If you have been following my work for a while you will know that I have been a fan of Dungeons and Dragons since I was a kid. It was either the animated series or summers hanging out with my neighbor and best friend William, where his father would host games for us. Back then I was a Male Human Sorcerer and not a very good one at that, currently I am playing as a Purple Skinned, female, Tiefling Cleric (and I did that before I knew what Critical Role was) so I have definitely come a long way.

To say that I am a fan of the game is an understatement, 50% of my Kickstarters have been DND related, I own a giant 20 sided dice light, I have run 3 successful campaigns, played as four different characters, read the majority of the books chronicling the adventures of Drizzt Do’Urden, played the first two Baldurs Gate Games, as well as Blood and Magic and Dark Alliance. On top of all that I own a libraries worth of books from 3rd to 5th edition of the original game, as well as countless play mats and figurines. Knowing all this it is easy to see why I was pretty excited, and a tad nervous, to see that Dungeons and Dragons was being turned into a movie, again.

So why was I nervous?

Well Dungeons and Dragons is currently a very hot property and studios tend to try and get these films knocked out as quickly as possible without any care for the consequences of what happens next, or how the fanbase will feel about the movie. Then if you look at the Original Film, which young me thoroughly enjoyed, even if I knew it was not great. This film was cheesy and ridiculous but it had its merits, specifically Jeremy Irons who admittedly did for the pay check and thus decided to ham it up to glorious proportions. That film was followed by a made for Tv movie and then a third film was created for direct to DVD – I have not see either of these as even to my eyes these looked like they where not going to be great. Together the three are not great and are why I am worried for what comes next.

Yet still there was hope that this new film could bring the franchise into the light. DND is currently owned by Hasbro so based on the Transformers and Battleship films it would at least look awesome while being a hell of a lot of fun. But Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves is also being produced by Paramount Pictures and stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Rege-Jean Page, Justice Smith and Hugh Grant so there is a chance it will be a great movie.

The film is also directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daily and I am seeing online that at least one of them is a fan of the original game, so this gives me more hope. My final bit of hope is that Paramount needs a win, their streaming service is not doing so well right now and I am hoping that they have taken this project seriously enough that they are aiming to get a franchise out of it.

Anyway the trailer looks a tad cliché, but they film itself looks to have potential to be something very special. There seems to be a lot of nods to the source material and it does not look like it takes itself too seriously, it is early days but I am optimistic.