Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 fantasy heist film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay and Gilio. Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, it is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has no connections to the previous film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant, and follows bard Edgin Darvis (Pine) and barbarian Holga Kilgore (Rodriguez), who enlist a team of unlikely heroes to steal an ancient and powerful relic but come into conflict with evil forces.
Production went through various phases in development since 2013, beginning with Warner Bros. Pictures after beating Hasbro and Universal Pictures in a lawsuit over the film rights to the tabletop game, before moving to Paramount Pictures, each with various writers and directors. Goldstein and Daley were the final writers/directors, using elements from the previous attempt by director Chris McKay and screenwriter Michael Gilio. Filming began in April 2021 in Iceland and later Northern Ireland.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2023, and was released in the United States on March 31 by Paramount. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances of the cast, the direction, visual effects, writing, score, humor, and tone. It grossed $208.2 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, making it a box office disappointment.
Plot Prior to being imprisoned for grand larceny, bard Edgin "Ed" Darvis served in the Harpers, an order of peacekeepers, until his wife was killed by disciples of a Red Wizard he arrested. Accompanied by barbarian Holga Kilgore, Ed attempted to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira by turning to theft, teaming with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar, rogue con artist Forge Fitzwilliam, and Forge's mysterious acquaintance Sofina. While raiding a Harper stronghold, Ed attempted to steal a "Tablet of Reawakening" to resurrect his wife, but he and Holga were captured, though their accomplices escaped.
After two years' imprisonment in frozen Revel's End, Ed and Holga escape to Neverwinter and learn Forge has become Lord there after its prior Lord was mysteriously incapacitated. He has been taking care of Kira, convincing her that Ed's greed led to his arrest. It is revealed that Sofina is a Red Wizard and together they orchestrated Ed and Holga's capture.
Sofina orders Ed and Holga's execution, but they escape and decide to rob Forge's vault and bring Kira home during the upcoming High Sun Games, needing the tablet to prove their innocence to Kira and resurrect Ed's wife. Ed and Holga track down Simon to help. With his help, the group also recruits Doric, a druid whose forest community is fighting forced logging ordered by Forge.
After shapeshifting into a fly, Doric infiltrates Forge's castle and finds the vault has magical defenses from Mordenkainen, which Simon cannot disable. He believes a magic relic, "The Helm of Disjunction," could help, and the group travels to a graveyard to ask Holga's ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead with a talisman long enough for them to answer the group's questions. The corpses reveal they gave the Helm to Xenk Yendar, a paladin who fled Thay, his country, when Red Wizard Szass Tam turned Thayans into an undead army.
After forcing Ed to swear to distribute any gained bounty to the people, Xenk guides the group through the Underdark to retrieve the Helm. With the help of a teleportation staff obtained from Holga's halfling ex-husband, they find the relic but are attacked by Thayan assassins sent by Sofina. Xenk fights them off and helps the group escape from the obese red dragon Themberchaud before departing.
Simon has trouble mastering the Helm's power, so they decide to use the staff to enter the vault during the games. After finally attuning to the helm by overcoming his self-esteem issues, Simon dispels the magical seal on the vault. He and Holga enter the vault, but find the room empty except for a magical trap. Sofina, disguised as Kira, subdues Ed. The group is captured and forced to participate in the games, but escapes the stadium. Doric discovers Forge has loaded the treasure onto a boat and is preparing to flee. The group steals the boat for themselves and rescues Kira from Forge.
As they escape, the group realize Sofina organized the games to draw a massive crowd and turn them into an undead army using the curse that destroyed Thay. The group returns, transporting Forge's stolen riches out of the boat with the teleportation staff and spreading them across the city by hot-air balloon, drawing people out of the stadium before Sofina's spell takes effect.
Enraged at her failure, Sofina attacks the group. Simon nullifies her time-stop spell, allowing Kira to use the invisibility pendant Ed and Holga gave her as a child to place an anti-magic bracelet on Sofina. Although the group manages to incapacitate Sofina, Holga is fatally injured. Ed uses the tablet to bring her back to life, realizing he wanted to bring back his wife only for his own sake, while Holga had become a true part of their family. Doric expresses being open to a relationship with Simon.
Restored, the old Lord of Neverwinter declares the team heroes of the realm. Xenk sends Forge to Revel's End, where he fails to escape as Ed and Holga did when his pardon is denied.
Cast Chris Pine as Edgin "Ed" Darvis, a bard and former member of the Harpers. After his wife was murdered, he raised his daughter Kira with his friend Holga. In prison with Holga following a heist gone wrong, he plots their escape in hopes of being reunited with his daughter. Michelle Rodriguez as Holga Kilgore, a barbarian who was banished from the Uthgardt Elk Tribe for marrying an outsider. She acts as a foster mother for Kira and is imprisoned with Edgin. Justice Smith as Simon Aumar, a half-elf wild magic sorcerer who is the descendant of Elminster Aumar, a notable wizard. He was once rejected romantically by Doric. Sophia Lillis as Doric, a tiefling druid raised in the Neverwinter Wood by a wood elf enclave. She is a member of the Emerald Enclave and has organized a resistance group against the Lord of Neverwinter who targeted the forest "for its resources". Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam, an ambitious rogue and con artist. He is a former member of Edgin's crew, and has been taking care of Edgin's daughter, Kira. Since Edgin's imprisonment, he has become the Lord of Neverwinter, gained great wealth and received counsel from Sofina. Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar, a paladin who narrowly escaped the lich Szass Tam's "rise to power" in Thay and as a result, "ages more slowly than a normal human". Rylan Jackson as a young Xenk. Chloe Coleman as Kira Darvis, Edgin's 14-year-old daughter who has fallen under the sway of Forge, her guardian for two years following her father's imprisonment Sophia Nell-Huntley as young Kira Daisy Head as Sofina, a Red Wizard of Thay with a focus in necromancy and "ties to Thay's tyrannical magocracy". Jason Wong as Dralas, a Red Wizard of Thay who works as an assassin for Sofina. Bradley Cooper as Marlamin, Holga's halfling ex-husband. Ian Hanmore as Szass Tam, a powerful Red Wizard lich and the ruler of Thay. Georgia Landers as Zia Darvis, Edgin's late wife.
Additionally, the film features Spencer Wilding as Gorg, an arriving hobgoblin inmate at Revel's End; Will Irvine as Tobias, a guard at Revel's End; Nicholas Blane as Chancellor Anderton, a human member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Bryan Larkin as Chancellor Norixius, a silver dragonborn member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Clayton Grover as Chancellor Jarnathan, an aarakocra member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Sarah Amankwah as Baroness Torbo, a female halfling member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Paul Bazely as Porb Piradost, a nobleman of Waterdeep; Hayley-Marie Axe as Gwinn, a barbarian who is the second wife of Marlamin; Tom Morello as Kimathi Stormhollow, a spectator at the High Sun Games; and Jude Hill as Boy in Stands. David Durham appears as a hallucination of Simon's ancestor Elminster Aumer.
Additionally, comedy group Aunty Donna provided the voices for corpses for the Australian release of the film.
The main characters from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon make live-action cameos during the High Sun Games, with Edgar Abram as Hank, Seamus O'Hara as Presto, Emer McDaid as Sheila, Trevor Kaneswaran as Eric, Moe Sasegbon as Diana, and Luke Bennett as Bobby.
Production Development and casting In May 2013, Warner Bros. Pictures and Courtney Solomon's Sweetpea Entertainment announced a film based on Dungeons & Dragons with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the script and Roy Lee, Alan Zeman, and Solomon producing. Two days later, Hasbro issued a lawsuit saying that they were co-producing a Dungeons & Dragons film at Universal Pictures with Chris Morgan writing and directing. In August 2015, after U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee urged Sweetpea Entertainment and Hasbro to settle the film rights case, the Warner Bros. film was set for pre-production with Hasbro. In March 2016, Rob Letterman was in negotiations to direct Johnson-McGoldrick's script, with his role confirmed in May 2016. In April 2017, actor Joe Manganiello, an avid fan of Dungeons & Dragons, revealed that he had written a script with John Cassel for the project and was "talking to all the right parties" to make the film happen. Upon completing the script, Manganiello worked in collaboration with Brad Peyton and Dwayne Johnson, who were both in negotiations to develop the film.
In December 2017, after varying degrees of progression, the film was moved by Hasbro to Paramount Pictures and was scheduled for a release date of July 23, 2021. In February 2018, Paramount was in talks with both Chris McKay and Michael Gilio to direct and write the film, respectively. In March 2019, it was revealed that Gilio had completed a first draft and studio executives expressed excitement for the film. The studio began negotiations with various talent, as the casting process began. In July 2019, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were in talks to direct. Goldstein and Daley began meeting with Paramount following Daley talking about his career with a literary agent at a sports bar in Sherman Oaks during a game between the Chicago Cubs, which Daley is a fan of, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. After saying to the agent that he and Goldstein had left directing duties on The Flash, the agent asked if they were looking for work. The agent tipped off Paramount, who presented Goldstein and Daley with the script for Dungeons & Dragons.
In June 2016, Ansel Elgort was in talks to star in Letterman's iteration of the film. In December 2020, Chris Pine was cast to star in the film. Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page were added in February 2021. Hugh Grant and Sophia Lillis would join the next month, with Grant cast as the antagonist. In April, Chloe Coleman joined the ensemble cast. In May, Jason Wong and Daisy Head joined the cast. During post-production, Bradley Cooper was cast in a cameo role. He filmed his part on blue screen and was inserted into preexisting footage shot with Rodriguez.
Writing