Paramount has announced that they won't be following up on Honor Among Thieves with any kind of Dungeons & Dragons TV show, which is disappointing enough, but I'm surprised none of the other studios have jumped at the chance to capitalize on this opportunity. Dungeons & Dragons-inspired films and shows have proven successful. Honor Among Thieves is clearly a streaming success, while The Legend of Vox Machina continues its 100% Rotten Tomatoes streak with its latest season, so you'd think at least someone would recognize just how hungry fans are for more D&D media.
Even just fifteen years ago, D&D was still mostly talked about in a derogatory way as something nerds did, with notable exceptions like when it leaked that Vin Diesel was playing it with Dame Judi Dench on the set of The Chronicles of Riddick. This wasn't helped when the D&D movies from the 2000s proved to be terrible and haven't even been worth framing as nostalgia bait. Now, Dungeons & Dragons is at the height of its popularity, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon.
Recent Dungeons & Dragons Successes Prove How Much Potential The Franchise Has
How Can D&D Not Work As A TV Show If It Works For Both Animated Series And Actual Play?
While Honor Among Thieves didn't do well at the box office, its performance since arriving on streaming platforms proves Dunegons & Dragons has staying power with audiences. The streaming release has more than made up for any lackluster ticket sales, and since when is a gross of $207 million lackluster against a $150 million budget, as BoxOfficeMojo reported Honor Among Thieves earned at the box office. Its initial VOD release on Amazon Prime was respectable, and since releasing for subscribers on Paramount+ and international viewers on Netflix, Honor Among Thieves has cleared 3 million viewings and counting.
The film's popularity should be no surprise. We're living in a time when a D&D live show can immediately sell out Madison Square Garden, as reported by TechCrunch). That amazing, especially compared to the cultural view on D&D when I learned how to play back in the 90s. Whole studios are springing up to create actual play streams, inspired by Critical Role and The Adventure Zone and Dimension 20 and all the other incredible tables out there. The Legend of Vox Machina continues to beat all critical expectations. There's never been a better time to be a D&D fan.
As reported by Screen Rant , The Legend of Vox Machina season 3 currently has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Dungeons & Dragons has as much potential as a live-action TV show as it does as a tabletop game. There are infinite worlds shining like jewels in the Astral Sea, all of which hold an infinite number of stories. This could even be the key part of a show's premise; an anthology approach to a Dungeons & Dragons show could allow for a variety of creators to contribute in fun and compelling ways while getting to play in all of D&D's campaign settings.
Studios Are Learning The Wrong Lessons From Honor Among Thieves' Box Office
It's Not About Star Power And Special Effects, It's About Fun
I'm always concerned about the thought process studio execs have when it comes to deciding whether something deserves a sequel, which seems to have cost us a follow-up to Honor Among Thieves. For years now, it feels like executives have been happy to eke out diminishing returns from existing mega-franchises rather than invest in new ideas or take risks. I can't remember the last time I actually went to a movie theater. Meanwhile, films like Honor Among Thieves, which so clearly set up opportunities for franchising with interesting storytelling, are allowed to die off.
Related
The Best Dungeons & Dragons One-Shots Reveal How A Live-Action TV Show Can Work
Dungeons & Dragons' future is uncertain, but if a D&D TV show is to happen, it needs to take inspiration from a key part of the game – one-shots.
Of course, it's impossible to look at the mistakes studios are making lately without mentioning the worst trend of all, which is allowing finished movies to go unreleased for the purposes of tax write-offs. The whole trend is infuriating when you look at it in combination with the way so many other films wind up in development hell for years on end only to never be finished. Studios repeatedly ignore what audiences are saying they want. Then again, D&D fans are used to being misunderstood at times, as seen with recent controversies surrounding Dungeons & Dragons publisher Hasbro.
The most important lesson studios could have learned from Honor Among Thieves is that Dungeons & Dragons adaptations should be fun.
The most important lesson studios could have learned from Honor Among Thieves is that Dungeons & Dragons adaptations should be fun. There were loads of Easter eggs in there for those of us who still have our copies of the 2nd edition Player's Handbook sitting proudly on the shelf, , but it was also an earnest attempt at replicating the adventure and chaos of a campaign of the RPG. Hopefully, soon a studio will take the chance to make a Dungeons & Dragons show we as fans can be proud of — until then, I'll be binge-watching more Dimension 20.
Source: BoxOfficeMojo, TechCrunch
Dungeons & Dragons
The Dungeons & Dragons franchise is a fantasy adventure series based on the iconic tabletop role-playing game. The franchise includes both live-action and animated adaptations, with the most notable being the recent film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), which brought the fantasy world of D&D to a broader audience with its blend of humor, action, and classic D&D elements. The franchise explores themes of heroism, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of adventuring in a magical world filled with dragons, wizards, and mythical creatures.
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