The Dungeons & Dragons saga will soon return to theaters with a film starring Chris Pine, Regé-Jean Page, Michelle Rodriguez and a plethora of stars.
But there is also a live-action series produced by eOne, which aims to create a television universe linked to the famous role-playing game. Now, eOne has hired Rawson Marshall Thurber , director of Red Notice and Skyscraper , to oversee the project. Thurber will write and direct the pilot and will executive produce the series.
Bringing Dungeons & Dragons to the small screen is one of the primary goals of eOne, which was recently acquired by Hasbro. As Michael Lombardo , the company’s President of Global Television, explained last November :
We don’t want to do just one series, so we are building and developing a multi-pronged approach to television, a number of written and reality series, and we hope to bring them to market early next year.
The series developed by Thurber should be the starting point of the television universe. Several streaming platforms are interested in the project, and Netflix could have a front row seat given its relationship with the director. Red Notice is currently the platform’s biggest hit.
The Dungeons & Dragons film, which recently wrapped shooting , is also being produced by eOne alongside Paramount. eOne will distribute it in Canada and the UK, Paramount will handle the rest of the world.
A true fan
Rawson Marshall Thurber is an RPG super-fan, and he revealed it with a tweet commenting on the news:
So deeply thrilled about this. Grew up playing the pnp version (lvl 13 lawful good paladin, holla!), enjoyed the heck outta @DDOUnlimited — learned to tell stories through (always) being the DM. Boyhood dreams do come true, ya’ll. Can’t wait to get cracking. https://t.co/ZkBXr5mkoX
— Rawson Thurber (@RawsonThurber) February 1, 2022
The director claims to be “deeply moved by this”, to have “learned to tell stories by being (almost) always the Dungeon Master” and concluded: “Childhood dreams can really come true.”
About a year ago there was talk of the involvement of Derek Kolstad , creator of John Wick , in the series. But this time there is no mention of the screenwriter.