Paramount+ orders a live-action ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ collection • TechCrunch

A live-action collection primarily based on the tabletop roleplaying sport Dungeons & Dragons is coming to Paramount+. The pilot of the present was written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who wrote movies like “Dodgeball” and “Purple Discover.”

The collection shall be co-produced by Hasbro’s eOne and Paramount Photos, who’re additionally working collectively on the upcoming film “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves.”

Hasbro acquired Dungeons & Dragons writer Wizards of the Coast in 1999, however in the previous few years, Hasbro has reorganized the subsidiary right into a extra distinguished division on the video games firm. These tv and film variations of the sport are a part of the corporate’s longterm plan to drum up more cash from the favored roleplaying sport.

“The model is admittedly undermonetized,” mentioned Wizards of the Coast president Cynthia Williams about Dungeons & Dragons in a December investor name. However she additionally added that the sport has by no means been extra fashionable. Paramount+ says that greater than 50 million followers have performed or interacted with the franchise since its launch nearly half a century in the past.

“The D&D technique is a broad four-quadrant technique, the place we’ve got this highly effective model that has comparable consciousness, say like ‘Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Harry Potter,’” mentioned Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks on the identical name. “And we’re going to imbue it with blockbuster leisure, like we’ve got with the film developing.”

A possible drawback with this plan, although, is that Dungeons & Dragons is a framework by way of which individuals create their very own fantasy-inspired tales and video games — there isn’t actually a core canon or plot that unifies the curiosity of all gamers of the sport. You might surmise that the majority “Harry Potter” followers really feel an emotional attachment to the story of the orphaned boy wizard and his buddies, however you’ll be able to’t actually have a favourite character or scene in Dungeons & Dragons. For essentially the most half, each group’s sport has completely different fan-made characters and occasions. Whereas Wizards of the Coast does publish some books with “official” lore and concepts, they’re not important to gameplay.

Because the Hasbro acquisition, there have been just a few makes an attempt to deliver the recognition of “Dungeons & Dragons” to the massive display screen. In 2000, the movie “Dungeons & Dragons” hit theaters, however it was a field workplace bomb. This was adopted by two direct-to-DVD “Dungeons & Dragons” movies in 2005 and 2012, which additionally carried out poorly.

As Hasbro invests in blockbuster content material like a film and TV collection, Dungeons & Dragons followers and content material creators are at present protesting the corporate’s altering gaming license. Since 2000, followers have been in a position to make a residing by promoting their very own additions to the sport beneath an open gaming license, however Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that it’s going to alter this license quickly. Beneath the brand new gaming license, all creators making greater than $50,000 yearly from licensed content material should report their income to Wizards of the Coast, and people making greater than $750,000 per yr can pay royalties beginning in 2024.