Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 American fantasy adventure film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio. Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, it is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has no connections to the film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant.
Production of the film went through various phases in development since 2013, beginning with Warner Bros. Pictures after beating Hasbro and Universal Pictures in a lawsuit, before moving to Paramount Pictures, each with various writers and directors. Goldstein and Daley were the final writers/directors, using elements from the previous attempt by director Chris McKay and screenwriter Michael Gilio; both McKay and Gilio were granted story credits. Filming began in April 2021 in Iceland and later Northern Ireland.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves premiered at South by Southwest on March 10, 2023, and was released in the United States on March 31, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics, with many considering it to be a substantial improvement over the 2000 film adaptation. The film has grossed over $71 million worldwide.
==Plot==
The bard Edgin Darvis spends years working as a member of the Harpers, a secret order of peacekeepers, until his wife is killed by a Red Wizard he had previously antagonized. Accompanied by barbarian Holga Kilgore, Edgin attempts to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira by turning to theft, forming a team with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar, a descendant of Elminster, and rogue Forge Fitzwilliam and his mysterious acquaintance Sofina. While raiding a Harper stronghold, Edgin attempts to steal a resurrection tablet to bring back his wife, but Edgin and Holga are captured, while Forge, Sofina, and Simon escape.
The two escape their prison two years later, learning that Forge has become the Lord of Neverwinter after the prior lord became mysteriously incapacitated. Forge has been taking care of Kira, and has convinced her that Edgin's greed and selfishness led to his arrest. Sofina is revealed to be a Red Wizard, and she and Forge deliberately orchestrated their capture. Sofina attempts to have Edgin and Holga executed, but they escape and decide to rob Forge's vault and bring Kira home with them during the upcoming High Sun Games at the stadium. The gladiatorial games had previously been banned, but Forge had reinstituted them, promising that the games would bring in tourists and money. They track down Simon to help, and he suggests also recruiting Doric, a tiefling druid, who once rejected him romantically.
Doric infiltrates Forge's castle by animal shapeshifting, and finds the vault has magical defenses from Mordenkainen, which Simon declares he lacks power to disable. Simon proposes that a magic relic, "The Helm of Disjunction", could disable them, so they travel to an old graveyard to ask Holga's ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead with a talisman long enough for them to answer five questions; the corpses reveal they gave the Helm to Xenk Yandar, a paladin who fled his country of Thay when Red Wizards turned his people into an undead army. They leave one corpse still alive, not having asked it a full five questions.
Xenk, after forcing Edgin to swear to distribute any gained booty to the people, guides the group through the Underdark to retrieve the Helm. With the help of a teleportation staff obtained from Holga's halfling ex-husband, they obtain the relic, but are attacked by Thayan assassins sent by Sofina. Xenk fights off the assassins and helps the group escape from Themberchaud, a pudgy red dragon, before eventually departing.
Simon has trouble mastering the Helm's power, so they decide to use the staff to enter the vault during the games. Simon and Holga infiltrate the magically-sealed door but find the room behind it empty except for a magical trap. The whole group is captured and forced to participate in the games, but manages to escape. Doric discovers that Forge has loaded the treasure onto a boat and is preparing to flee, so the group steals the boat for themselves and rescues Kira from Forge. As they escape, they realize that Sofina organized the games to draw a massive crowd and magically turn them into an undead army. The group returns, and transports Forge's stolen riches out of the boat with the teleportation staff and spreads them across the city, drawing the people out of the stadium before Sofina's spell takes effect.
Outraged at her defeat, Sofina attacks the group, but Simon is able to master his magic: Sofina's time-stop spell fails when Simon nullifies it, allowing Kira to use an invisibility pendant Edgin and Holga gave her as a child to place an anti-magic bracelet on Sofina. Sofina is quickly defeated by Doric in owlbear form and then crushed to death by falling debris, but Holga is fatally injured in the battle. Edgin and Kira use the tablet to bring her back to life, as Edgin accepts that he wanted to bring back his wife only for his own sake, while Holga had become a true part of their family. Doric signals openness to a relationship with Simon. Restored, the old Lord of Neverwinter declares the team heroes of the realm, and Forge is sent to Edgin and Holga's old prison.
==Cast==
*Chris Pine as Edgin Darvis, a bard and former member of the Harpers. After his wife was murdered, he raised his daughter Kira with his friend Holga. In prison with Holga following a heist gone wrong, he plots their escape in hopes of being reunited with his daughter.
*Michelle Rodriguez as Holga Kilgore, a barbarian who was exiled from the Uthgardt Elk Tribe. She acts as a surrogate mother for Kira and is imprisoned with Edgin.
*Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar, a paladin who narrowly escaped the lich Szass Tam's "rise to power" in Thay and as a result, "ages more slowly than a normal human".
*Rylan Jackson portrays a young Xenk.
*Justice Smith as Simon Aumar, a half-elf wild magic sorcerer who is the descendant of Elminster Aumar, a notable wizard.
*Sophia Lillis as Doric, a tiefling druid raised in the Neverwinter Wood by a wood elf enclave. She is a member of the Emerald Enclave and has organized a resistance against the Lord of Neverwinter who targeted the forest "for its resources".
*Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam, an ambitious rogue and con artist. He is a former member of Edgin's crew and has been taking care of Kira. Since Edgin's imprisonment, he's become the Lord of Neverwinter, gained great wealth and received counsel from Sofina.
*Chloe Coleman as Kira Darvis, Edgin's daughter who has fallen under the sway of Forge, her guardian for two years following her father's imprisonment
*Daisy Head as Sofina, a Red Wizard of Thay with a focus in necromancy and "ties to Thay's tyrannical magocracy".
*Jason Wong as Dralas, a Red Wizard of Thay.
Additionally, Bradley Cooper appears in a cameo as Marlamin, Holga's halfling ex-husband. Comedy group Aunty Donna provided voices for corpses for the Australian release of the film. The main characters from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon make live action cameos during the gladiatorial games.
== Production==
=== Development===
On May 7, 2013, Warner Bros. Pictures and Courtney Solomon's Sweetpea Entertainment announced a film based on Dungeons & Dragons with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the script and Roy Lee, Alan Zeman, and Solomon producing. Two days later, Hasbro issued a lawsuit saying that they were co-producing a Dungeons & Dragons film at Universal Pictures with Chris Morgan writing and directing. On August 3, 2015, after U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee urged Sweetpea Entertainment and Hasbro to settle the film rights case, the Warner Bros. film was set for pre-production with Hasbro. On March 31, 2016, Rob Letterman was in negotiations to direct Johnson-McGoldrick's script, with his role confirmed on May 13, 2016. In April 2017, actor Joe Manganiello, an avid fan of Dungeons & Dragons, revealed that he had written a script with John Cassel for the project and was "talking to all the right parties" to make the film happen. Upon completing the script, Manganiello worked in collaboration with Brad Peyton and Dwayne Johnson, who were both in negotiations to develop the film.
In December 2017, after varying degrees of progression, the film was moved by Hasbro to Paramount Pictures and was scheduled for a release date of July 23, 2021. In February 2018, Paramount was in talks with both Chris McKay and Michael Gilio to direct and write the film, respectively. In March 2019, it was revealed that Gilio had completed a first draft and studio executives expressed excitement for the film. The studio began negotiations with various talent, as the casting process began. On July 30, 2019, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were in talks to direct. Goldstein and Daley began meeting with Paramount following Daley talking about his career with a literary agent at a sports bar in Sherman Oaks during a game between the Chicago Cubs, which Daley is a fan of, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. After saying to the agent that he and Goldstein had left directing duties on The Flash, the agent asked if they were looking for work. The agent tipped off Paramount, who presented Goldstein and Daley with the script for Dungeons & Dragons.
===Writing===
By January 2020, Goldstein and Daley announced that they had co-written a new draft of the script. Ultimately, Daley, Goldstein, and Gilio received screenplay credit, while McKay and Gilio received story credit. Goldstein stated that "ours is a movie that doesn't take itself with great seriousness, but it's never a spoof. It honors the world of D&D and celebrates it but, hopefully, it gives the audience an engaging and fun ride". Daley commented that the film's influences include The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones, with the Indiana Jones structure evoking both a "dungeon crawl" and the heist film genre that they wanted to draw on. Daley highlighted that the heist genre is familiar to the audience, which provides the framework for the "uninitiated" so that "they understand what our characters are setting out to do without being overwhelmed by lore or proper nouns". Daley also wanted the film to be accessible for those unfamiliar with the fantasy genre. The Austin Chronicle highlighted "since the basis of most tabletop campaigns is a group of strangers coming together to complete a job, the thematic parallels between heist movies and fantasy roleplaying campaigns offer a shared language for newcomers".
Goldstein commented that they use the sorcerer character in the film to address why magic can't "solve all problems" – "it makes storytelling nearly impossible if you can solve any problem with a magical spell". Goldstein stated that when discussing the visual presentation of the film with Daley that they decided they didn't want "two people standing there with their hands out and rays coming out of their hands". As a result, the film pulls directly from the magic system of Dungeons & Dragons with magic users "combining physical components and verbal spellcasting to show a variety of magical effects onscreen". Justice Smith, who plays the sorcerer, commented that he worked with the choreographer "to create unique gestures for each spell" with many of the spells incorporating actual sign language into the gestures.
===Casting===
On June 27, 2016, Ansel Elgort was in talks to star in Letterman's iteration of the film. In December 2020, Chris Pine was cast to star in the film. Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page were added in February 2021. In March, Hugh Grant and Sophia Lillis would join the next month, with Grant cast as the antagonist. In April, Chloe Coleman joined the ensemble cast. In May, Jason Wong and Daisy Head joined the cast. In July 2022, at a panel at San Diego Comic Con, it was revealed that cast members from the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role would make cameo appearances in the film.
===Filming ===
Filming began in early April 2021, with a crew of 60-70 people in Iceland. Principal photography commenced in Belfast, Northern Ireland later that month. Goldstein stated that when the cast arrived in Ireland they "played a several-hours-long game of D&D" with the actors role-playing as their film characters which "gave those who were not familiar with [D&D] a quick taste of what the game is like and how you interact". This game "also informed the directors' takes on the characters" with Goldstein commenting that "I think we incorporated some of the things we learned from that game into the film".
On August 19, 2021, Daley announced that filming had completed.
==Release==
The film was originally set to be released on July 23, 2021. The release date was subsequently moved to November 19, 2021, to accommodate the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, before being pushed back further to May 27, 2022, due to COVID-19. In April 2021, the release date was further delayed to March 3, 2023. On April 21, 2022, the official title of the film was announced as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. In November 2022, the movie was delayed to March 31, 2023.
Paramount has distributed the movie worldwide, although distribution in the United Kingdom and Canada was handled by Entertainment One.
==Marketing==
===Promotion===
In July 2022, Honor Among Thieves was featured at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC); this included a panel with members of the cast and crew and a "Tavern Experience". The "Tavern Experience" showcased characters of the film. A teaser trailer was released on July 21, 2022, on the same date as the film's SDCC panel. Its soundtrack has excerpts from Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. The "Tavern Experience" was then featured at CCXP in December 2022 and showcased various monsters from Dungeons & Dragons. A TV spot for the film was expected to air during Super Bowl LVII; this promotion was released online before the game. Brawl Stars being additionally photo in the parody where 6 character roles for the poster. Paramount released a YouTube featurette for the 1983 animated series showing that the Dungeon Master used the magical crystal ball identify the clip of Doric transform into Owlbear.
===Tie-in literature and merchandise===
A prequel publishing campaign following various of the film's characters is scheduled to be released in February 2023 before the release of Honor Among Thieves. Doric will be the main character in two upcoming prequel novels – The Druid’s Call (2023) by E.K. Johnston and The Road to Neverwinter (2023) by Jaleigh Johnson. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—The Feast of the Moon is an upcoming 96-page prequel graphic novel which will focus on Edgin and his band of thieves. It will be written by Jeremy Lambert and Ellen Boener and drawn by Eduardo Ferigato and Guillermo Sanna. The Dungeons & Dragons adventure anthology Keys From the Golden Vault (2023) features a heist set in Revel's End – a maximum-security prison location created for the movie which is located in the fictional Icewind Dale. While created for the film, it first appeared in the adventure module Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020). Wizards of the Coast also released playable Dungeons & Dragons stat blocks for the film's main characters as a free promotion on D&D Beyond.
==Reception==
===Box office===
As of April 2, 2023, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has grossed $38.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $33 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $71.5 million.
In the United States and Canada, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was released alongside A Thousand and One and His Only Son, and was projected to $30-40 million from 3,850 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $15.3 million on its first day, which included $5.6 million in advance screenings in the week leading up to its release, with $4.1 million coming from Thursday previews. It went on to debut to $38.5 million, topping the box office; 61% of the opening weekend audience was male and 63% was between 18–34 years old.
=== Critical reception===
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 218 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads, "An infectiously good-spirited comedy with a solid emotional core, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves offers fun fantasy and adventure even if you don't know your HP from your OP." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 90% positive score, with 77% saying they would definitely recommend it.
After the premiere at South by Southwest, A.A. Dowd at Chron noted that "the reaction at the Paramount Theatre last night suggests that this could be a bigger hit than plenty have predicted, if word of its canny exploitation of the Marvel model travels fast and far".
==Future ==
In February 2022, a spin-off television series was announced to be in development. A part of a "multi-pronged approach" for television projects, the show is described as the "flagship" and "cornerstone" live-action series, of the multiple projects in development; while the series will "complement" the film side of the franchise. Rawson Marshall Thurber is set to serve as creator, writer, executive producer, and showrunner and the series, in addition to directing the pilot episode. Various networks and streaming companies are bidding on distribution rights. In January 2023, it was announced that Paramount+ gave the show a straight-to-series order and will consist of eight episodes, with Entertainment One and Paramount Pictures serving as production companies.
In an interview with Polygon in April 2023 on the potential for a film sequel, Daley stated that "it was never our intention when we came on board this film to make a franchise". Goldstein commented that they would most likely continue with the characters established in Honor Among Thieves if they returned to the D&D world – "the audience knows them, and you can jump into the plot more quickly. And obviously, we have great affection for both the actors and these roles that they play. But we'd want to introduce some new figures along the way".
==Videos==
Dungeons & Dragons- Honor Among Thieves - Official Trailer (2023 Movie)
Dungeons & Dragons- Honor Among Thieves - NEW Trailer (2023 Movie)
Dungeons & Dragons- Honor Among Thieves - Big Game Spot (2023 Movie)
Dungeons & Dragons- Honor Among Thieves - Final Trailer (2023 Movie)
==Notes==
==References == 
==External links ==
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Category:2020s American films
Category:2020s English-language films
Category:2020s fantasy adventure films
Category:2023 action comedy films
Category:2023 adventure films
Category:2023 fantasy films
Category:2023 films
Category:American fantasy adventure films
Category:Dungeons & Dragons films
Category:Entertainment One films
Category:Films about dragons
Category:Films based on role-playing games
Category:Films directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
Category:Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Category:Films scored by Lorne Balfe
Category:Films shot in Iceland
Category:Films shot in Northern Ireland
Category:Hasbro Studios films
Category:High fantasy films
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Reboot films
Category:English-language films
Category:Films starring Chris Pine
Category:Films starring Michelle Rodriguez
Category:Films starring Justice Smith
Category:Films starring Sophia Lillis
Category:Films starring Hugh Grant
Category:Films starring Daisy Head
Category:Films starring Jason Wong
Category:Films starring Bradley Cooper