The D&D movie directors are up for a sequel, maybe with Drizzt

Of Dungeons & Dragons: honor among thieves in theaters and the Critical Role animated series The legend of Vox Machina fresh off the second season, it feels like on-screen D&D is having a particularly mainstream moment. Is this just the beginning of a bigger D&D screen franchise? Is Honor among thieves heading for a sequel, a movie series or a bunch of spin-offs? Polygon asked writer-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein what form they would like to see future D&D stories take.

“I think stop-motion,” says Daley without hesitation. “Rankin/Bass stylea total legacy.

Daley means it as a joke. But it’s not the worst idea, given the recent micro-boom of stop-motion animation: a new Netflix movie from Nightmare before Christmas director Henry Selick and Guillermo del Toro’s extremely dark Oscar-nominated version Pinocchio both arrived late last year, with a new one coming in 2023 Chicken coop sequel and two new films from Wes Anderson reportedly contain stop motion. Any kind of animation can be a good approximation to the rich fantasy worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. But Daley and Goldstein aren’t really considering the next steps just yet.

Will Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves get a sequel?

“It was never our intention when we came on board with this movie to make a franchise,” says Daley. “I think that would cloud our ability to fully focus on the film. The main mistake many studios make is to put the cart before the horse, where they start creating a cinematic universe before even making a good single film. So for us it was first and foremost to get this right.”

That’s a refreshing attitude in a world where studios keep forgetting to start small and build a fandom organically, rather than trying to kickstart a 10-year mega-blockbuster plan with every new movie. That said, with Honor among thieves off, of course the directors are thinking about where they want to see these characters go.

Goldstein says if they had carte blanche to do something with the D&D world they would probably stick with the party they found Honor among thieves: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis as an adventurous crew who forge some personal connections over the course of the story.

“The beauty of a sequel is that you don’t have to spend a lot of screen time introducing it [the party],” he says. “The audience knows them and you can jump into the plot faster. And of course we have great affection for both the actors and the roles they play. But we want to introduce some new characters along the way, and certainly a lot of new samples.”

“And new locations,” adds Daley.

“Yeah, you know, we did the Forgotten Realms for this one, partly because it’s kind of a recognizable medieval setting,” says Goldstein. “But there are so many worlds within D&D that we could explore.”

“Now that we’ve finished it and we’re relying on fate to decide if this will be a success, we’d absolutely love to continue to tell stories in this world,” says Daley. “We think it’s absolutely ripe with potential.”

What would Honor Among Thieves 2 look like?

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Part of that potential, says Daley, is a core element of Dungeons & Dragons that isn’t in their movie: “I think if we were lucky enough to do another one of these, we’d want to see our characters level up. .” In Honor among thieves, Pine’s bard character Edgin never uses magic (for reasons the directors explained to us for our bigger take on the movie picks), but Daley reckons he’d probably add spells to his repertoire in a sequel. “That would be pretty exciting to see,” he says.

Goldstein says that when the two men were planning the film — which lists them as co-writers alongside collaborator Michael Gilio, with a story from Gilio and Chris McKay — they asked Wizards of the Coast to “list the 30 biggest fan-favorite creatures” to give them ideas. “And then we had the freedom to select what to show.”

That explains Honor among thievesuses an Owl Bear, a Displacer Beast, and a Mimic, among other creatures from previous D&D lore. But it leaves them with plenty to cover in future stories.

When will Drizzt get a D&D movie?

Image: Wizards of the Coast

And then there’s one of fandom’s biggest questions about Dungeons & Dragons screen stories: When will favorite character Drizzt Do’urden get his own movie or TV show? Can he pop up in a Honor among thieves sequel or spin-off?

“Drizzt actually came up when we were figuring out what our first movie was going to be,” says Daley. “But the general consensus was not to go there just yet. That said, he’s definitely a popular character in the world, and one who could be exciting to explore.

“How about a movie where Drizzt meets the ’80s characters?” asks Goldstein, referring to the 1980s Saturday morning cartoon characters, who appear in a maze sequence in one of Honor among thievesgeekest references.

“And the ’80s characters are horribly disfigured after their experience in the maze?” Dale laughs.

That seems even less likely than a stop-motion D&D movie. But for Daley, this kind of imaginative play with the possibilities of WOTC properties is part of the fun of a D&D story. “There are so many characters in this world,” he says. “It would be really nice to have them join the group we created, or do some kind of offshoot of our film, to get into their backstories.”