Chaotic Good Chris Pine Rolls for Initiative, Will Star in Dungeons & Dragons Project

Deadline has reported that Chris Pine has signed on to star in a Dungeons & Dragons film, which the studio hopes will be the start of a new franchise.  UPDATE 12/15/20: Deadline has updated their article to clarify that he’s still in talks for the part.

Chris Pine is the first major star to be announced for the Dungeons & Dragons film project, though there’s been discussion of it for a while.  Back in 2019, we learned Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley were set to direct the script they’d previously written based on a draft by Michael Gilio. Prior to that, there was a bit of back and forth in the courts to get the rights to make the film. The upcoming movie is being produced by Hasbro/eOne and Paramount. It’s scheduled to start filming early next year with a release date in 2022.

Not much is known about the actual plot of the film, and since the roleplaying game has a fairly open plot that is up to the will of the DM, they can really take it anywhere. The vagueness of it all means we could get some pretty great fanart as we try to figure out just what the heck we’re going to get. I am personally hoping for some Chris Pine elf art. Please oh please someone create some fanart like this. 

In fact, let’s create a campaign with Pine themed characters and play a campaign. Elf!Pine, Orc!Pine, and Dwarf!Pine walk into a tavern and flirt with Barmaid!Pine. Who wants to join me on this epic Pine Campaign? Let’s go!

Of course, this could all go very horribly awry. Dungeons & Dragons is arguably the most well-known RPG out there. While it’s a very open-ended game, I don’t doubt there will be some unpopular decisions made along the way. You can’t have a popular adaption without running that risk. Pine himself knows this very well from his part in Star Trek (which I actually enjoyed very much). Right now vibes among geeks seem cautious, but not outraged quite yet, so maybe this will turn out alright!

For those who are mostly excited to see Chris Pine on the big screen (which, hey, no judgement, I’m like that with Oscar Isaac), you don’t have to wait for this film to come out before getting your fix. Wonder Woman 1984 will be up on HBO in just 11 short days, and he’s got several other projects in production or post-production between here or there, so we’ll get our Pine fix no problem. And if this franchise ends up taking off, we should get plenty of Pine on the big screen post-2022, as well.

I’m cautiously optimistic about this. It could go either way, but Pine being selected to star in it means it’ll be at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing. How close to the actual D&D lore it will end up being, or how quality the script or production value is going to be is still up in the air. I’m not too terribly familiar with either writer and only hope they do justice to such an iconic piece of geek culture. We’ll see, I guess.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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