Y’all, I have been excited for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie for a while — and by “a while,” I mean over a year. Like, here, I have proof:
So you can imagine my excitement when the cast and crew of the film took over Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this year to reveal all kinds of brand new goodness! So, here’s absolutely everything we learned:
1.
Chris Pine can 100% pull off a blond bob…okay, so this has nothing to do with the movie, but I’m genuinely obsessed with how this man showed up to Comic-Con. I love it. More of this, please.
Daniel Knighton / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
(Last thing before we move on, but I think it’s also important for you to know that he entered the panel like this. The man’s a maniac.)
Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
3.
Plot-wise, we still don’t have a ton of information, but we do know that — just like any good game of D&D — the film will follow a group of misfit adventurers brought together by a common goal.
While it’s not totally clear what that “common goal” is yet, we’re told that our adventurers will be executing “an epic heist” in order to “retrieve a lost relic.”
4.
The movie has a lot of familiar faces attached behind-the-scenes. It’s produced by Jeremy Latcham, best known for producing works like Iron Man (2008), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
And it’s written/directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote Horrible Bosses (2011) and co-directed Game Night (2018).
Daniel Knighton / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Also, if John looks familiar, that’s because he played the very meme-able Sam Weir on Freaks & Geeks. And now he’s writing/directing a D&D movie. FULL CIRCLE.
5.
Next up, let’s unpack this incredible cast, shall we? First, we have blond bob — I mean, Chris Pine. He’ll be playing Edgin, the charismatic leader of the group, a Bard who plays the lute (and does delightful little skips).
And, when asked about his thoughts on the game, Chris said: “If there’s one game in high school that should be played in every single school across the nation, it should be D&D. Because you can get [everyone] all in a room and within 20 minutes, no one will remember which class they came from or who their friends are or who the ‘dork’ is — they’ll just want to get together and have a laugh.”
Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
6.
Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga, a kick-ass Barbarian who appears to act as the muscle for the group.
And, speaking of muscle, Michelle noted during the panel that she gained “about 10 pounds of muscle” for the role through working out and rigorous fight training.
Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
7.
Regé-Jean Page plays Xenk, a Paladin whom we don’t get to see too much of in the trailer, leading me to believe he’ll likely join the group at a different point of the adventure than the other core members.
And, speaking of gaining muscle, Regé-Jean said of training: “I got really, really good with the sword. There was lots and lots of stance training, and I had the best ass of my life. Literally just the best time you could possibly imagine in this job. I spent my time training and slaying dragons, you know what I mean?”
Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
8.
Sophia Lillis plays Doric, a tiefling Druid, and as a tiefling player myself, I was pretty darn excited to see her! Look at those little horns!!!
And I bet you’re wondering what her Druid can transform into…DON’T WORRY, I’LL TELL YOU. IT’S AN OWLBEAR, Y’ALL. AN OWLBEAR.
9.
Justice Smith — who unfortunately wasn’t present for the panel — plays Simon, a Sorcerer.
While he wasn’t there to answer any questions about his character, the trailer showcased some of his spellcasting abilities!
10.
Hugh Grant plays Forge Fitzwilliam, a not-so-trustworthy Rogue.
While I can’t reveal much from the ~super-secret footage~ we saw during the panel, I can say that Hugh is hilarious in the role, which is just delightful!
Michael Buckner / Variety via Getty Images
11.
Rounding out the cast we have Chloe Coleman, Jason Wong, and Daisy Head — though we don’t have any information on their characters yet!
12.
The film was shot on location in Northern Ireland, and the filmmakers noted that they used “just as many practical effects and animatronics as visual effects” which helped to create the unique and real look of the film.
Liam Mcburney – Pa Images / PA Images via Getty Images
And Michelle even thanked the writers/directors for this approach, joking that “acting in front of a green screen with golf balls sucks balls.”
Liam Mcburney – Pa Images / PA Images via Getty Images
13.
Naturally, there were many questions about the iconic monsters that might be featured in the film, given that there are literally hundreds to choose from, with the writers/directors even saying, “Well, as you know, there’s a Monster Manual…we had to figure out which one’s you’d all want to see most, and which we could bring to the screen convincingly.”
Daniel Knighton / Getty Images for Paramount Pictured
“It was a real conversation figuring out which we would feature,” Jonathan said. “There’ll be some of your favorites and some lesser knowns.”
In the trailer alone, we see the aforementioned Owlbear, a mimic, dragons, and a Gelatinous Cube or two!
14.
And Wizards of the Coast — the publisher behind D&D — was involved in the making of the film in some capacity, with the writers/directors reaching out to them for ideas on what to feature, and keeping them in line with the lore.
“We worked every step of the way with Wizards of the Coast who were an invaluable to us when we were writing the script all the way through production,” Jonathan said. “So, I think for hardcore fans hopefully they’ll see the reality of the game reflected in there, and for those who don’t know the game very well, it’ll still work because it’s a fun movie.”
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
15.
And finally: the filmmakers guarantee there’ll be a multitude of Easter eggs littered throughout the film (with a couple I can’t share even showing up in those ~super secret~ clips I mentioned earlier), though they of course couldn’t specify what.
After a fan explicitly asked about Easter eggs, John answered, “There are absolutely a ton of Easter eggs that we loaded in there [including] some things that we weren’t even aware of that the Wizards of the Coast were helpful enough to help out with, but upon multiple watches [I think] you’d see many of them. Obviously, if I gave them away, though, it wouldn’t be an Easter egg — it’d just be an egg!”
Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
Are you excited for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
