Overview
On small screens all around the world, The Last of Us is currently showing everyone how video game-to-TV adaptations can and should be done. Can the new Dungeons & Dragons movie do the same for tabletop role-playing games? Cinemagoers are about to find out, when Honour Among Thieves rolls out its campaign on the silver screen with Chris Pine, Regé-Jean Page, Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant among the cast.
As seen in both Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves initial sneak peek back in 2022 and its new just-dropped full trailer, the film focuses on a motley crew of characters rolling the dice. "We're thieves," Pine (Don't Worry Darling) explains in both, if the title wasn't already obvious enough. This crew, which spans Page (The Gray Man), Rodriguez (Fast & Furious 9), Justice Smith (Jurassic World Dominion) and Sophie Lillis (IT and IT: Chapter Two), too, "helped the wrong person steal the wrong thing". Cue the greatest evil the world has ever known, unleashed unwittingly, which this band of pilferers now endeavours to stop.
In the two sneak peeks so far, dragons pop up, of course. So do dungeons, to the astonishment of no one. Other fantastical animals, fights, flaming swords, fireballs, an army of the undead and quips: they're all included as well, as are Grant (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre), fellow cast members Chloe Coleman (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Daisy Head (Wrong Turn), and Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'.
Behind the camera, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night) are in the directors' chairs, and co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio. The mood they're going for: lighthearted, comic, but also an action-adventure epic. And, like all movies these days, they're seemingly trying to start a new franchise as well.
Another Dungeons & Dragons movie has long sat on the list of things that were bound to happen after the success of Stranger Things. The role-playing game has already sparked three movies, with the first dating back to 2000 — but none of them starred this bunch (or were well-received, whether they hit theatres or went straight to home entertainment).
Actually, another D&D film has been in the works in some shape or form since before the world saw a bunch of kids in Hawkins, Indiana play the game. Thanks to the success of Game of Thrones, fantasy epics have become a huge Hollywood cash cow (see also: the return of The Lord of the Rings as a streaming series).
And yes, films based on Hasbro properties don't have the best record — the Transformers series, the GI Joe flicks, Battleship, Power Rangers — but if you're a D&D devotee, you'll be hoping this one changes that.
Check out the new Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves trailer below:
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves opens in cinemas Down Under on March 30.