Skip to main content

Role Players aims to be definitive Dungeons and Dragons documentary

For a tabletop role-playing game closing in on its 50th anniversary, Dungeons and Dragons has more than just longevity on its side. If anything, the streaming age has only made it more popular than ever. And now, Deadline is reporting that Dungeons and Dragons is getting a feature-length documentary, Role Players.

XTR is producing Role Players, which will be directed by Morgan Jon Fox (The One You Never Forget). According to the company, Role Players will be “the definitive documentary” on all things D&D, including the game’s origins, its rapid rise in popularity, and even the Satanic panic among some parents that claimed the game was the work of the devil during the ’80s. The film will also feature interviews with celebrity fans of the game, as well archival footage that has never been seen before.

One of the most famous paintings from the Dungeons and Dragons franchise.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

“As a director, I am excited to tell the story of D&D, which at its heart is about the true power of learning to work as teams, consuming and creating inclusive narratives,” said Fox in a statement. “There’s nothing more exciting than a legendary game that rose to fame with a little help from the era of Satanic Panic.”

“Through its wildly different levels, times, adventures and possibilities, D&D created its own universe and community,” added XTR’s Justin Lacob. “Capturing the imagination of gamers, misfits, geniuses, and rebels, and had a lasting impact on culture and our lives outside the game.”

Lacob will be executive producing Role Players for XTR alongside Bryn Mooser, Kathryn Everett, and Abazar Khayami. Ted Speaker (Sword of Trust) is also on board as a producer. Filming has already begun for the documentary, but no release date was given. Regardless, it’s well-timed, given that the new live-action movie, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, will hit theaters in 2023. And in 2024, Dungeons and Dragons will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Editors' Recommendations

Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
Welcome to Derry: Bill Skarsgård to return as Pennywise for It prequel series
Bill Skarsgård in It: Chapter One.

Bill Skarsgård is not done in Derry just yet. Per Deadline, Skarsgård will reprise his role as Pennywise for Welcome to Derry, the It prequel series for Max. Skarsgård will star in and executive produce the series. Skarsgård famously played It/Pennywise in 2017's It and its sequel, 2019's It Chapter Two.

In development since March 2022, Welcome to Derry was given the green light in February 2023. The series is set in the 1960s and will explore Pennywise's origins as the evil shape-shifting clown that haunts the children of Derry. Welcome to Derry will consist of nine episodes.

Read more
The best movies on Amazon Prime Video (June 2024)
Kevin Hart and John Cena in Die Har 2: Die Harter.

Amazon Prime Video subscibers are going to have to wait one more day for the June movies to arrive, including Paul Thomas Anderson's classic Punch-Drunk Love. The good news is that Prime Video had one more big release in May that's topping the charts at the moment: Die Hart 2: Die Harter.

Additionally, only a handful of titles were dropped from Prime Video's library for June. So many recent films from Universal Pictures and Paramount remain available. And later this month, Universal's Oppenheimer will be coming to Prime Video as well. Since that's the reigning winner for Best Picture at the Oscars, it's going to be a popular selection.

Read more
The 50 best movies on Netflix right now (June 2024)
Antonio Banderas in Security.

There are better times coming for Netflix this summer, but the first weekend of June is pretty quiet by streaming standards. Jennifer Lopez's sci-fi flick Atlas remains on top of the list of the most popular movies on Netflix. Even Madame Web is hanging around in the top five, while The Super Mario Bros. Movie is once again showing its dominance by climbing up the charts nearly seven months after arriving on Netflix.

This week's newcomers include Security, an action thriller starring Antonio Banderas that went largely unnoticed in 2017. But as we've seen many times before, Netflix subscribers flock to films that never hit it big in theaters. Our second new addition of the week is Butterfly in the Sky, a 2022 documentary about Reading Rainbow.

Read more