D&D Movie/TV Spider-Man: Homecoming Writers Talk D&D Movie

Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley talked to Hollywood Reporter about the D&D movie, it's comedic themes, and how the directors are working directly with WotC.

They directed Game Night, and wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming. They mentioned that they had been supposed to fly here to the UK to scout locations in March, but the pandemic interrupted that.

They also mentioned comedic elements and characters in the movie, which currently has a projected release date of May 27th, 2022. No actors are yet cast.

It's not an out and out comedy, but it is an action-fantasy movie with a lot of comedic elements and characters we hope people will really get into and enjoy watching their adventures.

Daley plays a weekly D&D game, so he is familiar with the genre. But the pair are working directly with WotC.

We haven't been accosted by players yet, but we are working with the Wizards of the Coast, the brand holders of D&D. They are the experts. We have people there that we work with and it's pretty helpful, because as much as we know about D&D, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the 45 years of lore that's out there, so these guys are such a resource. If we need a particular spell that a [high]-level wizard could do, they could give us a list. It's a lot of fun.

 

[Birmy]

I sincerely feel that, in the interest of making up for Mazes & Monsters and bringing things full circle, Tom Hanks should be in this movie.

They emotion that they had been supposed to fly here to the UK to scout locations

Don't even emotion it!

 

[TarionzCousin]

All they need to do is study what happened in the previous D&D movies and do the opposite of that.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

All they need to do is study what happened in the previous D&D movies and do the opposite of that.

Jeremy Irons may stay.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Part of the problem with trying translate the MCU humor to D&D is that it is an entirely different world. Game of Thrones humor worked because it fit the characters and world; "D&D jokes" will almost certainly be horrible.

Really, no. In both cases you treat the world seriously, despite it's fantastic elements. The humour arises from creating a group of central characters with extreme disparate characteristics and watching them bounce off each other.

What you didn't do is create a bunch of earnest do-gooders as your central characters - a fault in many of the D&D novels.

 

[Mercurius]

Marvel-esque humor seems perfect for the Forgotten Realms...

Well, it depends upon how its done, but as a general rule, I disagree. MCU humor is very much the product of early 21st century cultural tropes, which exist in the MCU because it is an alternate 21st century Earth. Inserting those into the Forgotten Realms--or any D&D world--would potentially be damaging to the development of a "Realmsian atmosphere."

Tyrion's jokes are funny because they reflect his character and make sense in the context of Westeros, but still translate to us. I'm not so sure that would be the case with MCU humor in a fantasy world.

 

[Mercurius]

Really, no. In both cases you treat the world seriously, despite it's fantastic elements. The humour arises from creating a group of central characters with extreme disparate characteristics and watching them bounce off each other.

What you didn't do is create a bunch of earnest do-gooders as your central characters - a fault in many of the D&D novels.

I don't disagree, but as long as it is "Realms-appropriate" and not wink-wink, nudge-nudge moments to D&D players, or overly reliant upon 21st century American cultural memes. The group of characters part is universal, and can be applied in different contexts. But it should arise within that context in a natural way and be faithful to it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't disagree, but as long as it is "Realms-appropriate" and not wink-wink, nudge-nudge moments to D&D players, or overly reliant upon 21st century American cultural memes. The group of characters part is universal, and can be applied in different contexts. But it should arise within that context in a natural way and be faithful to it.

Which is what the writers say they are doing. The humor comes from putting a thief, two thugs, an assassin and a maniac together and expecting them to save the world.

Although is should be noted the Baldur's Gate CRPG is jammed full of pop culture references, and is still highly regarded.

 

[dwayne]

is everyone forgetting the witcher it had a very good D&D tone about it and the characters were great, that was a good, the whole ending first and time line crap was for the birds but understood why it was as it was. Just don't do that to the d&d movie but follow some of the other elements it presented. The bard in it was just classic and Henry Cavill played a great character who to be honest would make for a barbarians or a grim fighter type persona. The bard guy was knocking it out the part with the humor though and just brought back some real time game sessions in D&D for me. Also you need a few people to die in horrible stupid situations do to doing stupid things, because it would not be D&D without the idiot of the group dying and the others having to find a way to bring him back or maybe wondering if they should.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I think they do need to keep the humour on the low side. Or at last skip characters that are purely comedic reliefs...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes, I was thinking that a Dandelion type character would be fun, especially when you revealed to the non-D&D savvy audience that he could cast spells, and was not bloody useless.

There is actually a lot more humour in the original Witcher novels, some of which was lost in the English translation, and more was lost in the transition to TV.