Chris Pine’s New Movie Is Intentionally Designed To Emasculate Men
Chris Pine's Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves character is purposely not a fighter as the movie's writers love flipping the generic Hollywood script.
After getting what was coming to him in Olivia Wilde’s incel-driven-twist drama Don’t Worry Darling, Chris Pine will let ladies take charge again in his upcoming action fantasy feature Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. In an interview with Variety, co-writers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein said that while they admittedly “love emasculating leading men,” their drive for the film’s storyline was in no way based on “wokeness.” The duo, who also wrote Horrible Bosses, Game Night, and Spider-Man: Homecoming, said that they wrote Michelle Rodriguez’s Holga the Barbarian and Sophia Lillis’ Doric the Druid to be the leading fighters because of how it shaped the rest of the ensemble.
“We liked that Holga is the bruiser that does the dirty work for Edgin,” Daley said, adding that Chris Pine’s Edgin the Bard “doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.” Drawing a comparison to their past projects and referring to the female use of brute force as “funny and fresh,” the duo said that they attempted to do a similar thing in both Date Night and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Deviating from the typical male leads, the writing team added that they prefer to have their “male heroes challenged and not simply heroic.”
Of course, this way of thinking will rub some viewers the wrong way with “woke culture” already being thrown around when the film’s title is brought up in conversation. Likewise, the creative team said they’ve previously faced pushback in the past because of their women taking the lead attitude from actors – although they refrained from naming names. Unlike other men they’ve worked with, they said that Chris Pine was more than happy to stand down from an alpha-male role, allowing the writers and directors to make him look “as bad as possible” throughout the film.
In Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the world of the beloved role-playing game comes to life in a story that will see a team of witty thieves go on a mission to stop a sinister power from achieving world domination. Along with Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sophia Lillis, the film also stars Regé-Jean Page, Hugh Grant, and Justice Smith. The feature is set to be unboxed for cinematic viewing in just a few weeks on March 31, 2023.
Outside of his role in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Chris Pine’s stance on women taking the butt-kicking lead shouldn’t come as a surprise to his fans and followers who know him for features like the Wonder Woman franchise, which saw his character Steve Trevor as a side-kick love interest to Gal Godot’s Diana Prince. The actor has also been heavily involved in the J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin-directed Star Trek films which, despite being led by Pine’s Captain Kirk, does see the women of the Enterprise in leadership positions.
While we may not know when (or if) a Star Trek will ever enter our airspace, we’re looking forward to seeing Chris Pine take on another fandom in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. And, knowing that Fast & Furious franchise star Michelle Rodriguez will be kicking butts right alongside It and It: Chapter Two actress Sophia Lillis, while Pine cowers with his lute, only furthers our stoke.
