At the San Diego Comic-Con, Paramount presented the first official trailer of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves, a film inspired by the famous role-playing game, directed and written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, which will debut in cinemas in March 2023.
Let’s take a look.
A classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure
Elgin: “We are a team of thieves. And when you do this, you’re bound to make enemies. Sometimes those enemies come looking for revenge. Truth be told, we helped the wrong person steal the wrong thing. We didn’t mean to unleash the greatest evil the world has ever known. But we’re going to fix it.”
Holga: “Well, how do we pull that off?”
Elgin: “Uh…”
Holga: “Figure it out over a drink?”
Elgin: “Probably best.”
Thus opens the first trailer of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among thieves, with Chris Pine’s narrating voice explaining the plot of the film. Then follows a series of scenes to the rhythm of Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin, which contain much of the lore of D&D, starting from the initial glimpse, in which we are shown a large city of the Forgotten Realms, presumably Neverwinter.
The D&D Party
The trailer introduces us to the cast of the film, which sees the presence of Chris Pine as Elgin, a bard former member of the Harpers. Alongside him are Michelle Rodriguez as the barbarian Holga, Justice Smith who plays the half-elf sorcerer Simon, Sophia Lillis with her tiefling druid Doric, Regé-Jean Page who plays the paladin Xenk, Hugh Grant and Daisy Head in unspecified roles.
2 minutes of D&D lore
The trailer scenes show us several places and creatures well known to all D&D fans. Let’s see together all the references present.
In one of the opening scenes of the trailer, we see our group of unlikely heroes crossing an Underdark city. The presence of duergar statues and an evil red dragon resembling Themberchaud, suggests that it is the city of Gracklstugh. Here the protagonists recover a magical helmet with unknown properties, which is used by the sorcerer Simon in another scene to launch a powerful shockwave.
In another scene we see the group help a mysterious female figure (the character played by Daisy Head) to recover a precious red horn, very similar to the horn of the demon lord Orcus, an evil artifact capable of giving the owner incredible powers, appeared in one of the campaigns of Critical Role.
From the trailer we then discover that the girl is part of the red wizards of Thay and betrays the group to deliver the horn to what should be the villain of the movie. In fact, in the following scene we see a powerful lich sorcerer with red robes using the horn to perform a ritual. The sorcerer’s appearance and his robes suggest that he is Szass Tam, one of the leaders of the red wizards of Thay.
The trailer also shows us many famous creatures from the roleplaying game, including a black dragon, a mimic, a gelatinous cube and a displacer beast (a real nightmare for players). In addition, the trailer shows us that the character of Sophia Lillis is able to transform into a great owlbear!
The film promises well, even if from the trailer it looks like a medieval fantasy version of Guardians of the galaxy. Surely we will have to wait until March 2023 to give a true judgment. What do you think?
