It has been almost an entire year since the legal issues surrounding the modern take on Dungeons and Dragons were resolved. However, since then we hardly had any information from Wizard of the Coast regarding the project.
Last month, while discussing the new monster manual, the topic came up in the office of WotC. The company has a new president, Chris Cocks, whom we thought would resolve our queries about the project. However, it was Nathan Stewart (director, D&D) who chose to answer:
“We’re actually cruising along,” he said, in an instant. “I’m actually new to movies, so I’m learning as I go. We’re partnering super close with Warner Bros. and I have weekly calls with our Hasbro guy who runs that kind of stuff.
“Rob Letterman [Goosebumps, Gulliver’s Travels] is our director, so we are cranking along, and as far as I can tell we’re actually going on a really, really fast pace for Hollywood. Which is a normal-to-slow pace for everyone else. So we continue to work on the script and storyline with them. Chris Perkins [principal designer for D&D] and the team are very involved so we’re having a lot of back and forth banter.”
Even though nothing has been announced so far about the project, Stewart hoped that they would have something concrete to announce by the end of this year:
“Warner Bros. are really dedicated to the franchise, and they are working closer with us that I frankly expect a Hollywood studio to work with. I’ve got the director and line producer on speed dial if I want, and we visit with them regularly, back and forth, share our stories. There isn’t a revision on scripts or choices that we’re not super involved in.”
Finally, Cocks chose to give his own inputs in the conversation:
“To the point of inclusiveness, the script is still in process,” Cocks said. “But in reading where it is today, it does a really good job of balancing those nods to the core fans, whilst opening up the world to new people. I’ve been impressed by the professionalism of what they are doing.”
Stewart further explained that they are trying to be as inclusive as possible with the new project. It means we might see a vast diversity regarding race, age, sexual orientation and gender in the movie. It appears that inclusivity will be an essential theme of the entire project regarding the new Dungeons and Dragons:
“Warner Bros. obviously owns the project, however,” he added. “So I don’t know what their rollout plan is in terms of how they do that stuff, but in terms of our standpoint, we’re really involved and super confident that it’s going to be the best D&D movie ever. Which is a really low bar.”
