The directors of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, admitted the fantasy flick flopped due to “not-so-great timing” because of The Super Mario Bros. movie and drama with Wizards of the Coast’s proposed D&D licensing changes.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves released in March 2023, right around the time that Wizards of the Coast was facing massive backlash from players after confirming planned adjustments to their Open-Gaming License that would have made sweeping changes to rules that allowed creators to make and sell their own content based on the tabletop RPG’s fifth edition.
While they ultimately ended up walking this disastrous decision back, the blowback was enough to negatively impact the movie adaptation, says director John Francis Daley. He claims that this drama, alongside the hugely-successful launch of The Super Mario Bros. Movie around the same time, ultimately overshadowed a film that has since proven to be a hit among fans after the fact.
“It was very much a product of not-so-great timing when the first movie came out,” Daley said in an episode of The Discourse Podcast. “It came out four days before the Super Mario movie, which broke records. It came out a month after Wizards of the Coast changed the official gaming license, prompting many D&D fans to boycott the game, and I don’t think the marketing did enough to tell people who weren’t already fans that this movie might be for them. Yeah, so it was a perfect storm of all of those elements, and we’ll see.”
Honor Among Thieves struggled at the box office, and Paramount has since passed up on making a sequel due to “financial” reasons. But Daley and Goldstein are hopeful that another studio will pick them up to continue telling stories in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Goldstein confirmed after being asked if anyone is actively crunching the numbers for a possible sequel. “I think Hasbro is a big believer in it, and if they can figure out a studio partner to make it work, they’ll want to proceed. As are our producers.”
“I mean, look, it’s something that is near and dear to our hearts in that we loved making the first one,” Daley added. “We fell in love with the characters, and there’s so much potential in a sequel because the first act isn’t filled with exposition or introduction to this family that we’ve already become accustomed to. So you can kind of launch right into the story, which is really nice.”
Fans shouldn’t despair; while an Honor Among Thieves sequel is still up in the air, a live-action TV series is officially in the works at Netflix, based on the TTRPG’s gothic-horror world “Ravenloft.” Described as a “prestige fantasy series where adventure collides with gothic horror and tragic romance,” it follows “the making of the vampire Darklord Strahd von Zarovic.”
Even better, a new third-person action-adventure game titled Dungeons & Dragons: Warlock is also in development, set to release sometime in 2027.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
