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.

 

[Azzy]

Besides Stranger Things, how many of those are Netflix shows (asking seriously, I don't follow TV/Streaming stuff at all, except I do know Game of Thrones was on HBO)

The Witcher and Stranger Things are on Netflix
Wheel of Time, The Expanse, and Rings of Power are on Prime
Foundation and Silo are on Apple TV
House of Dragon and Game of Thrones are Max

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Well, let’s see what they do first.

 

[Rabulias]

Now, to be fair, the series that stands out most to my memory on this score is Sandman, which Netflix announced as top-watched when it dropped and then hemmed and hawed about giving it a Season Two, which at the time seemed insane, but now (even with a S2 still on the way) seems like it might have been sensible, given what's come to light re: Neil Gaiman. Of course, they'd have had to have known that at the time...

Netflix has confirmed that they are not doing a season 3 for Sandman.

 

[Koloth]

I think one of the flaws with the streaming model—Netflix in particular—is that when shows drop all at once, they font get time to built a following before getting lost in the shuffle. If they aren’t an instant hit, the odds of getting canceled are high, especially if they are expensive (and I’m betting thus would be).

But then, if they are renewed, they’ll go 2-3 years between seasons and it’s easy to forget the show, which I imagine leads to audience decline. I’d feel better if it were in one of the other services that didn’t have like 10 new shows a week… less likely to get lost.

This. I missed an entire season of Wynonna Earp on SciFi due to the time between seasons. They didn't advertise outside of SciFi and SciFi didn't have any other shows that I cared about at the time. This was during the time when almost everything they had was some type of cheap "reality" show. I thought the show had been canceled and was surprised when the Next(to me) + 1 season was announced. At the time, my Internet service wasn't upto any kind of streaming quality. The last season was hard to figure out having missed the previous one.

The last couple of seasons of Game of Thrones were spaced farther apart then then earlier seasons and House of the Dragon seems like an every two years show. 8~10 weeks every two years, hard to stay interested.

Hope this gets made and is good. A poorly received series likely means the end of D&D and related as a TV product for many years.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Netflix has confirmed that they are not doing a season 3 for Sandman.

Yeah. Story-wise it should have been told, but under the circumstances, I can't blame them.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

People liking a show ≠ a show hitting Netflix viewer targets. A show can find an audience without finding a sufficient audience for Netflix to continue spending money on it.

A lot of people loved Sand.an...but it could have been just on the bubble of justifying the cost.

This discussion will always remind me of 20 years ago, when HBO cancelled the show "Rome". Not because it wasn't popular. Not because it wasn't winning awards. But because they could make shows like "Extras" for much, much cheaper.

To a network or streamer CEO the question isn't "Does it have good ratings", necessarily, the question is often, "Could we achieve a better profit-to-cost ratio if we replaced it with "Is it Cake" or "The Floor is Lava".?"

 

[delericho]

As with all these rumours of TV shows and movies, I'll believe it when I see it and not until.

I still think doing either of these in live action is a good way to lose money. But since it's not my money, it's not my problem.

 

[KentHusker]

The level of negativity on this board absolutely sucks. Jeebus.

This place is positively cheerful compared to some of the crap on DDB's boards.

 

[Zardnaar]

The level of negativity on this board absolutely sucks. Jeebus.

Well it's wotc. Netflix also doesn't gave the best reputation for delivering a final product.

And there's been a heap of D&D media cancelations. So until something finishes production or better yet released it's not worth getting to excited about.

 

[Sulicius]

Cool, let's hope it turns out well.

I don't need a series to enjoy my hobby more, but a good fantasy series is always welcome. I'm just not sure if they can pull it off. Game of Thrones jumped the shark, Rings of Power didn't work for me and I couldn't get into The Witcher. Those are some of the biggest names.