D&D Movie/TV New D&D Movie: July 23rd 2021

It's official - the new Dungeons & Dragons movie is coming, and it's coming in four years - July 23rd, 2021, as announced by Paramount.

We already know that the movie will be produced by the Lego Movie's Roy Lee, that it will be directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shark Tale). Originally scripted by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath of the Titans), it's now being written by Joe Manganelio, might be Dragonlance and then again might feature the Yawning Portal, and will adopt a Guardians of the Galaxy tone. Oh, and that we should take everything I just said with a pinch of salt as the movie appears have jumped from WB to Paramount at some point in the process!

 

[AriochQ]

The problem is dnd was created by a couple of white guys, so you cant whitewash what is already white.

I would disagree.

The three major races in Greyhawk...

Pure Flan have bronze skin that varies from a light copper hue to a dark, deep brown. Flan eyes are typically dark brown, black, brown, or amber. Hair is wavy, curly and typically black or brown (or any shade between). The Flan have broad, strong faces and sturdy builds.

Oeridian skin tones range from tan to olive. Brown and auburn hair are common, though hair colour can vary greatly. Like-wise, eye coloration is highly variable, alhtough brown and gray are seen most often. Oeridians tend to have square or oval faces and strong jaw lines.

The Suel are an ethnic group of humans. Possessing the lightest coloration of any known human race, the Suel have fair skin and eye colour of pale blue or violet, or occasionally deep blue or gray. Suel hair is wiry, often curly or kinky, with fair colors such as yellow, light red, blond, and platinum blond. The Suel tend to be lean, with narrow facial features.

(Also, the 'whitest', the Suel, are also sort of the biggest jerks).

 

[LordEntrails]

Sorry, talk of whitewashing in a D&D movie is fundamentally ridiculous.

As implied by [MENTION=6793324]AriochQ[/MENTION], what does it matter is a racially Mandarin Chinese plays a Oeridian or if a racial Thai does?

There are no Mandarin Chinese, or any other real life races in D&D settings. Who's to say what is a better representation of someone from Calimshan or Waterdeep or any other fantasy setting? It's a fricking FANTASY setting.

 

[Valetudo]

Yeah, because it's not like there are Indian and Chinese Americans... Oh, wait!

Besides, are you trying to excuse having caucasian actors play characters that are specifically not caucasian?

The dnd movie is not set in america. In fact, we dont know what setting the movie is going to be in yet as far as I know. Thats the whole point. If an asian actor fits the role, I hope they are smart enough to use a good asian actor. But to say "No whites" just because is so narrow minded and is a fail waiting to happen.

 

[Valetudo]

I would disagree.

The three major races in Greyhawk...

Pure Flan have bronze skin that varies from a light copper hue to a dark, deep brown. Flan eyes are typically dark brown, black, brown, or amber. Hair is wavy, curly and typically black or brown (or any shade between). The Flan have broad, strong faces and sturdy builds.

Oeridian skin tones range from tan to olive. Brown and auburn hair are common, though hair colour can vary greatly. Like-wise, eye coloration is highly variable, alhtough brown and gray are seen most often. Oeridians tend to have square or oval faces and strong jaw lines.

The Suel are an ethnic group of humans. Possessing the lightest coloration of any known human race, the Suel have fair skin and eye colour of pale blue or violet, or occasionally deep blue or gray. Suel hair is wiry, often curly or kinky, with fair colors such as yellow, light red, blond, and platinum blond. The Suel tend to be lean, with narrow facial features.

(Also, the 'whitest', the Suel, are also sort of the biggest jerks).

You will find many european races with those skin tones. I think your missing the real point that those races where used to adapt various real world cultures into a fantasy setting.Those descriptions could be used for an italian or greek person. What about elves and dwarves? Who should play an elf that has green skin. What if its a dark sun movie(Yeah right)? Who should play a mul? What about faerun? That setting is the most likely to be used imo. Dragonlance? The heroes of the lance had white people. What about the doubey brothers? Their white?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sorry, talk of whitewashing in a D&D movie is fundamentally ridiculous.

I agree...to a point.

There are no RW “races” (as people colloquially use the term) in D&D. But we know from the various campaign setting descriptions that there is what we call “racial diversity., and that certain ethnicities and cultures have gameworld analogues.

So if a D&D movie depicting the panoply of a published setting’s diversity of humananity were to sport an all-white cast, one could justifiably make a claim for whitewashing.

 

[Azzy]

The dnd movie is not set in america.

I think you just moved the goalpost, my comment was in reply to someone that responding to a discussion of " “whitewashing” in the context of Hollywood". Also, regardless of the setting of D&D movie, it IS being made in America with an American audience in mind. Again, not all of America is caucasian.

In fact, we dont know what setting the movie is going to be in yet as far as I know. Thats the whole point. If an asian actor fits the role, I hope they are smart enough to use a good asian actor. But to say "No whites" just because is so narrow minded and is a fail waiting to happen.

No one said "no whites", they said "I hope they don't cast a generic white guy as the lead". Why do you find it so abhorrent that someone would prefer an actor or actress that isn't a "generic white guy" to take center stage when there are an overabundance of movies where that is the case?

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

I would disagree.

The three major races in Greyhawk...

Pure Flan have bronze skin that varies from a light copper hue to a dark, deep brown. Flan eyes are typically dark brown, black, brown, or amber. Hair is wavy, curly and typically black or brown (or any shade between). The Flan have broad, strong faces and sturdy builds.

Oeridian skin tones range from tan to olive. Brown and auburn hair are common, though hair colour can vary greatly. Like-wise, eye coloration is highly variable, alhtough brown and gray are seen most often. Oeridians tend to have square or oval faces and strong jaw lines.

The Suel are an ethnic group of humans. Possessing the lightest coloration of any known human race, the Suel have fair skin and eye colour of pale blue or violet, or occasionally deep blue or gray. Suel hair is wiry, often curly or kinky, with fair colors such as yellow, light red, blond, and platinum blond. The Suel tend to be lean, with narrow facial features.

(Also, the 'whitest', the Suel, are also sort of the biggest jerks).

The Flan could be describing any of the native Mediterranean groups, from southern Europe to the Mid-East to Northern Africa, without leaving the lightest skin tone. There tended to be a lot of interbreeding between these groups, thanks to the wars and invasions and slave trades.

The Oeridian could be any number of racial groups in Asia or even parts of Europe. It's also getting into "all Asians look alike" territory to think it represents them all.

The Suel describe members of three different racial groups: The Celts/Germanic tribes, the Norse, and the Mongolians (Genghis Khan was a redhead).

The essential problem with using this kind of argument is that we can satisfy all three examples without ever leaving Europe. Each one is written in such a way it could be describing people from wildly diverse racial groups, some having oceans between them, without a need to come up with names for the several hundred racial groups that actually exist. But at the same time, the broadness works against it as a diversity argument because of how easy it can be to find all of these Faerun groups native to the same real-life continent.

Pretty much, I think [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] is on the right path for how to think when addressing the diversity issue. But doing it just to match fictional races allows for a lot of laziness when you don't even have to leave one racial umbrella group to fill all the roles.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Eh, as the box office becomes more and more international for it's receipts, that casts will become more varied as well. More concerning to me than what whitewashing still happens, is the continued use of tired, negative stereotype characters.

 

[DM Howard]

Eh, as the box office becomes more and more international for it's receipts, that casts will become more varied as well. More concerning to me than what whitewashing still happens, is the continued use of tired, negative stereotype characters.

Agreed. I'm pretty tired of the stereotyped skinny/fat white guy nerd. So tired of it.

 

[Kaodi]

This thread has gotten real weird real fast. Two things: If you are American you may have no idea how grating "made for an American audience" can be to the rest of us in the English speaking world who consume much the same stuff. And the only questionable thing in "generic white guy" is "generic" . It manages to be both (very) mildly insulting and yet implicitly perpetuates the notion of "white" as "default" .