Shawn Levy Provides Update on Netflix D&D Show

Shawn Levy has provided a brief update on the Forgotten Realms series in development at Netflix. Speaking to Collider ahead of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, Levy was asked about the progress of the new Dungeons & Dragons series that he's producing for Netflix. "I think that the reason it's taken so long and the reason why it is a challenging process is you're not adapting story IP," Levy told Collider. "You're adapting a world and a lexicon and a spirit, but story needs to be invented largely from scratch. And it needs to be invented in a way that feels organic to everything that's great about DnD. So that one is in very active every day chipping-away-at-it development at Netflix."

Announced earlier this year, Netflix is developing a live-action television series titled the Forgotten Realms. No further details were provided about the nature of the series, but Levy's comments suggest that they're developing an original storyline as opposed to adapting a novel or adventure story into TV. Levy is serving as the producer of the series, with Drew Crevello serving as the writer/showrunner.

Collider also asked if the Forgotten Realms series would move forward, Levy replied "I really hope so. I really really hope so."

 

[bedir than]

I'm aware, but perhaps the brand manager role is intended to be a go-between between WotC and a writer guy like Crevello.

Kind of like how Lucasfilm has Pablo Hidalgo managing Star Wars lore but guys like Dave Filoni are still literally running the shows.

This seems likely. Honor Among Thieves had three different advisors with only one earning credits.
Having a franchise voice is vital for mixed media companies

 

[Bolongo]

Drew Crevello is the writer/showrunner. He does not work for WotC.

He also has no previous credits of note on IMDb.
This does not give me a good feeling...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why not adapt Salvatore's work?

Because it very much relies on D&D tropes that someone new to the franchise wouldn't know. If you're going to do the work to add that context, and avoid any blackface stuff, and tone down the S&M and arguable sexism stuff, you're already a long way towards just creating a new story from scratch. And just starting from scratch is a lot easier and can be made to appeal to 21st century fans, rather than worrying about fidelity with a decades-old book series.

 

[mamba]

I would think the opposite is more likely - the writers could tell whatever story they wanted with D&D, especially if they go with a homebrew setting. Telling your own stories is what D&D is for.

FR are not really a homebrew setting

Although they really need to ditch the live action idea. Top quality animation would be far more appropriate.

I'd rather have a good live action show, probably not gonna bother with an animated show

 

[Parmandur]

Sounds like the standard Hollywood "Development Hell." The first two paragraphs of the article make it sound like the project is moving forward, but the final sentence indicates it's questionable whether they will even move forward to actual production. The big question I would have liked to see answered is whether they have lined up sufficient funding to actually make the show.

This sounds more like standard development rather than development hell: if everything goes well, it takes years and years for this sort of thing.

 

[Parmandur]

I think this is somewhat ironic in that much of major criticism of recently adapted major fantasy IP (Witcher, Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, etc.) has been that writers rooms are full of people who want to write and produce their own stories and consequently run roughshod over the IP source material, producing very mixed results at best.

Now I don't want to start an argument about the quality (or lack thereof) of recent adaptations, but this may show that starting with a blank slate, so to speak, is not as easy or desirable as some believe.

It is both, a huge opportunity without needing to worry about ruining a preexisting story...but also a challenge, because they have to build without a preexisting story.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd rather have a good live action show, probably not gonna bother with an animated show

What do you think of the Critical Role shows?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

It is both, a huge opportunity without needing to worry about ruining a preexisting story...but also a challenge, because they have to build without a preexisting story.

I'd say it's easier than many other franchises because D&D setting books don't necessarily have stories, they have story hooks to encourage the DM to build a story from the elements provided.

All the showrunners have to do is pick up on an unused plot thread from the last ~25 years of Forgotten Realms publication and run with it. It's harder to write a story in the Star Wars or Witcher universe without the Skywalkers or Geralt, but it's easier to drop a cast of quirky, merchandisable and toyetic characters somewhere visually distinct in Faerun and just kinda run with it.

 

[Superchunk77]

They could have easily just taken an old set of FR novels and adapted it into a show. Icewind Dale Trilogy, Cleric Quintet, any of those would have worked.

 

[mamba]

What do you think of the Critical Role shows?

haven’t watched them. I was more thinking along the lines of Pixar animation for something to watch