Dungeons & Dragons Might Still Get a Sequel Despite Bombing at the Box Office (And Has Just Reached a Huge Milestone)

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves arrived in theaters in March 2023, backed by a $150 million budget and a cast led by the ever-charismatic Chris Pine. Still, beyond the big stars and eye-popping special effects, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein delivered a fantasy heist adventure that’s almost universally acclaimed, with critics and audiences alike praising its daring mix of thrills and heart. That should have been the recipe for success. Sadly, the movie closed its theatrical run with just $208.2 million worldwide, not enough to pay for production and marketing. Even worse, months later, audiences discovered the film at home through streaming services, where it built a dedicated following despite its theatrical shortfall. Of course, the disappointing box office returns froze plans for a sequel, but Dungeons & Dragons 2 might happen after all.

Speaking alongside co-director Daley on The Discourse podcast from The Playlist, Goldstein confirmed that the pair delivered a completed screenplay for a follow-up to Honor Among Thieves. Although Paramount-Skydance has passed on financing the project, Hasbro now controls the search for a new studio partner willing to fund it. “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,” Goldstein said. Daley still underlined that the script they wrote requires a substantial budget, which might complicate sequel plans. “Yes, there are practical realities with the finance contingent, and who knows if it ever gets made, but we were proud of the sequel script and hope that at some point it does find a path,” Daley added. Given how many blockbusters enter production without a script, Dungeons & Dragons 2 definitely has a head start.

Can Dungeons & Dragons 2 Fare Better in Theaters?

Now that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves found its well-deserved audience, a sequel has the chance to fare better in theaters. Furthermore, any sequel already counts on a few structural advantages it can use to increase the stakes of the narrative. During the podcast, Goldstein talked about how he and Daley approached scriptwriting, teasing what fans can expect. “I mean, look, it’s something that is near and dear to our hearts in that we loved making the first one,” Goldstein said. “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.” That means, if Dungeons & Dragons 2 gets made, there will be a bigger focus on the adventure itself, perhaps with improved pacing given the extra runtime the duo can work with now that introductions are over.

“It was very much a product of not-so-great timing when the first movie came out,” Daley added, talking about the distribution hurdles that damaged Honor Among Thieves‘ box office. “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.”

The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened four days after Honor Among Thieves and went on to gross more than $1.3 billion worldwide, dominating theaters and choking all competition. Meanwhile, the Open Game License dispute Daley described began on January 5, 2023, when a leaked draft revealed Wizards of the Coast intended to restrict third-party use of Dungeons & Dragons content, prompting an organized fan boycott. Between that controversy and a marketing campaign that struggled to reach audiences beyond existing tabletop players, Daley and Goldstein now have a clear list of external factors to avoid the second time around. Hopefully that’ll be enough to convince another studio to give them a chance.