Dungeons & Dragons Live Action Series Scrapped at Paramount+
Paramount+ won’t be going forward with the live action D&D series, ordered back in January of 2023. Hasbro will update the show in its wake.
Last year, Paramount+ ordered an eight-episode series of a live action adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons. This move was something Hasbro/WotC had been hoping for for a long time. But according to new reporting from Deadline, Paramount+ has opted not to move forward with the deal.
The original deal was a part of the then Hasbro-owned eOne, which has since been sold off as the company faced yet another difficult financial year in which Wizards of the Coast was the only profitable arm of the conglomerate. Here’s what we know.
Paramount+ Axes Live Action D&D TV Show Plan – Hasbro to Reassess
The eight-episode series has been shelved for now, per Deadline’s reporting:
“Paramount+ has opted not to proceed with its live-action series based on Hasbro’s wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game franchise.
Now shepherded by Hasbro’s in-house division Hasbro Entertainment following eOne’s December 2023 sale to Lionsgate, the project will undergo a creative update before being taken out to other potential buyers, both production partners and platforms, sources said.”
It seems a big part of the change is a whole new creative team. The original eight-episode series was set to be from Rawson Marshall Thurber of Dodgeball fame, under the showrunning and executive production of Drew Crevello, a writer and former studio executive.
Of course, a live-action series has been a long-time goal of Hasbro WotC. They yearn for a D&D “cinematic universe” full of movies, television series, and tie-in merchandise. Can’t have new action figures without a TV show to tie them to, right?
It’s a playbook that D&D is familiar with. In the 80s, a series of Dungeons & Dragons action figures and a cartoon that featured those action figures as guest stars etched their way into a particular corner of pop culture. Of course, it’s a tricky time right now. Corporate giants are sloughing off the less immediately profitable parts of themselves in the interest of making the number go up.
Studio for Sale
Paramount has also been on the market, with multiple buyers looking closely at it. But it is expensive to make things. And it’s cheap to sell what you already have and to lay people off. That makes any property look ripe for sale.
Perhaps once the dust settles and Paramount finds a buyer or Hasbro Entertainment is able to get out from under the “must appease the shareholders” pressure, a D&D series can actually get made. But right now, it seems almost every corporation is exceedingly risk averse, to almost everyone’s detriment, unless you’re getting that golden parachute baybee.
But for the vast majority of us, this news means we’re not likely to see a D&D TV show anytime soon. For now, if you’re looking to sate that hunger, you might turn to Critical Role’s animated series or watch one of the excellent actual plays put out by people who can afford to take risks on the kinds of entertainment they’re producing.
A D&D show from the Dodgeball guy would’ve been pretty meme-able.
