We had our doubts when the project was announced back in 2019, but we can admit when we’re wrong. It’s almost here, it has a great cast, it looks like huge fun, and now we know that Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is hitting cinemas on April 6, 2023. Assuming it beats the cinema’s Armour Class (that’s a very nerdy joke).
Based on the hugely popular table top roleplaying game of (almost) the same name and directed by Date Night directing duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves sees Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Regé-Jean Page, and Sophia Lillis as a mixed bag of adventurers (read: thieves) who stole something very dangerous for someone very bad (presumably Hugh Grant’s Forge Fitzwilliam the Rogue, but plot details are thin on the ground) and find themselves unwillingly tasked with saving the world.
The problem is that this isn’t The Fellowship of the Ring, these are D&D characters: a squad of tumbling stuff-ups who generally survive by their skin of their teeth and the good graces of the Gods (or the Dungeon Master), so the tone seems to be at least a little tongue in cheek, which strikes us as the smart approach.
The film takes place in the official Forgotten Realms setting, which should please old grognards, as will the presence of many other fun details: look, an Owlbear! A Gelatinous Cube! A Mimic! Is Chris Pine playing a frickin’ Bard? (yes, he is. Perfect, no notes).
Many attempts to bring Dungeons & Dragons to the screen have stumbled, and the ones that made it are generally terrible (caveat: the old Saturday morning cartoon was a banger)—can this one roll a crit to strike audiences where it matters? Only your Dungeon Master knows for sure, so make sure to bribe them with pizza.
