D&D Movie/TV Netflix Planning Forgotten Realms D&D TV Show With Stranger Things Producer

A Dungeons & Dragons TV show set in the Forgotten Realms is in development at Netflix. Deadline reports that the new TV series, titled The Forgotten Realms, is being produced by Shawn Levy, with Drew Crevello serving as writer and showrunner. No timeframe was given for the show's release. No cast has been announced and neither Hasbro nor Netflix has actually confirmed the project. If successful, the series could launch a wider D&D cinematic universe, long a goal for Hasbro.

Hasbro has tried unsuccessfully to get Dungeons & Dragons to television for several years. At one point, Paramount+ had a TV show in development with Rawson Marshall Thurber writing the pilot. While the project was ultimately scrapped, Crevello (who was set to be showrunner on that version of the show) stayed on the project and redeveloped it with a new concept. According to Deadline, this project is not tied to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, although the movie is set to debut on Netflix this month and is also set in the Forgotten Realms.

Dungeons & Dragons was also featured in an episode of Secret Level, an animated series focused on various game franchises that aired on Amazon Prime. Legendary, meanwhile, is adapting Hasbro's other major fantasy franchise Magic: The Gathering into a movie and TV project.

 

[Li Shenron]

I would probably watch such a series, or at least give it a try. The Honor Among Thieves movie was good, if they could pull off a whole series at a similar level it'd be great.

At this point I would probably prefer a FR story about famous NPCs. The movie only featured Szass Tam IIRC and very marginally, everyone else was a new character, I think... I would like to see a more epic approach, maybe even a "history of the realms" which tells about how all the famous NPCs and power groups came to be. But it ain't gonna happen, I am pretty sure they'll stick to the usual idea of new characters made up for the show, more like PCs really.

Either way I would probably watch it, unless it's campy, I can't stand that anymore.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

everyone else was a new character, I think...

There is a brief appearance by Lord Neverember, Themberchaud is an established dragon, there is a painting of Volo, and the appearance by not-actually-Elminster.

I suspect a TV series would want to take a somewhat less comedic approach than the movie.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

There is a brief appearance by Lord Neverember, Themberchaud is an established dragon, there is a painting of Volo, and the appearance by not-actually-Elminster.

I suspect a TV series would want to take a somewhat less comedic approach than the movie.

Yeah probably the middle ground between the movie & lord of the rings, so I think it will share the tone of BG3 which some humour, but in general us more serious.

Plus I think it will be rated R with nudity to compete with Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon.

 

[Parmandur]

I suspect a TV series would want to take a somewhat less comedic approach than the movie.

I seriously doubt that, actually, given Levy's involvement and how WotC has positioned D&D as a brand in recent novels and such.

Shawn Levy directed the Night at the Museum movies, and more recently a series of Ryan Reynold movies culminating in Deadpool & Wolverine. Stranger Thifns, which he also produced, is somewhat more serious than Deadpool & Wolverine, but hardly po-faced.

 

[OB1]

Deadline also just reported that the pilot script is complete, which means it's further down the production pipeline and much more likely to happen.

 

[Queer Venger]

Could be good. Hopefully they can avoid the mistakes made by the movie and skip thefan service aimed at FR's superfans.

Yeah probably the middle ground between the movie & lord of the rings, so I think it will share the tone of BG3 which some humour, but in general us more serious.

Plus I think it will be rated R with nudity to compete with Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon.

I agree it would have to be good balance between humor and drama; BG3 would be a great place to start for tone but with a little more of the lightheartedness of honor among thieves. Oh, and it must include giants, big hill giants!

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah probably the middle ground between the movie & lord of the rings, so I think it will share the tone of BG3 which some humour, but in general us more serious.

Plus I think it will be rated R with nudity to compete with Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon.

I don't think WotC or Netflix would be interested in competing with GoT as much as Marvel, still. PG-13.

I would expect a tone within shooting distance of HAT, but with Levy it coulaeeasily go much quirkier.

 

[Parmandur]

Deadline also just reported that the pilot script is complete, which means it's further down the production pipeline and much more likely to happen.

Well, that does make some sense as this is being turned around from a rather long development at Paramount+ before they passed?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Oh, and it must include giants, big hill giants!

If a giant appears I will start a stopwatch for long it is until we get some kind of joke about the (inevitably male) giant's giant dong (probably someone accidentally seeing it as the giant walks over them or w/e). I do not expect this stopwatch to reach 10 minutes.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I don't think WotC or Netflix would be interested in competing with GoT as much as Marvel, still. PG-13.

I would expect a tone within shooting distance of HAT, but with Levy it coulaeeasily go much quirkier.

They tried PG-13 with DADHAT, BG3s maturity went much better for them.

Also look at the success of Vex Machina cartoon, which akin to an R-Rating, BG3 would probably closer to NC-17.