Dungeons and Dragons is officially back. After a surge in popularity which was helped by the first season of Stranger Things, we also have the successful web series Critical Role, a big-budget movie starring Chris Pine coming out in March, and now a television series has been greenlit.
Paramount Plus have ordered eight episodes straight-to-series of a live-action Dungeons and Dragons TV show. Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber has written the pilot script and will direct the first episode. Paramount Plus picking up the series makes sense, as Paramount Pictures are behind the movie (subtitled Honor Among Thieves), which comes out on March 31, 2023.
The live-action series has been tipped to be the studio eOne’s largest-scope TV project ever, potentially launching a Dungeons & Dragons universe spanning multiple scripted and unscripted shows. In addition to Red Notice, Thurber has directed comedy movies Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and We’re the Millers, as well as action movies Central Intelligence and Skyscraper – both starring Dwayne Johnson.
Dungeons and Dragons began life as a table-top fantasy role-playing game in 1974 and was particularly popular in the 1980s. It was adapted into an animated series which ran from 1983 to 1985. The characters were teenaged versions of the some of the classic character types including wizard, barbarian, ranger, and thief.
In the new movie Honor Among Thieves, Hugh Grant plays the rogue villain Forge Fletcher and Chris Pine plays the bard Edgin, who leads a band of thieves. The band is made up of a barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), a sorcerer (Justice Smith), a druid shapeshifter (Sophia Lillis) and a sword-wielding paladin (Rege-Jean Page).
The first season of Stranger Things saw the characters playing Dungeons and Dragons, and the antagonist – the Demogorgan – came from the D&D monster manual. 2017 and 2018 have subsequently been the biggest years for Dungeons and Dragons yet, with the most players.
While we wait to find out more about the new television version of D&D, check out our guide to the best fantasy series.