Dungeons & Dragons was just for us dorks, geeks, and nerds for many decades. The beloved game came into the general public consciousness in recent years, primarily thanks to Stranger Things basing its world-building on aspects of the game. That made other people besides us excited for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which became a highly rated hit among viewers from all walks of life. Finally, it seems that over fifty years of this beloved TTRPG was becoming “cool” for those who would’ve shunned it decades ago. (It’s okay, we forgive your sins.)
After the popularity of Honor Among Thieves, the writing team got right to creating the sequel. However, as writer-director Jonathan Goldstein revealed in an interview with ScreenRant, the next film may never make it to the screen.
“I don’t know that [the sequel] will see the light of day for a number of financial reasons. They’re expensive movies to make, but it’d be great fun to do it. We love that cast, and we think we wrote something that fans would like.”
Unfortunately, despite the movie’s overwhelmingly positive ratings, it was not a box office success. The initial movie ate up a budget of $150 million despite only grossing $205 million. Personally, I’d love an extra $55 million lying around, but it seems that just wasn’t enough for the studio to justify the means. This could be the sign the studio needed to shelve the sequel they had already ordered. In a 2023 interview with Variety, Paramount CEO Brian Robbins said that to make a sequel, they would have to “figure out a way to make it for less.” It sounds like it is primarily a money issue.
While the chances of seeing the sequel are slim, this isn’t the only Dungeons & Dragons project floating around. Netflix is currently working on The Forgotten Realms, a live-action D&D series based on a popular 1980s campaign setting. It is the same world Honor Among Thieves was based on. This development comes after the series was picked up and then dropped by Paramount+.
So, there is still hope, with intriguing new projects coming up for the viewing pleasure of D&D dorks, geeks, and nerds.