
Dungeons & Dragons has rarely been more popular than it is today, and the franchise’s success has extended well past its tabletop origins, though that’s still going strong as well. There happens to also be a rush to adapt popular game franchises to TV and film, and while Honor Among Thieves managed to hit the big screen, there’s been a key Forgotten Realms story and character on the sidelines that fans have wanted for years. That show is the long-awaited Legend of Drizzt live-action series, and now the character’s creator has addressed the show’s long delay and what may be holding things up.
The character of Drizzt Do’Urden is one of the franchise’s standout stars, leading a series that now encompasses 40 books and has sold over 30 million copies. That’s why fans were over the moon when a live-action adaptation was announced, but it has yet to actually happen. In an interview with ScreenRant, Drizzt creator R.A. Salvatore revealed he’s just as surprised as everyone else that it hasn’t happened yet, but also said it might be either because of fear or the approach of creating a new story instead of adapting the stories that are already there.
“Hopefully, we’ll have this discussion if they ever do the Drizzt TV show that they keep telling me they want to do,” Salvatore said. “I don’t get it. I think, at first, it was because of the color of the skin, and they were afraid.”
Salvatore has one more theory on what could be part of the issue, and that stems from people wanting to write their own Drizzt stories instead of actually adapting the stories that have helped make the character so popular in the first place.
“I think another reason is because everybody coming in wants to write new Drizzt stories for the show. I have no control over that, but I’ve made it pretty clear that I’d feel like I was slapped in the face if they did that. I mean, why do you want to use Drizzt, then? Because I’ve spent 37 years building it,” Salvatore said.
It was actually Salvatore’s creation of Drizzt that helped change how Drow were looked at, both in the world of D&D and those who create their own stories within that world. Before Drizzt, the dark elves were always portrayed as non-heroic at best and evil at worst, but Drizzt would change those perceptions and become one of the franchise’s most beloved heroes while also opening the door for more to walk through down the road.
As for Salvatore’s latter point, it’s a battle that has been fought in Hollywood forever, it seems, as a studio adapts a property or story and then feels like they have to make changes or disrupt everything that made it great simply to put their own stamp on it. Cherry picking from various stories and characters is perfectly fine, but Salvatore points to simply creating your own story while playing in the same sandbox, and that doesn’t seem to be what D&D fans are hoping for. Hopefully, we’ll see this series finally hit the small screen someday, because it would be a shame if it didn’t.
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