With Stranger Things coming to an end later this year, Netflix has apparently started searching for its next hit genre series. According to Deadline, Netflix is teaming up with Hasbro to develop a live-action Dungeons & Dragons series to fill that void.
Drew Crevello (WeCrashed) will reportedly serve as writer and showrunner, while Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) is producing. The working title is The Forgotten Realms, a popular campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, which has also been used in video games, comic books, and the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
The series was initially set for Paramount+, with Red Notice director Rawson Marshall Thurber overseeing the project. Crevello eventually hopped on as showrunner, but despite a straight-to-series order, Paramount+ ended up dropping the show.
Hasbro Entertainment ended up picking up the pieces, coming up with an entirely new concept with Crevello in charge. Levy, who has frequently worked with Netflix, became interested in the project and helped bring it to Netflix through his production company, 21 Laps.
If The Forgotten Realms succeeds, Netflix could “launch a D&D universe,” Deadline reports.
Marvel’s recent struggles aside, any network or streamer would kill for an interconnected media universe one-tenth the size of the MCU. Success is anything but guaranteed, of course. Look at Prime Video’s Rings of Power, Universal’s Dark Universe, or Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. That said, Netflix has made far more unlikely adaptations work before.
