Dungeons & Dragons Series Canceled At Paramount+, Is Hope Lost?
Bad news, D&D fans, as Paramount+ is officially not moving forward with the previously greenlit Dungeons & Dragons live-action TV series. Paramount initially gave the show an eight-episode straight-to-series order in January 2023. However, that doesn’t mean that the show is 100 percent not going to happen, as Hasbro’s in-house Hasbro Entertainment is planning on taking the series in a new creative direction before shopping it out to potential buyers.
Hasn’t Failed All Of Its Death Saves Yet
So, the Dungeons & Dragons live-action series may not be completely dead in the water, but this certainly isn’t promising news. According to the report, the newly revamped version will also implement a new creative team. The original project had Rawson Marshall Thurber attached as creator, writer for the pilot, and director for the first episode, along with Drew Crevello, who would serve as executive producer and showrunner.
Hasbro Will Keep Trying To Make It Work
According to the report, Hasbro is determined to bring the Dungeons & Dragons cinematic universe to life with the TV series along with the previously released 2023 film Honor Among Thieves and the currently playing Broadway show The Twenty-Sided Tavern. It’s unclear what the live-action show would be about, but there are plenty of directions it could go, especially with a new creative team taking it on.
The Boardgame That Fueled A Podcast Boom
Dungeons & Dragons is a wildly popular fantasy tabletop role-playing game that involves players creating a character and participating in campaigns run by a host or Dungeon Master. The franchise has become even more popular in recent years thanks to pop culture phenomena like Stranger Things, the Critical Role web series, and actual play podcasts like Not Another D&D Podcast. Most recently, the franchise got a feature film in 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Is The Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay and Gilio. The film featured the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and included a star-studded cast led by Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant.
While the film was incredibly fun and a massive success in the eyes of critics and fans, it failed to impress at the box office, reportedly falling just short of breaking even.
Talks Of A Sequel
There were talks of a Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves sequel, with co-director and writer Jonathan Goldstein saying the film would continue to follow the Honor Among Thieves characters. Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins also mentioned that a sequel wasn’t completely out of the question, but the budget would have to be smaller due to the box office performance of Honor Amongst Thieves. With Paramount axing the live-action series, the sequel seems more unlikely at this point.
The Legend Of Vox Machina Will Fill Your D&D Needs
Hopefully, Hasbro is able to make good on its efforts to get the Dungeons & Dragons film and TV universe off the ground, but we’ll just have to wait and see for now. In the meantime, there’s still at least one good ongoing D&D project thanks to Amazon Prime Video’s animated The Legend of Vox Machina series. Based on the campaign told in the Critical Role web series, the third season is expected to hit Prime Video later this year.
