Will "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" roll a natural twenty at movie theaters,
or will it be a critical fail? No matter how the journey goes,
here's what you need to know before venturing out to see it.
"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" has been in the works for quite a while,
and there's actually been a bit of drama involved. Back in 2013, Warner Bros. planned on making a
"Dungeons & Dragons" movie, but there was a problem, "Dungeons & Dragons'" parent
company Hasbro also planned on making a film with Universal. One lawsuit later, everybody
decided to settle, and Hasbro and Warner Bros. joined forces to make the movie together in 2015.
So for a bit, everything looked like smooth sailing. Ansel Elgort was even cast as the
lead. But after a few years of struggling to bring the project to fruition, the rights were
awarded to Paramount in 2017. The release of the film kept getting moved around after that,
with its theatrical debut of July 23, 2021 getting changed three times before landing on its final
spot. So when can we finally expect to see "Honor Among Thieves" play out on the big screen? Well,
the fantasy adventure of the year is almost here. Mark your calendars for March 31, 2023.
Who doesn't love a good heist movie? And if there's a bit of magic involved,
all the better. It seems that's exactly what we're getting with "Dungeons & Dragons:
Honor Among Thieves," complete with mimics, owlbears, and plenty of winged reptiles.
The plot revolves around Edgin the Bard,
a charming thief with a penchant for making plans. But as seen in the trailers,
it looks like Edgin isn't too careful about who he's doing business with.
"Truth be told, we helped the wrong person steal the wrong thing."
That greatest evil happens to be Szass Tam, a powerful Red Wizard who wants to
unleash an undead army upon the world. To stop the lich's diabolical plot,
Edgin will have to assemble a rag-tag bunch of heroes, which includes a barbarian, a paladin,
a sorcerer, and a druid, and get his hands back on that dangerous, world-ending artifact. Of course,
that's a lot easier said than done with a whole slew of monsters and mages running around.
"Honor Among Thieves" boasts quite an impressive cast of A-listers, up-and-coming stars,
and talented character actors. For the role of the charming thief Edgin the Bard,
we've got perhaps the most charming actor in Hollywood, the one and only Chris Pine. Best
known for fare such as "Star Trek," "Hell or High Water," and "Wonder Woman," Pine is the
perfect fit for a charismatic scoundrel who can scheme and smile his way out of any situation.
He'll be joined in his quest by Michelle Rodriguez as Holga the Barbarian,
the brawn to Edgin's brains. Rodriguez is no stranger to playing the muscle, as she's beaten
up plenty of bad guys and burned plenty of rubber as Letty Ortiz in the "Fast & Furious" franchise.
Along the way, Edgin and Holga will be joined by Xenk the Paladin, Simon the Sorcerer,
and Doric the Druid. So who's playing this motley crew? Well, Xenk will be portrayed
by Regé-Jean Page of "Bridgerton" fame, Simon is played by Justice Smith of "Jurassic World:
Fallen Kingdom," and Doric will be brought to life by Sophia Lillis of the "IT" movies.
We can also expect to see the king of the rom-com himself, Hugh Grant,
as Forge Fitzwilliam the Rogue, who looks to be playing a character in the vein of
Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster from "Thor: Ragnarok."
At one point in the "Dungeons & Dragons" timeline, Chris McKay of "The Lego Movie" and
"The Tomorrow War" was set to direct. However, McKay stepped away from the project in 2019,
making room for two new dungeon masters — Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.
To date, they've only directed two films, not counting "Honor Among Thieves."
Their first effort was 2015's "Vacation," starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate,
which earned a measly 27% Rotten Tomatoes score. Their other film, however, is the massively
underrated "Game Night," a comedy thriller starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams.
In addition to directing, the duo has penned quite a few scripts,
including comedies such as "Horrible Bosses" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2." Plus,
they helped co-write one of the MCU's most popular films, "Spider-Man:
Homecoming." So it should come as no surprise that they co-wrote the
"Honor Among Thieves" script, along with up-and-coming screenwriter Michael Gilio.
As you can probably tell from all their aforementioned credits,
Goldstein and Daley are big on comedy, and they also have experience in the
world of action-adventure films. Watching the trailers for "Honor Among Thieves," you
can see what appears to be a perfect marriage between those two styles,
and we're pretty excited to see what Goldstein and Daley are bringing to the table here.
"If the existing plan fails, I make a new plan."
"So you make plans that fail?"
"No." "He also plays the lute."
"Not relevant."
Created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, "Dungeons & Dragons" has been around since 1974,
and over the years, it's created a massive fanbase. Needless to say,
fans are always sensitive about their favorite properties, so when Doric the
Druid morphed into an owlbear during an "Honor Among Thieves" trailer,
some people were a little miffed. According to the rules, a druid can't transform into an owlbear,
so the film clearly plans on bending some of the long-established gameplay mechanics.
Speaking to IGN, director Jonathan Goldstein elaborated a bit on the backlash saying,
"We're aware that there was a certain amount of controversy that emerged in the 'D&D' fan
community after the first trailer showed our druid wildshaping into an owlbear,
and it was something we discussed a great deal when we were writing it."
So why did the writers decide to include something
that went against "D&D" canon? As the filmmaker further explained,
"We subscribe to the rule of cool, and we felt that we,
as the dungeon masters of this movie, would let our players do this,
then why should we deprive the audience of something as cool and as exciting as this."
However, don't assume Goldstein and Daley are going completely rogue here. In fact,
the two have been working very closely with Wizards of the Coast,
the company behind the popular RPG. Speaking with Collider, producer Jeremy Latcham explained,
"They were very involved ... in the actual design of the dragon. It was tremendously
weighed on a ton of stuff in the lore, but the dragons themselves, there was so much
lore-specific stuff about exactly where the fin goes and exactly how the thumb works."
Daley also confirmed their dedication to the game, saying,
"Our hero dragon, our red dragon, is actually based on a character
in the lore, so we're not totally deviating from what people want."
On that note, they're also bringing a big bad from "D&D" lore, the Red Wizard Szass Tam,
although most everyone else is unique to the movie. As Goldstein explained to IGN,
"John and I really set out to make a movie that captured the spirit of
playing a game of 'D&D.' We're not really using any existing story or
characters. ... This is pretty much all of our own creation,
but we're putting it in a world that comes from 50 years of the lore of 'Dungeons & Dragons.'"
"How are we gonna pull that off?"
"Uh…"
"Figure it out over a drink?"
"Probably best…"