Actors prepare for roles all sorts of ways. If they’re playing a character based on someone in real life, they research that person. If they’re playing a character from a book, they read the book. In the case of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the cast prepared by actually playing a game of D&D. After all, what could be better research than that? It’s not like you can go out and find a Tiamat to fight, or a wizard to give you sage advice.
In the video below, you can see how actors Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis, and Justice Smith played D&D together before production began.
Wizards of the Coast confirmed ( via Dicebreaker) that the main cast ran a one-shot D&D 5E scenario on the day before principal photography began. In fact, this was also on the very first day that the cast ever met in person, so the two-hour tabletop session was used as a bonding exercise for them. We actually think this is something other movies should do when the cast first meet each other, whether the movie is a Dungeons & Dragons one or not. Although we suppose Monopoly might work just as well.
Honestly, we would like to see an expanded edition of this video. How did this campaign go? How long did it go on? What perils did they face together? We have so many questions. From the look of things, it looked like everyone was having a really good time. Chris Pine had so much fun, in fact, that he later went on to play D&D with his family. Although he wasn’t in the movie, it seems like movie star/D&D super fan Joe Manganiello probably should have been invited. It almost feels wrong not having him at a celebrity D&D game, doesn’t it?
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is currently in theaters.