January 31, 2022 – It was announced today that that Red Notice director to spearhead flagship ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ TV series via Hollywood trade publication Deadline. The film, which has since become Netflix’s top streamed film of all time, stars Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot was written, directed and produced by Rawson Marshall Thurber.
There is no network or release date yet. This is all just in development by the rights holder and producer Entertainment One, the film studio that was bought by Hasbro in $3.8 billion in 2019.
They have since that time been developing a slew of gaming IP tv shows. In January of 2021 the company announced a Risk tv show was in the works with a House of Cards filmmaker. In February of 2021 the company announced an animated Clue tv show was in development. In April of 2021 the company dropped the news of a slew of board game reality shows based on their top properties. In November of 2021 they announced that they were doing a Trivial Pursuit game show that would be hosted by LeVar Burton.
Adapting Dungeons & Dragons for television has been “a big focus” for eOne following the company’s acquisition by Hasbro, eOne’s President of Global Television Michael Lombardo told Deadline in November.
“We don’t want it to just be one show, so we are building out, developing out a multi-pronged approach for television, a number of scripted shows and unscripted, and we hope to be taking this out to the marketplace early next year,” he said back then.
The flagship live-action series, shepherded by Thurber, is expected to serve as a cornerstone of the TV universe as it continues to expand.
The D&D TV universe will complement eOne’s film franchise. Production on eOne’s untitled feature, jointly produced and financed with Paramount, recently wrapped. eOne will distribute in the UK and Canada, and Paramount in the rest of world. The US release date is currently set for March 3, 2023.
In case you are unaware, Dungeons & Dragons (commonly abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro) since 1997.
Thurber who grew up at the height of D&D’s popularity in the 1980s also wrote and directed Central Intelligence, directed We’re the Millers, and wrote and directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. In TV, he previously created, directed and executive producer Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes Crimes On Television. He shared his excitement of the news via Twitter:
Image via Wizards of the Coast
