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.

 

[Parmandur]

While that's generally true for movies, streaming tends to favor MA rated content. GoT, Sopranos, Squid Games, Sex in the City, The Witcher, Interview with the Vampire, Last of Us... I could go on and on. They should tell the story they want to tell the way they want to tell it and let the rating fall where it may.

Given Levy's work on Deadpool, I imagine the tone will be closer to that than to DaDHAT. It won't severly limit the audience on Netflix.

He also directed all three Night at the Museum films, which were strictly family fare. He has range.

And in regards to streaming shows...as with films, some MA stuff is big in online discourse, but overall the TV-14 and lower stuff absolutely dominates ratings.

And yet again...TV-14 ain't kids stuff, it specifically excludes children.

 

[Parmandur]

For a concrete apples to apples comparison...Rings of Power is TV-14 and House of the Dragon is MA, both have had two seasons.. Rings of Power had consistently better viewership numbers across both Seasons in spite of reviews being stronger for House of the Dragon (at leaat in Seaspn 1). The MA to 14 differential is going to be a big part of that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nowt at t’Museum, the great Yorkshire heist movie.

 

[OB1]

He also directed all three Noght at the Museum films, which were strictly family fare. He has range.

And in regards to streaming shows...as with films, some MA stuff is big in online discourse, but overall the TV-14 and lower stuff absolutely dominates ratings.

And yet again...TV-14 ain't kids stuff, it specifically excludes children.

Agree that Levy has range and that TV-14 doesn't mean kids stuff. But it's simply untrue that MA hurts streaming shows in viewership the way that R hurts movies.

Most viewed Netflix Shows (per google search) of the top 12, 10 are rated MA.

Squid Games - MA
Stranger Things - TV-14
Wednesday - TV-14
Bridgerton - MA
The Queens Gambit - MA
Monster The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - MA
Baby Reindeer - MA
All of Us Are Dead - MA
Lupin - MA
The Witcher - MA
The Night Agent - MA
Fool Me Once - MA

I'm good if they go in a TV-14 Stranger Things direction, I'm good if they go TV-MA like The Witcher. I just want the show to be good. Rating doesn't matter.

 

[Parmandur]

Nowt at t’Museum, the great Yorkshire heist movie.

If the old night guards had their way, there indeed would have nought at the Museum in the end.

I actually just watched the first one with my kids yesterday, and it really holds up after 20 years. Comparing it to Levy's latest movie, Deadpool & Wolverine, make a bookend showing what he is capable of, and I do indeed imagine his D&D show will triangulate in tone and content somewhere between that PG and R work.

 

[Parmandur]

Agree that Levy has range and that TV-14 doesn't mean kids stuff. But it's simply untrue that MA hurts streaming shows in viewership the way that R hurts movies.

Most viewed Netflix Shows (per google search) of the top 12, 10 are rated MA.

Squid Games - MA
Stranger Things - TV-14
Wednesday - TV-14
Bridgerton - MA
The Queens Gambit - MA
Monster The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - MA
Baby Reindeer - MA
All of Us Are Dead - MA
Lupin - MA
The Witcher - MA
The Night Agent - MA
Fool Me Once - MA

I'm good if they go in a TV-14 Stranger Things direction, I'm good if they go TV-MA like The Witcher. I just want the show to be good. Rating doesn't matter.

Ultimately, you are right thst it does not "matter", and I would take a good MA show over a bad 14 one: but I think MA would be a weird and inappropriate choice for D&D, specifically, unless it goes as hard or harder as Deadpool into camp and goofiness.

 

[Parmandur]

Stranger Things - TV-14...I'm good if they go in a TV-14 Stranger Things direction

Also, Holy Toledo, Stranger Things isn't MA???

 

[OB1]

Also, Holy Toledo, Stranger Things isn't MA???

That surprised me too. It would def be R as a movie release.

 

[Parmandur]

That surprised me too. It would def be R as a movie release.

I've seen less intense or disturbing R movies. Definitely shows thst a show can stay in TV-14 and have a mature edge.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Hasbro wants D&D to be a family-friendly brand. In your own tabletop it can be more mature but it is a different thing. I imagine the same level of violence than Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers action-live or Xena the princess warrior.

Smaller humanoids are possible but this should mean more money for FXs.

The important thing is a good plot. The remake of my little pony was a complete success and this was a cartoon show for preteens.

James Bond is a true womanicer but his movies are +13 usually.

Do you remember the movie "Knights, princesses and other beasts"? Sorry, I was kidding, the true title was "Your highness" (2011, with James Franco and Natalie Portman) and it was a total bomb. It was a mature fantasy comedy. Producers should worry about to avoid the same mistakes.

I will miss Sophia Lilys playing as Dolric the druid.

This is not about what the fandom wants but what the majority of audience wants.

* Birthright could be a right setting for a romantasy serie style "Bridgerton" and Ravenloft for horror one-shot stories.