Chris Pine is returning as another charismatic lead in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. This character is a little more upbeat than the roles he's been known to play, which wasn't originally the case.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will be the first theatrical release in over twenty years to adapt aspects of the popular role-playing game. The movie follows a group of adventurers as they attempt to recover a long-lost relic - unfortunately, their journey is not without incident. Enemies both old and new stand in the party's way, and they must use every skill they possess to triumph.
Pine's character leads the group on their adventure. Between his tragic backstory and the trials and tribulations the group faces along the way, Pine's Edgin could be forgiven for harboring bitterness. And, in the original script, he did. Pine told Slash Film that when he first read the script, his Dungeons and Dragons character was very different from how Pine ended up playing him. "I think originally he may have skewed a bit more roguish," Pine said, "not in terms of the character, roguish in terms of kind of gruff and easily frustrated, let's say. I guess what I found in reading it was I found Edgin to be really bright and kind of buoyant." Concerning what he saw in the character, Pine said, "He's the guy that always sees the silver lining...There's always something positive to find in the thing. Once I found that entry point into the character, it really made a lot of sense to me. I don't think I'd seen a character like that in a while."
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves isn't the only piece of media utilizing the tabletop role-playing game to tell stories. Earlier this year, the second season of The Legend of Vox Machina was released on Amazon Prime. Based on the first campaign of the popular web series Critical Role, The Legend of Vox Machina takes a similar approach to adapt the dynamics of a Dungeons and Dragons game to the screen. In both, a group of rag-tag, morally ambiguous adventurers band together to fight something larger than themselves. Both include quick quips, magical malfunctions, and adventurers from all backgrounds just trying their best in the face of mortal danger.
While Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves certainly isn't the only popular Dungeons and Dragons content, it is undoubtedly the biggest. The film's success could not only mean future movies set in the same world or with the same cast of characters, but also greater confidence in Dungeons and Dragons movies. The appeal of Dungeons and Dragons has always been the dynamics between friends having fun and finding meaning in a world of imagination - something that is difficult to capture in a movie. However, early reviews of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves suggest that the movie has done just that. Fantasy fans and role-playing fans can hope the movie's success will only lead to more magical content.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves premieres in theaters on March 31st, 2023.
Source: Slash Film
