“Dungeons and Dragons”: how did the most influential board game in history finally become a movie?

Forty-nine years after appearing, the role-playing game becomes “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”, a film where a group of rascals hungry for wealth and justice, but above all for money, join forces to commit the biggest robbery in the history of the magical land. The tape, as if it were a role-playing game “campaign”, presents its players from the beginning, without unnecessary surprises, but with a love for the saga that is present with multiple references, but above all it has the tone of a gathering of friends over the weekend around a table.

In conversation with El Comercio, the actor Justice Smith, who plays the magician Simon, says that it feels great to be able to share this story with the world. He says that the people interested in the original game are very diverse. “There are old grandmothers or 12-year-old boys who say ‘friend, I play it all the time’. There are gym people, nerds like me, all kinds of people and I feel like this ‘bat-signal’ for all the people who play D&D to come out of the shadows and embrace [su pasión]”, counted. For her part, Sophia Lillis, who plays the druid Doric, remembers that the game had a resurgence in the Covid-19 pandemic where, despite the distance, people connected with the camaraderie of this game.

And as in the game itself, the film is full of iconic characters, such as the intriguing Forge, played by Hugh Grant, or the paladin Xenk, played by Regé-Jean Page, known for playing Duke Basset in the “Bridgerton” series. In this tape, his character is so perfect that he becomes a jester. “I think the biggest magic that our directors pulled off is that Xenk is so serious to the point of being ridiculous. He’s so upright and chivalrous and charming that you’d expect to find in a fantasy movie, that it almost doesn’t make sense.”said the actor.

Like any movie,Dungeons and Dragons” holds its own across its cast, but it also has a couple of iconic faces: Chris Pine, who is the bard Edgin, and Michelle Rodriguez, the barbarian Holga. The relationship between the two stands out, because where other films would have linked them romantically, here they are great comrades. “They mess things up by making everything about romance, there’s more about men and women [que eso]”, indicated Rodríguez.

a dangerous game

Interestingly, Pine’s bard role is reminiscent of the Dungeon Master, who is in every game of the game and fills the role of organizer and storyteller. With this and other details, the film not only includes references to the game, but honors it with respect. “It was important for us to be true to the spirit of the game. That allows us a narrative structure where you don’t know what will happen next.”the film’s screenwriter John Francis Daley told us.

Just as “Calabozos…” includes risks to the characters, making a movie is not an easy job and it has its dangers for those who invest resources in it. Hence, the directors and producers, consulted on the future of the franchise, prefer to remain cautious. “We hesitate to call it a ‘franchise’, I don’t think it’s earned that yet. But we’re optimistic that people will hopefully embrace the film that we made. And it’s such a vast world, there are endless possibilities for future stories.”, director Jonathan Goldstein told El Comercio. The other creatives also spoke in that line.

John Francis Daley (screenwriter): “We wanted to make a movie that we were proud of, that we thought audiences would love. We don’t preoccupy ourselves with speculative ideas of where the movie or the franchise could go next. That said, if you watch the movie, you can see that the world is very inhabited, that there’s a lot going on in the background all the time, which suggests that there’s a developed world and environment that can be fully exploited in the coming years.”

“Our mandate was to do something good. The biggest mistake that Hollywood has made in the last couple of decades is building a universe, making a big announcement, with big names involved. But there’s nothing there [el anuncio no prospera]. We sat down and said, let’s just make a good movie that we all love and care about and hopefully, maybe things will happen. But if nothing else happens, we are not left with a film that seems like a half story, but rather a complete experience.

Surprises, humor and action are key to any movie that seeks to succeed, but like any game, this is also a gamble. The die rolls for “Dungeons and Dragons” and it depends on chance if the result will be minimal… or critical.