The winking comedic tone of theDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievestrailer suggests it’ll adapt the game more literally than it’s letting on. TheDungeons & Dragonsmovie might be based less on the lore of the game and more on the act of playing the game itself. It might take its meta humor a step further than merely pointing out the absurdity of fantasy tropes in the vein of a Marvel film.Honor Among Thievesmight have aLEGO Movie-style twist that reveals the whole film is just a D&D campaign being played in the real world.
A movie adaptation ofDungeons & Dragonshas been stuck in development hell for the past decade. Everyone from Joe Manganiello to Dwayne Johnson toGulliver’s Travelsdirector Rob Letterman has been attached to turnDungeons & Dragonsinto a movie at one point or another. It’s a difficult game to translate to the screen because it hinges entirely on the players’ imagination. D&D isn’t like Monopoly or Candy Land where there’s a built-in (albeit thin) narrative in the gameplay. Every game of D&D has a different story because the players come up with their own story. Any screenwriter who takes on the daunting task ofadapting D&D into a moviehas to come up with a campaign that’s every bit as unique and compelling as the ones that fans have conjured up during their years of playing the game.
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After all those years of inconsequential development, the long-awaitedDungeons & Dragonsmovie is finally here.Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesis set to be released in theaters on March 31. The plot revolves around a simple enough quest with clearly defined stakes, as a band of thieves journey into a mystical realm to prevent a malevolent force from enslaving the world. The movie is being advertised as a big-budget live-action incarnation of a standard D&D campaign. The star-studded ensemble cast features Chris Pine as a bard, Michelle Rodriguez as a barbarian,Regé-Jean Page as a paladin, Sophia Lillis as a druid, Justice Smith as a sorcerer, and Hugh Grant as a rogue. But there could be a meta rug-pull that the trailers are hiding.
Based on its trailers,Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesseems to be borrowing itssly comedic sensibility fromThor: RagnarokandGuardians of the Galaxy. Like those movies, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. But its self-awareness might extend beyond the odd wink to the audience; the entire movie might be make-believe. It’s possible that all the badass warriors portrayed by charismatic movie stars inHonor Among Thievesare just avatars for real-life players sitting around a gameboard.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesis written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. Goldstein and Daley are known for bringing a meta edge to their movies. TheirVacationreboot has a whole scene in which the kids say they’ve “never even heard of the original vacation” and Rusty Griswold insists that “the new vacation will stand on its own.” Their D&D movie could follow suit and acknowledge its audience directly.Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieveshas a story credit for Chris McKay, who worked as an editor and animation director onThe LEGO Movie. D&D is a lot like LEGO in terms of the challenges of adapting it for the screen. In both cases, the limit is the audience’s imagination. Just like D&D players can tell whatever story they want, LEGO builders can make whatever they want.The LEGO Moviewas as much a love letterto the fans of the toys as the toys themselves. McKay could be taking a leaf out of that playbook in his approach to theDungeons & Dragonsmovie adaptation.
Of course, it’s possible thatDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesis just a straightforward fantasy film. The trailers might not be hiding anything and it could just be a fun-filled adventure story. As long as the characters are interesting, the action is exciting, and the story moves at a brisk pace, thenHonor Among Thievescould work wonderfully as standard escapist blockbuster entertainment. If it turns out that the movie stars are just stand-ins for players immersed in the game, then it might skew too closely tothe recentJumanjimoviesand feel like a rip-off of them.
But if it is about a real-life D&D campaign and there is a twist halfway through the runtime that reveals the movie is being played on a gameboard in the real world, then it could be the perfect ode tofans of the game. DepictingDungeons & Dragonsplayers in theDungeons & Dragonsmovie would be a heartfelt tribute to the fans who made this role-playing game such a cultural sensation, and could also help to combat some of the stereotypes of D&D players in the eyes of more casual viewers.
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