Writer Derek Kolstad (John Wick) wants to keep the Dungeons & Dragons series character-driven and intimate, like Rambo: First Blood, Jaws, and Star Wars.
According to an interview with Collider, Kolstad is very aware of the massive D&D fan community and wants the latest series adaptation of the iconic tabletop RPG to be a tiny “sliver of that world” rather than throwing “everything on screen”.
When you think of our favorite movies, I’d rather do the First Blood version. It’s a guy in the woods being hunted. And it’s very small, but you allude to the other things through conversation. You have your USS Indianapolis [in Jaws], you see something in the background. You hear a name that 3% of the audience is like, ‘Ho ho, I think we’re going to see him soon.’ I think the thing is just to take a deep breath, to go into it slowly, and to just respect the world, and as you adapt, certain things need to change. But you better not touch the heart and soul of why people love this thing.
He also doesn’t want to do the typical approach, where every little bit of D&D lore is explained from the beginning. Which should come as welcome news for fans tired of having to sit through tutorial adaptations of their favourite franchises that barely touch on what they really love about them.
I want to come near the end where everything is canonical, it’s biblical, it’s happened. Or, it’s about to happen. That way you can revisit certain sequences and storylines that everyone loved in the past through flashback, but where we go is new.
And what might the D&D story be about? Kolstad mentions going “deeper and deeper into the Underdark”, but it’s unclear if he was being literal or just using it as a metaphor for really deep exploration of the lore. In D&D, the Underdark is a vast network of underground caverns and caves inhabited by all manner of hostile beings and beasties.
Alongside the series, a new D&D film adaptation is also in development at Paramount. Kolstad is also working on the live-action adaptation of the Hellsing manga/anime.
Can we get him in on a Dark Tower reboot next? Please?