SDCC 2022: D&D movie trailer is actually full of D&D fun

This is the highly-anticipated Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves trailer is finally here after debuting at San Diego Comic-Con and, after years of exceedingly low expectations, I’m pleasantly surprised. Paramount Pictures and Hasbro’s Entertainment One team have brought to life an action-packed heist movie with a star-studded cast. And they did it by leaning in to what makes D&D so much fun — fighting monsters alongside your friends at the kitchen table.

It is brilliant in introducing characters and setting the scene. One bard (Chris Pine), one barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez) form the heart of the party. gather to themselves a rag-tag troupe of adventurers, including a skilled warrior (Regé-Jean Page), a powerful mage (Justice Smith), and a shape-changing druid (Sophia Lillis). They then proceed to destroy shit.

They are a disaster! Only a cavalcade of D&D’s most recognizable monsters. You will find dragons galore, and a rampaging displacer creature. It disguises itself to be a treasure chest and then lashes out with its sticky tongue. At one point Lillis’ character transforms into an Owlbear, one of the franchise’s most iconic monsters that goes all the way back to first edition — and the bag of plastic “Chinasaurs” that either Dave Arneson or Gary Gygax picked up at the local drug store in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in the 1970s. There’s even a bit where our heroes purposefully leap inside a gelatinous cube.

And yes, that’s an awful lot of fan service. However, this fan service can be used in some very inventive ways. The movie’s set-piece battles feel less like deleted scenes from Game of ThronesIt’s more like the game nights at home. Watching the action unfold I don’t see the Guardians of the Galaxy stepping up to the plate, although the banter is clearly top notch. Instead, I see all of the friends and family that I’ve played tabletop RPGs with over the years, trying — and sometimes failing — at a roll of the dice.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among ThievesIt will be shown in cinemas on March 2023.

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