It remains to be seen if Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves will be popular (and profitable) enough to warrant Hasbro and Paramount making a sequel. It would be a shame if it didn’t, however, as the movie was a blast that stayed nerdy while remaining comprehensible to mass audiences. So if there will be a sequel, we already have an idea of what we’d like to encounter on screen — and we’d only have to roll initiative for a few of them.
A New Adventuring Party
Given the success of the first movie, the obvious thing for an Honour Among Thieves sequel to do would be to reunite Chris Pine’s bard Edgin, Michelle Rodriguez’s barbarian Holga, Justice Smith’s wizard Simon, and Sophia Lillis’ druid Doric for another adventure (and that’s what’ll probably happen). But two of Dungeons & Dragons’ biggest strengths are its boundless creativity and versatility. Focusing on an entirely new group of adventurers would be an excellent way to show different character classes, different magic and magical items, different parts of the Forgotten Realms, and of course different monsters. Plus, having stand-alone movies could be an enticing prospect for potential audiences suffering from superhero franchise fatigue.
A Classic Dungeon
Honour Among Thieves had two dragons, but dungeons? Not so much. Sure, there was the trip to the Underdark to nab the Helm of Disjunction, and there was the humorously gridded labyrinth in the Neverwinter arena, but neither of those were proper dungeons. The second movie should deliver on the second half of “Dungeons & Dragons” and have the party entering the bowels of a castle, an ancient tomb, or mysterious catacombs. It’s a quintessential part of D&D, and a setting that could slot easily into practically any story.
Beholders
We got to see a great many classic D&D monsters in Honour Among Thieves, including Owlbears, Displacer Beasts, and Gelatinous Cubes. But one of D&D’s most iconic monsters deserves its due, and that’s the Beholder. This floating eyeball, covered in tendrils with its own, smaller eyeballs, is a staple of the role-playing game and one of its most recognisable creatures. It’s smart, cunning, has magical powers, and can cast anti-magic as well, making the monster a formidable threat for any hero — and one which would be quite exciting to see on screen.
Waterdeep
Neverwinter is a nicely impressive, populous city that helped viewers understand that D&D is more than just some medieval fantasy. But Waterdeep is the heart and soul of the Forgotten Realms. It’s vastly populated by humans, elves, dwarves, and more, which would showcase the uniquity of the setting even better by its diversity and size. Besides, Neverwinter in the movie didn’t have much of an identity other than “big city with an arena.” Waterdeep has so much diversity in all aspects that practically any story could be told there. A cosmopolitan city where elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, humans, and more all live side by side would help distinguish D&D from other fantasy settings.
A Cleric Casting “Cure Light Wounds”
Dungeons & Dragons fans may have cocked an eyebrow when Edgin asked Simon to heal Holga. After all, magic-users can’t heal people, only clerics can — and Honour Among Thieves didn’t feature any proper clerics. But clerics are a staple of any adventuring party precisely because they’re the ones that can heal characters after they’re inevitably wounded by bad guys. Besides, “Cure Light Wounds” is likely the most used spell in D&D ever, and it deserves its cinematic due.
More Xenk
OK, I know I just said that the sequel should focus on new characters, but I am willing — no, demanding — to make an exception for Regé-Jean Page’s paladin Xenk. His humourlessly deadpan yet amazingly hilarious line delivery stole the movie from its group of thieves, and it was a bummer when he left instead of going on the heist with the others. Xenk deserves more screentime to spend refusing to understand sarcasm, irony, and hyperbolics, and then being a tremendous badass capable of cutting down a dozen enemies in a flash. And we deserve to watch him do all of it.
Non-Evil Orcs
Dungeons & Dragons has been evolving its presentation of certain species, formerly considered monsters, as uniformly evil. This is why it’s a bummer that the only orc seen in Honour Among Thieves threatens Holga with sexual assault shortly after he appears on screen. It would be great to show that D&D, in either game or movie form, doesn’t trade in the stereotyping tropes established by Lord of the Rings (anymore). In fact, give us an orc or half-orc main character.
An Immovable Rod
This may sound random, but the Immovable Rod is one of the most amazing and unique magical items in D&D, and an excellent example of the game’s creativity. Here’s how it works: “This flat iron rod has a button on one end. You can use an action to press the button, which causes the rod to become magically fixed in place. Until you or another creature uses an action to push the button again, the rod doesn’t move, even if it is defying gravity. The rod can hold up to 8,000 pounds of weight. More weight causes the rod to deactivate and fall.” There are a lot of amazing visual possibilities with this bizarre item, from saving someone from plummeting to their death — imagine hanging from a tiny ledge floating unsupported in mid-air — to the ultimate way to stop a pursuer in their tracks.
A Dracolich
We’ve seen so many dragons in movies and on TV, and they all basically look the same. Honour Among Thieves did something unique by showing an incredibly obese dragon, but what’s next? The answer, obviously, is a dracolich — the animated bones of a dragon, held together entirely dark magic and hate. Seeing one of these massive, monstrous creatures on the big screen would be incredibly impressive and memorable.
A Cameo That Isn’t Drizzt Do’Urden
We’ve heard that Wizards of the Coast wants Drizzt Do’Urden, noble Drow ranger and easily D&D’s most popular character, as the focus of the long-in-development D&D TV series. That’s all well and good, but the Forgotten Realms is about much more than just Drizzt, so hopefully a sequel would bring in someone less ubiquitous. There’s Elminster, D&D’s equivalent of Gandalf; Alustriel Silverhand, ruler of Silverymoon; Midnight, the avatar of the goddess of magic; Cyric, the self-hating assassin; and probably some character from the popular Baldur’s Gate video games. And while I might be the only person in the entire world who would 1) know who she is and 2) be excited by her appearance, if Alias from the old Finder’s Stone novels showed up I would freak out.
A 10’x10’ Room With an Orc Guarding a Chest
It’s the oldest gag in Dungeons & Dragons. The group of adventurers creep through catacombs and open a door to find the most basic of battle encounters, with the clearly marked prize for their victory. The scenario is the epitome of an unimaginative DM, so including it in a movie could easily be too meta, which could distract the audience. However, Honour Among Thieves managed to include fan service without ever sacrificing the story of confusing the non-nerds who would have missed them. I think directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein could easily manage to incorporate this classic gag organically into the story.