By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The most successful fantasy films of all time, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Harry Potter, have reigned on top of the mountain for decades at this point, yet the genre has experienced a resurgence in recent years thanks to the rise of podcasts. Actual play podcasts featuring players going through a tabletop RPG, have become one of the hottest genres of the new medium, and the best of them, including Critical Role, Dimension 20, and Not Another D&D Podcast, were based on Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition. You’d think that 2023’s Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the best fantasy movie of the last decade, would have become a hit but instead it disappointed at the box office (ironically, thanks to the franchise owner, Wizards of the Coasts, horrible timing) but now it finally has a chance to develop a following on Netflix.
A Tabletop Adventure On The Big Screen
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves picks up after the adventuring party of Edvin the Bard (Chris Pine), Holga the Barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon the Sorcerer (Justice Smith), Doric the Druid (Sophia Lillis), and Forge the Thief (Hugh Grant) were betrayed by the obviously evil wizard Sofina (Daisy Head). Out for revenge, Evin and Holga get the band back together, go into an actual dungeon complete with a dragon, and pull off a fantastical heist.
The film has everything fans of the game wanted to see on the big screen for decades, including an aarakocra, and a cameo appearance featuring the characters of the 80’s Dungeons and Dragons Saturday morning cartoon. Actual spells from the tabletop game are used and real mechanics were played out, all of which helped make the rollicking adventure feel like someone’s homebrew campaign brought to life. Even for those that don’t play the tabletop game, the comedy beats all hit and make it a fun fantasy adventure.
A Cautionary Tale Of Corporate Greed
To those that saw the film in theaters, it was a hit, with an incredible 91 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes from over 300 reviews by critics, and a matching 92 percent from over 2,000 reviews by the public. Yet Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves underperformed, barely squeaking by with $200 million worldwide, and it’s not the fault of the movie. Wizards of the Coast picked the wrong time to alienate the core audience with a business move so recklessly stupid, it was undone weeks later.
In early 2023, weeks before Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hit theaters, a copy of Wizards of the Coast’s updated Open Game License, which allowed players to monetize the game for themselves and the aforementioned actual play industry to take off, elevating the game to new heights, would be changed so that Wizards would get a 25 percent cut of everyone earning more than $750,000 from monetizing the game. That wasn’t the worst of it, it was the banning of all online tabletop simulators and claiming ownership over anything created by the fans that touched off a firestorm and a fan-driven boycott of the company that was so effective, it tanked the film in the process.
Standing On Its Own
Removed from the drama of early 2023, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves can now stand on its own, and thanks to Netflix’s subscriber base, more people than ever before will have a chance to stream it. Though hopes of a sequel have been quashed, for now, if it takes off on streaming, there’s always a chance that the writer/director duo of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who also worked with Pine on Horrible Bosses 2) will get another chance to bring the game to life. Until then, fans can at least enjoy the funniest fantasy movie since Monty Python and the Holy Grail and get a taste of what it’s like to play the most popular tabletop roleplaying game in the world.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now streaming on Netflix.
