The long-in-the-works big-screen adaptation of the role-playing gameDungeons & Dragonsjust took a mighty leap toward actually happening, as Deadline reports Paramount has its eyes onJonathan GoldsteinandJohn Francis Daleyto direct the project. The duo recently co-directed the comedyGame Night, which rules, and also wrote the script forSpider-Man: Homecoming, which also rules, suggesting that aDungeons & Dragonsmovie led by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley would also, in fact, rule.
All the way back in December 2017, Paramount slated itsDungeons & Dragonsfilm to hit theaters on June 16, 2025. Just a few months later,The LEGO Batman MoviedirectorChris McKay’s name was floated out there as the likely candidate to take on the project, which obviously isn’t in the cards anymore. (There was also a Warner Bros. adaptation in the works for awhilewithAnsel Elgortsigned on to star.)
As a sword-and-sorcery tabletop game,Dungeons & Dragonshas been around since 1974 and is largely credited as the start of fantasy roleplaying games becoming a wholething. It’s seen an even larger rise in mainstream popularity recently thanks to celebrity participants likeDan Harmon—who has animated a few A-listD&Dcampaigns on his podcast and seriesHarmonQuest—Joe Manganiello,Vince Vaughn, andDeborah Ann Woll. The last attempt to bring D&D to the screen in big live-action fashion was the 2000 movie directed byCourtney Solomon. Unfortunately, that movie was genuinely goddamn terrible outside of the fact Academy Award winnerJeremy Ironsalmost became the first person to die on screen from acting too hard. (Honestly, worth a re-watch.)
What do you think? Are Goldstein and Daley the right filmmakers to direct aDungeons & Dragonsmovie? And even so, is theDungeons & Dragonsmovie ever actually gonna make it to theaters? Let us know your thoughts.
