Every few weeks, Netflix sends us a list of all the new shows, movies, and specials coming to the streaming service over the next month. It is a fairly comprehensive list, but occasionally the streamer will deliver a few surprises throughout the month as well. That was the case this week when Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves popped up on Netflix and immediately shot up the charts as subscribers began to discover it.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 action comedy film from co-writers and co-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night). Set in the popular D&D setting of the Forgotten Realms, the movie follows a bard who recruits a band of misfits to help him steal an ancient and powerful relic.
Everyone in the cast plays a class from the D&D tabletop game, with Chris Pine as bard Edgin Darvis, Michelle Rodriguez as barbarian Holga Kilgore, Justice Smith as half-elf sorcerer Simon Aumar, Sophia Lillis as tiefling druid Doric, Regé-Jean Page as paladin Xenk Yendar, and Hugh Grant as the conniving rogue Forge Fitzwilliam.
Despite recruiting a star-studded cast, adapting a familiar IP, and receiving stellar reviews from critics, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was not a hit, generating just $208 million on a $150 million budget. It’s a shame, too, because it was easily one of the funniest and most exciting movies of 2023. It’s as deserving of finding a bigger audience as any film Netflix has licensed this year, so here’s hoping it stays on the Top 10 Movies list for a while.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the work of filmmakers who understand that the best way to take stuff like this seriously is not to take it seriously at all, and to have fun with it,” is what Bilge Ebiri in his review for Vulture. Meanwhile, IndieWire noted the film would one day be considered “a treasured classic.”
The timing of its arrival on Netflix is also interesting. Just days ago, reports revealed that Netflix is working with Hasbro on a live-action Dungeons & Dragons series titled The Forgotten Realms. According to Deadline, Netflix might “launch a D&D universe” if its TV series is a success. Honor Among Thieves might help prime audiences for its debut.
In the meantime, everyone with a Netflix subscription reading this should give the movie a shot. It’s unlikely to ever get a sequel after its middling box office performance, but it wouldn’t be the first franchise to be revived by a warm reception on Netflix.
