A new campaign begins in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a cinematic adaptation of the classic fantasy RPG board game franchise — which has now shared its first look at a star cast featuring Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodríguez, Chris Pine, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis.
The reveal comes in two months after Paramount Pictures released the film’s initial title drop:
The new images showcase most of the film’s core cast in full costume — with a particular emphasis on acclaimed actor Hugh Grant, who will play the film’s villain, Forge Fletcher:
The Dungeons and Dragons universe encompasses a beloved tabletop role-playing game legacy which goes back all the way to 1974, when it was created by American game designers Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. While D&D, as it’s commonly known, has retained massive culture influence over the course of modern fantasy media, it also experienced a recent renaissance with Stranger Things, in which the core cast routinely play and refer to the iconic game.
The premise is simple — a ‘game master’ or ‘GM’ designs and weaves a fantasy ‘campaign’ to other players, serving as a session’s storyteller-cum-referee. Through a combination of rulesets and dice throws, a group of players — referred to as a ‘party’ — design characters using a combination of skills, traits, and archetypes, navigating through the GM’s adventure using a combination of wits, luck, battle strategy, and common sense.
Over the course of several sessions, players may live to see their characters grow stronger and smarter with each challenge conquered, or watch them die time and time again — often to the group’s collective joy/misery.
The Honor Among Thieves story is largely under wraps, although a synopsis released back in 2021 has given us a brief idea of what’s to come. The plot will likely involve a thief (surprise!) assembling a crew in the wake of a failed heist, with the aim of robbing the conman who stole all his loot. Thieves stealing from thieves, essentially.
A big part of the film’s hype draws down to the ‘classes’ or character archetypes its cast will play. The current 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons offers players twelve different options to choose from — a few of which will be featured front-and-centre in the movie.
Fortunately, the first-look images also feature character icons, giving us a clue as to the character’s classes. Grant’s character, for instance, is indicated to be a backstabbing, sneaky rogue.
First up is the protagonist, played by Chris Pine. Dressed in a leather jacket and wielding a stringed instrument, it’s clear that the actor will play a bard — charismatic musicians who combine charm and magic powers to sing their way through an adventure. If you’re a fan of Jaskier from The Witcher series, you’re in for a treat:
Justice Smith was seen wielding a magic staff of some sort. While you may think this makes him a wizard, he’s actually a sorcerer — a magic user that derives his power from a mystic bloodline, rather than years of study.
Michelle Rodríguez joins in as the team’s muscle — a tattooed barbarian with an axe on her back.
Sophia Lillis will be playing a character called Doric. While her icon and armour suggests that she’ll play a nature-magic powered Druid, she also has horns atop her head. This suggests that Lillis’ character is a ‘tiefling’ a part-human, part-demon mixed race native to D&D’s setting.
Finally, there’s Rege-Jean Page, who has just starred in Netflix’s The Gray Man. He’ll be playing a paladin — an armoured warrior bound by sacred oaths.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will release on March 3, 2023 after several years of delays.
(Featured Image Credits: Paramount Pictures)
