character spellcasting as I think he had an instrument in his hands (sorry bard haters)
• A spell that felt like a wizard casting shield against an attack. I think it was Rege-Jean but can't be certain.
• Don't remember seeing Hugh Grant in the footage, and no plot details
• Definitely had a fun, action packed vibe to it. Definitely not grim-dark

As for the superhero vibe I got, yeah, it felt somewhat like a fantasy version of Guardians of the Galaxy. I could imagine the marketing campaign for this leaning into this is Marvel meets Game of Thrones as a way to make the concept accessible to a larger audience not fully familiar with D&D style medieval fantasy.

 

[Mistwell]

They also filmed at Carrickfergus Castle and Wells Cathedral.

I've never been to Carrickfergus, but it looks the closest to a typical D&D castle. From how it was decked out I think Alnwick was playing "Neverwinter City Walls" in some crowd scenes. They had a bunch of extras on set. I suspect Wells was used for "Palace: Interior".

I was at Carrickfergus a couple of weeks ago and yes, it's pretty much your standard castle

 

[Mark Hope]

I was at Carrickfergus a couple of weeks ago and yes, it's pretty much your standard castle

Yep - Carrick is a moderate sized standard castle in great condition. Bamburgh is much larger and a little more modern but is a wonderful location, both its grounds and where it is situated on the coast. Alnwick is somewhat between the two in size but has more extensive grounds. It featured in Harry Potter quite a bit - the quidditch match takes place on a field there, with the castle in the background, and one of the main courtyards is from there too, iirc.

I am looking forward to a movie with a lighter vein. The first D&D film was pretty much exactly like the games I used to play when I first started out in the hobby so I don't mind some daftness in a film. Should be cool.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The thing with Alnwick is it has been continuously inhabited, and hence updated. Some parts are more Victorian than Medieval. It has great grounds though, and I think that is what the D&D movie was making use of.

 

[Mercurius]

I'm not interested unless Jeremy Irons makes a cameo, insisting on someone giving him his rod.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Kind of amazing to think about the influence D&D had on first video games and then movies. It’s a stealth massive influencer in so much of popular culture today!

Definitely. Theorizing an alternate reality where D&D never happened would lead to a pretty wildly different media culture, not even just in the West, because Japan is so influential in the East, and D&D had a huge impact on anime, manga, video games, light novels and so on there. Even if RPGs still happened they'd likely have started with a sci-fi or superheroic base, especially if they started a few years later. And even if fantasy RPGs had proven popular, levels would probably never have been popularized as a concept, and magical healing would likely not have become routine, nor the notion of "hit points", all of which have been deeply influential in video games (very much including non-fantasy ones).

 

[MNblockhead]

Sounds utterly craptastic. Piss on accessibility for the masses, I want something of substance with a solid dose of quasi-historical verisimilitude. Make it Bronze Age, Iron Age, Dark Age, or Medieval Period as you please, but keep the Marvel-esque garbage out of D&D.

Fair enough, if that is what D&D is for you. But for me, it is not D&D without anachronisms, genre-mashups, and a good dollop of camp. I've run, played in, and enjoyed D&D games that strove for gritty realism, historical verisimilitude, suspense and horror, and other attempts at being true to some genre. But the vast majority of D&D games I've experienced across time, regions, venues, and groups have been well on the lighter side of mishmash. Any D&D movie that didn't capture that wouldn't feel like D&D to me.

 

[Superchunk77]

You lost me at Marvel. Actually, you lost me way back when they announced a new D&D movie that wasn't based on a decent D&D novel.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

you lost me way back when they announced a new D&D movie that wasn't based on a decent D&D novel.

They will get started as soon as someone writes one that isn't garbage.

 

[Echohawk]

They will get started as soon as someone writes one that isn't garbage.

That's a little uncalled for. There have been hundreds and hundreds of D&D books. It may well be true that the average quality isn't great, but that doesn't mean they are all garbage, nor that there aren't some real gems in the bunch. Plenty of them are decent reads.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That's a little uncalled for. There have been hundreds and hundreds of D&D books. It may well be true that the average quality isn't great, but that doesn't mean they are all garbage, nor that there aren't some real gems in the bunch. Plenty of them are decent reads.

A couple approach mediocrity.