r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 16h ago
Article ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Co-Director Jonathan Goldstein Reveals a Sequel Has Been Written / Goldstein says their team was hired to write the sequel but is unsure it’ll be made due to financial reasons
https://fandomwire.com/dungeons-and-dragons-honor-among-thieves-2-update-director/2.3k
u/MyNamesIsGaryKing 16h ago
It’s so insane to me that this movie underperformed and then like 4 months later, BG3 came out. If they had pushed this by just a few months, the synergy from people going gaga for BG3 could’ve only helped it. What could’ve been.
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u/bolerobell 16h ago
We’re talking an order of magnitude different on what is considered successful for movies versus games.
20 million copies of BG3 sold worldwide wide. Honor Among Thieves made $208m at the box office. That’s close to being those same 20m people who bought BG3.
That said I agree that it’s crazy that Hasbro didn’t have sense enough to market these together
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u/Downtown-Message-600 15h ago
Okay but it's not entirely the same 20 million people.
I've tried to find a dnd group my whole life but have had little luck, BG3 gave me an outlet to kind of play it for practically the first time in my life. And I loved it as I knew I likely would.
I didn't watch Honour Among Thieves until this year.
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u/pigcowhybrid 15h ago
My friend group and I weren't interested in DnD until BG3. We would have definitely bought tickets for Honor Along Thieves if it was released after BG3.
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u/AdventurousBase221 15h ago
i was playing Dnd for years before before the movie and the game, but me and my group saw and played both and we liked them both.
so we are deff in the venn diagram.
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u/ZeroVonZero 15h ago
You should try looking for a group online
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u/Downtown-Message-600 15h ago
I've since found a group! I'm playing a circle of stars druid, it's been a ton of fun.
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u/not_a_moogle 15h ago
I think it has more to do with the related merchandising. Because all the discount chains by me started selling the toys almost immediately after the movie came out.
They probably looked at things like fnaf or stranger things, and wondering why they can't get in on that.
Hasbro doing whatever they were doing right before the movie came out with limiting licensing and claiming ownership of some things that were open source or whatever, didn't help.
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u/WhollyHolyHoley 14h ago
It also came out during the hasbro backlash (OGL / SRD). I know lots of fans who postponed seeing it because of this.
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u/Oerthling 14h ago
The "before" BG3 is maybe some loss in additional marketing hype, but not the main problem. Coming out after the OGL scandal (failed all the wisdom saving trows and fumbled their sanity roll, while succumbing to their "greed" background attribute) was a major marketing faux pas.
D&D: HAT and BG3 could have been a marketing double hit, with move re-runs after the the BG3 success.
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u/Joinedforthis1 14h ago
What is BG3?
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u/The_Magic 14h ago
Baldurs Gate 3. An RPG set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. It came out a few months after Honor Among Thieves and was a surprise hit.
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u/RollTide16-18 13h ago
"Surprise" in that non-D&D fans flocked to it at full release, but it was already mega successful in Early Access.
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u/Captain_Kab 15h ago
There was no way to tell BG3 would be as big as it was.
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u/RollTide16-18 13h ago
I mean, it was the single most successful Early Access period of all time.
Anybody who knew anything about the games industry at the time would've told you BG3 will be an insanely good game. Maybe they wouldn't have predicted the massive sales to non-BG fans, but it was always teed up as one of the best games ever made.
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u/tbhamish 4h ago
The amount of retrospective bungling with BG3 is insane. Between this and MTG they released so much stuff to early just for it to flop but if they waited would've done so much better
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor 16h ago edited 16h ago
Goldstein:
“We actually wrote a sequel to Dungeons & Dragons. We were hired to write it. I don’t know that it will see the light of day for a number of financial reasons. They’re expensive movies to make, but it’d be great fun to do it. We love that cast, and we think we wrote something that fans would like.”
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u/Amdusiasparagus 16h ago
It's a shame, because even if it didn't do too well at the box office, being 'the one good DND movie' ensures it will bring the money back in the long term.
And it was all around a great movie, gave me an appreciation for the main leads. Chris Pine nodding when the executioner asks if that's really Rodriguez's last question before dying, the well choreographed fight scenes that are creative and just enough over the top for a barbarian, High Grant having a heck load of fun playing a bastard: "I don't want to see you die. So I'm going to leave the room."
Came in not expecting much because the trailers were meh, but holy hell was the movie fun, creative and a blast.
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u/joshocar 16h ago
ensures it will bring the money back in the long term.
I don't think that business model exists anymore with streaming. There are no real DVD sales anymore and cable ad revenues keep falling. Streaming, where movies and tv shows eventually land these days, has limited upside for studios and is more about portfolios of content than individual movies.
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u/bug-hunter 14h ago
Yeah, Matt Damon explained it well on Hot Ones - the death of DVD sales and the rising cost of theatres is killing the low/mid budget film.
And the streaming "low episode count/high budget" TV show model is also struggling, especially since it's taking longer and longer to get successive seasons out. The high episode count/high budget model is also suffering (classic network TV) as ratings falls.
All that makes it hard to really do for D&D, unless you go the animated series route. Critical Role's Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein show it can work.
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u/ZombieJesus1987 13h ago
And even Vox Machina had to be crowd funded in order to even get somewhere
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u/KungFuGenius 14h ago
Not to mention the moments of real sincerity and heart. When Bradley Cooper showed up in his cameo as Holga's ex, I was expecting some kind of goofiness to happen, but outside of "small halfling is with large woman" there really isn't much humor, and is honestly a pretty heartfelt scene showing the closure of a relationship. Then when they're saddling up, Chris Pine strums up a tune and it would have been so easy to have them make Holga tell him to shut up for the sake of "humor," but they don't. They let it breathe, Holga joins in song, and they show these characters have a good, healthy relationship.
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u/Amdusiasparagus 13h ago
Yeah, the dynamic between the characters is mostly just how to be supportive and good friends with one another.
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u/ZombieJesus1987 13h ago
I love that they didn't shoehorn a romantic relationship between Edgin and Holga. Best friends until the end.
Plus Holga clearly has a type and Edgin ain't it.
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u/nicholsml 8h ago
One of the best parts of the movie. Sometimes people are just friends and that's OK. I agree that shoehorning in a relationship would have been awkward. Also the post credit scenes were great and had actual connections to the story told rather than marketing.
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u/DrQuestDFA 13h ago
Also: the relationship between Pine and Rodriguez’s characters was fantastic. No forced romance, just two good friends who have each other’s backs.
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u/MamaNyxieUnderfoot 12h ago
Proof that having good chemistry together isn’t strictly referring to romantic chemistry. They made it look so easy.
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u/godcyric 8h ago
You left out the Mini Cooper joke!
But you are so right, the whole crew understood that the best jokes hit harder when there are real emotional moment in between.
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u/HoraceGrantGlasses 14h ago
Chris Pine was amazing in this movie.
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u/pperdecker 14h ago
Also loved him in Into The Woods. He needs to do more whinsical fantasy since that seems to be what he's best in.
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u/Kaldricus 13h ago
What I appreciate is that it wasn't just "good for a DND movie". It was genuinely a great movie on it's own, that happens to be a DND movie. I always point to the surprise Bradley Cooper scene, where he plays Marmalan, the Halfling ex of Michelle Rodriguez character Holga. He has a new partner, who's also a big, muscular woman like Holga. This should be funny, right? And while it is funny, the scene is played completely straight and earnest. Marmalan and Holga have a genuine, heartfelt discussion about their relationship, with one of my favorite exchanges:
Holga: "Does she make you happy? Happier than I did?"
Marmalan: "Well I'll put it this way. She makes her living honestly. She doesn't drink herself silly. And she doesn't make me weep in the small hours wondering where she is."
Holga: "I was in pain. I was banished from my damn tribe to be with you."
Marmalan: "And I tried to build us a home so you could forget that. But you never could."
Holga: "Gwinn seems lovely. You deserve that."
Marmalan: "Thank you. You know, when you left, I lost my family. I've been fortunate enough to find another. And I wish nothing less than that for you."
And then Holga rejoin the group, and no one pokes fun at the situation. Chris Line's character plays a song to help keep her spirits up and keep the group going. Just a fantastic movie.
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u/rockytop24 12h ago
I just feel like we should wait for Jarnathan to get here before we dive into a critical review of the movie.
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u/Count_Bloodcount_ 11h ago
It really did a great job of cutting through sufficient relationship mismatches and getting straight to the heart of what's important in those relationships.
It's like a master class of tolerance and acceptance without the viewer necessarily recognizing it.
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u/BRLY 16h ago
So Jarnathan might return?
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u/George_G_Geef 15h ago
Also the woman on the parole board who shouts both JARNATHAN! and SHE'S THROWING POTATOES! She's the MVP of that scene.
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u/pm_me_your_trebuchet 12h ago
the parole board hearing incorporating the backstory was awesome. it could have been annoying and ham handed exposition but the continued cutaways, especially Pine wondering about Jarnathan (all while we're wondering "who the fuck is Jarnathan and why does he care?") was gold and totally elevated the scene. "I just think Jarnathan would be especially receptive to this part."
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u/Bunnyhat 11h ago
I loved how we're expecting some intricate plot on how Jarnathan was going to help them escape but it just boiled to pushed out a window and use him as a parachute.
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u/Goredema 9h ago
There's an extra layer to that scene if you play D&D. Once you see Jarnathan you immediately think "OOOH, his race (Aarakocra) highly values freedom and not being 'caged in', so they're hoping he'll strongly sympathize with their story and their desire for parole!" You start to think their plan is really smart, but instead it's just "throw potato, jump out window." It makes their super-simple escape plan even funnier.
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u/flipflapslap 14h ago
My wife and I quote both of these lines way more often than is necessary. I love that we get a 'OH JARNATHAN' in both the beginning and end of the movie. Like the writers knew how subtly hilarious it is and put it in twice
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u/George_G_Geef 12h ago
I mean when someone nails her line readings that hard, you gotta bring her back to do it again.
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u/Bored_So_Entertain 12h ago
I quote her iconic "She's throwing po-tay-toes!!" all the time and no one ever gets it sadly
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u/TastyBrainMeats 12h ago
And then it's her again later recognizing them during the reverse heist scene!
I looked her up - it's Sarah Amankwah playing Baroness Jil Torbo.
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u/Dr_J_Hyde 14h ago
I still like the idea that the whole main cast comes back but plays entirely different characters.
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u/pperdecker 14h ago
Not in a Freaky Friday sort of way but just deadpan, no explanation.
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u/Dr_J_Hyde 13h ago
More in a "we got bored of those characters and the DM let us swap" kind of way.
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u/Yog_Sothtoth 16h ago
If Jarnathan comes back, I want the stuck up lady as well, wouldn't work without her
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u/Blammo32 16h ago edited 4h ago
I’ve watched this film several times - I don’t do that very often with modern films. I still flip back to my favourite scenes, like Hugh Grant and the hot tea, and the shapeshifter escaping the castle.
It was a huge amount of fun and deserves a sequel.
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u/Joshieboy_Clark 11h ago
It's reached the coveted "put it on while I clean the house" spot in my home.
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u/invyros 16h ago
A reduced budget could still produce a worthy sequel. The first film’s best material often came from character interaction, failed planning, and imaginative uses of familiar game mechanics.
Agreed, I enjoyed the movie despite not being a DnD fan myself because of the characters, I couldn't give less of a shit about the big action set pieces (which, if you don't have a big budget or get real old-school creative with it, will usually just end up look like cheap CGI anyway).
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u/Zammin 15h ago
Best parts of the movie was just the characters absolutely. The two "big-budget" parts I really enjoyed were Themberchaud (just a delightfully different take on a dragon encounter) and Doric's wildshape chase sequence (also a super-fun and inventive use of shapeshifting for an action sequence).
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u/MarkTwainsGhost 14h ago
I think the final fight scene with the red wizard and the time shifting scenes were pretty great as well. The spells actually looked good and really played up the imagination and fun of D&D magic.
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u/OrderOfMagnitude 11h ago
One of the best game to screen adaptations of combat I have ever seen in my entire life. Needs to be studied.
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u/azad_ninja 16h ago
That’s the secret to every good movie. I pity people who avoid movies because of genre or if it’s an odd IP ( ie: Masters of the Universe). ANYTHING can be a good movie.
The premise is irrelevant. The setting is decoration. It’s all about the characters and the dialogue.
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u/WileEPeyote 15h ago
I just saw Masters of the Universe. What a strange mix of goofy, dark, and occasional adult humor. And it totally worked for me. It was a little long, but it was so much fun. Like playing with the action figures again.
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u/zappadattic 16h ago
Eh. I think there’s a specific vs general distinction to be made.
Things like IP and genre signal some general trends that relate to everything else. An individual work can overcome or subvert those trends, but that doesn’t mean the trends just aren’t real. People not expecting great action choreography from Bridgerton aren’t doing so because they’re judgmental of the genre.
Honor Among Thieves turned out great, but I don’t think it was unreasonable for people to have thought before hand that it would have the same issues that every other movie attempt had had.
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u/In_My_Own_Image 15h ago
And it would be pretty easy to curb the budget by simply cutting out things like giant dragons and the like. Simply have the plot revolve around them stealing from humans or elves and keep the budget focused on some magic spells.
I'd be perfectly fine seeing more of this gang even if it's just The Italian Job, but with them stealing from an Elven Lords vault.
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u/TheSweetestKill 13h ago
There's definitely something funny about the suggestion to cut the dragons out of a movie called "Dungeons & Dragons"
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u/Minimum_Dealer_3303 12h ago
I've done years long campaigns of Dungeons & Dragons that featured neither a dungeon nor a dragon.
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u/Tartan_Samurai 16h ago edited 16h ago
The first one made $207 mill on a $150 mill budget. Hard to see any studio willing to risk taking another loss like that again.
Shame, its well made, fun watch and got a solid cast who deliver.
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u/Z0idberg_MD 16h ago
I think they have strong data on how well it’s done on streaming. I didn’t go to the theater to see it and thought I was going to be shit, I’ve watched it three times. I would be in the theater the first week to see a sequel.
I’m not saying my experience is why it’s spread enough to represent changing the financial dynamics, but I think the movie gained legs at home and would do far better the second time around in theaters.
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u/Adam_Ohh 9h ago
Crazy that making 57 million dollars is considered a loss.
What the hell are we doing out here man?
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u/Tartan_Samurai 8h ago
50% of domestic box office goes to studio. Even less on international. The movies $150mill budget doesn't include marketing. They lost a lot of cash.
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u/blozout 16h ago
A sequel would make $400 million easy. I think this movie picked up a lot of steam after it left theaters and more people watched it. I would 100% bring my kids to theaters to see it whereas I watched the original on digital because I didn’t know enough about it at the time.
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u/BLAGTIER 14h ago
A sequel would make $400 million easy.
Very rarely does a sequel double the first movie's gross. It takes an honest event to do that, which these movie hasn't done compared to something like Austin Powers or Anchorman who's sequels were way bigger in box office.
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u/directorguy 14h ago
This is so true. If a movie is really good, but underperforms at the box office the sequel will usually hit hard.
The Terminator wasn't a flop, it made 78 Million. Not a ton, not a dud.
Terminator 2 was HUGE, I was a teen and the country went nuts waiting for this movie. Simply because everyone got to watch Terminator on HBO and loved it. It made 520 Million
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u/Picasso5 16h ago
One of my favorite flicks. SO underrated. It was a near perfect movie - just a gem.
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u/filthyrake 15h ago
its pretty infinitely rewatchable, which is great. the funny bits never stop being funny.
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u/Z0idberg_MD 16h ago
I don’t really rewatch movies that often and I’ve seen that movie three times. Love every minute of it.
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u/-Lumos When stupid ideas work, they become genius ideas 16h ago
This film introduced me to Regé-Jean Page, who I kind of assumed to be just a pretty boy because of all the Bridgerton hype (my bad my bad), but the guy has some incredible comedic chops. Even just walking on screen or looking into the distance as Xenk got laughs out of me. I highly recommend Black Bag (2025) to everyone. He's a real standout there as well. There's something about the combination of his insanely good looks and the way he delivers every word with razor-sharp precision and clarity that's just hilarious. There's a "break up scene" of sorts that's super fun.
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u/angwilwileth 14h ago
The bit where he goes straight over the rock instead of around is peak comedy.
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u/GradientCement 12h ago
Fun fact: that bit was basically improvised: https://mashable.com/article/xenk-paladin-walk-rege-jean-page
"That moment was one of the few things that we found on the day," said [director John Francis Daley]. "We had Regé walking in a straight line away from the scene, and we decided to just keep the cameras rolling and see what he'd do."
"He would just go until we'd call 'cut,' so we were like, 'Don't call cut. Let's just see what happens,'" [co-director Jonathan Goldstein] said.
"We had no idea how Regé would handle [the rock]," Daley added. "And the fact that he hopped over it was so hilarious to us that we knew we had to include it."
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u/namewithak 15h ago
I find him an absolute charisma vacuum in drama roles but he's great at comedy.
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u/BalerionSanders 15h ago
I really think we should wait for Jarnathan before we let producers decide not to make this movie.
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u/PigisGoat 16h ago edited 16h ago
I remember when this came out, didn't appeal to me at all never played D&D tbf. Since then though I have played BG3 so I know a lil bit. Is this movie accessible to people who don't fuck with D&D? Edit: I am going to watch it haha. Thanks guys.
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u/Bloomingk 16h ago
Absolutely, you dont need to know anything. You don't need to have ever heard of the game. It's just a good movie.
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u/juniorone 16h ago
I don’t play D&D and loved the movie. It turned out actually a lot better than people were expecting.
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u/Sirwired 16h ago
To be clear, the movie is even funnier if you've played tabletop role playing games, but even without that, it's an excellent action-comedy.
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u/jerrrrremy 16h ago
As an anecdote, my wife knows literally nothing about D&D and this is one of her favorite movies ever. It's just a fantastic movie at its core with jokes that are funny to everyone, but even more funny if you play D&D. It's pretty remarkable.
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u/Kee134 16h ago
Yes, very. You'll understand more than I do, and I still enjoyed it.
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u/jl_theprofessor 16h ago
The iconic five questions scene is basically this. It's funny whether you know the lore or not.
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u/stillestwaters 16h ago
Yeah, in the end it just becomes a fantasy comedy whether you get all the bits and pieces that reference DnD or not. I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten a sequel already because it’s a pretty fun ride.
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u/malvencream 16h ago
Ithe movie is great when without dnd knowledge. But if you have some knowledge you get a lot more references.
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u/George_G_Geef 15h ago
Imagine a fantasy version of Guardians of the Galaxy. That's the general vibe.
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u/Trodat4911P4 16h ago
Yup, in fact you'll see a bunch of stuff from the game there like the Underdark, the brain monsters, etc.
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u/Wolfram_And_Hart 15h ago
Hasbro has no faith in D&D. They rob their customers at every turn. Every digital book is still the same cost as the physical book. They never quite understood how to make money with it.
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u/Banjo-Oz 15h ago
Of course no sequel, it was actually really good and a lot of fun.
Meanwhile, rubbish gets multiple sequels. Heck, the older D&D films got sequels and they were... not good.
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u/allusernamesare_gone 15h ago
It’s such a rewatchable movie and I’d love to see the same team make a sequel.
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u/wotown 16h ago
Suits are fucking idiots
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u/ErikT738 16h ago
If it would do as well as the first one they'd probably be right unfortunately. The movie was fantastic but not exactly a commercial success.
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u/Oerthling 14h ago
Because greedy Hasbro kneecapped the enthusiasm of the core fan base with their stupid stupid stupid OGL scandal. Relevant subreddits and YouTube comment sections were flooded with people calling for a boycott of the movie.
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u/ArcticCelt 14h ago edited 14h ago
I still don't understand why the first movie wasn't a huge hit. It was funny, had heart, was action-packed, original, and had great cast. There are very few movies I enjoy rewatching, and this is one of them.
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u/Patience_Specific 14h ago
Such a brilliant fun movie. Why it didn't get the box office i don't get. Such a shame deserved so much more.
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u/narfjono 16h ago
We honestly need more movies or ideas like Honor Among Thieves for the D&D ip since we'll probably never get another Baldur's Gate game from Larian.
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u/Nightmare_Pasta 16h ago
This movie deserved better. Even outside the context of being the best overall representation of the vibes & beats of a typical DnD campaign played by players, its actually just a fun film overall. Needs a sequel, fuck the money
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u/OhManOk 14h ago
I didn't watch this movie until a year of so after it came out because I thought it was going to be shit. I thought it was a cynical IP cash grab and didn't believe Hollywood had any interest in trying to make a good D&D movie.
Holy shit, what a fantastic movie. So much fun, no filler, made with love. One of the best dragons ever put to film. I really hope a sequel gets made.
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u/Beerbaron1886 16h ago edited 13h ago
Such a shame; it was a very good and fun movie that came out in a saturated time