The Dungeons and Dragons sequel has a finished script and nobody willing to pay for it

Let’s be honest, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves didn’t exactly conjure up box office gold on its first roll. Still, it managed to become one of 2023’s genuine cinematic curveballs, mostly thanks to a proper legion of RPG die-hards (and a few critics who know a good monster encounter when they see one). Ever since then, the talk’s been all about a proper sequel. Hasbro, for its part, clearly fancies another crack at the big screen campaign—if only they can find someone willing to back the party.

The Sequel Situation

This week, the original’s directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein popped up on The Discourse Podcast to chat with The Playlist’s Mike DeAngelo. The actual headline: the script for Dungeons & Dragons 2 is finished. As in, they’ve rolled for initiative and put pen to paper. Of course there’s a catch—budget headaches, as ever, loom over the whole project. Paramount-Skydance, the first backers, have already decided it’s not worth another go, mainly because of money. That means Hasbro’s currently out there shopping around for a new studio with deep enough pockets (or perhaps just a taste for cursed artefacts).

I think Hasbro is a big believer in it, and if they can figure out a studio partner to make it work, they'll want to proceed. As are our producers.

Goldstein’s optimism seems genuine—or at least better acted than half the critical reception from 2023. The urge to get the old gang back together is still strong, especially for Daley, who practically admits he’s itching to skip all the world-building and leap straight into the action the second time out.

We fell in love with the characters, and there’s so much potential in a sequel because the first act isn’t filled with exposition or introduction to this family that we’ve already become accustomed to. So you can kind of launch right into the story, which is really nice.

Rolling with Bad Luck

Now, if you’re wondering why the first film didn’t exactly break the bank, Daley reckons it all comes down to what he calls a ‘perfect storm’ of unfortunate timing and other nonsense out of their control. For starters, Honor Among Thieves landed in cinemas a mere four days before that Super Mario juggernaut stomped into town. To make matters weirder, Wizards of the Coast decided to tweak the official D&D game licence about a month earlier—which promptly set off a fan boycott just as the film was gearing up. And, apparently, the marketing didn’t bother convincing non-fans that the story was worth their time either.

It came out four days before the Super Mario movie, which broke records. It came out a month after Wizards of the Coast changed the official gaming license, prompting many D&D fans to boycott the game, and I don’t think the marketing did enough to tell people who weren’t already fans that this movie might be for them. Yeah, so it was a perfect storm of all of those elements, and we’ll see.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had the misfortune of going up against Super Mario in its first week, plus a stormy fan landscape, which tanked its box office hopes.

What’s Next for the Directors?

While Hasbro keeps knocking on various studio doors, the Daley-Goldstein duo haven’t exactly been sitting around. Their new film, Mayday, hits Apple TV+ today, shifting from magical quests to Cold War mayhem—still heavy on the dry banter, clever plotting, and eye for quirky heroes. If you’re curious whether they can still deliver a proper crowd-pleaser, just ask Alex Maidy, who gave Mayday a glowing review, saying it’s ‘easily the best movie not hitting the big screen this year and one of the best streaming-only releases I can think of’, with a special nod to Ryan Reynolds’ on-screen chemistry with Kenneth Branagh.

• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – Sequel script completed, needs a new studio after Paramount-Skydance bowed out on budget issues
• Mayday – Cold War action-comedy from Daley and Goldstein, out on Apple TV+ now, already generating strong buzz