As the title suggests, the proposed series will be set in the iconic campaign setting and centerpiece of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, a fantasy world released in 1987 that has become home to some of the brand's most famous characters and the launching pad for some of D&D's most popular adventures. The source material for the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves comes from the Realms setting.
Crevello wrote the pilot and serves as showrunner; he will executive produce the potential series with Levy and Dan Levine of Levy's 21 Laps, sources said.
Ever since Hasbro subsidiary eOne made launching a live Dungeons & Dragons series a top priority in 2021, Netflix felt like a logical home given the big push the streamer has given to the classic fantasy role-playing game through its prominent presence in one of Netflix's biggest series, Stranger Things.
The first incarnation of the project, under the creative supervision of Red Notice filmmaker Rawson Marshall Thurber, with Crevello later joining him as showrunner, landed at Paramount+ in early 2023 with a straight-to-series order and eOne co-produced with Paramount Pictures, the studio behind Honor Among Thieves.
The project ultimately fell through due to a change in strategy at Paramount+ and a change in ownership at eOne, which was acquired by Lionsgate.
With Hasbro's own division Hasbro Entertainment now at the helm, the Dungeons & Dragons adaptation underwent a redevelopment with Crevello at the helm and a brand new concept that had nothing to do with the previous D&D development with Thurber and Paramount or the Honor Among Thieves film.
The project caught the interest of Levy, who made a serendipitous collaboration with it as he is director/executive producer of Stranger Things.
With Levy on board, The Forgotten Realms series has been brought to Netflix, where 21 Laps has a deal. After long negotiations, which is not unusual for an IP of that caliber, the fantasy series is now with the streamer for further development. With success, sources say, it could launch a D&D universe.
Featuring humans, elves, orcs and other fantastical creatures engaged in wars, treasure hunts and campaigns, the D&D game, one of Hasbro's flagship Wizards of the Coast franchises, is led by a host known as the Dungeon Master and uses the company's signature multi-sided dice. More than 50 million fans have played D&D since it launched 49 years ago.
In that time, the D&D multimedia library has expanded to include novels, comic books, video games, and livestream entertainment on Twitch and YouTube. The Forgotten Realms is expanded across all these formats, providing plenty of storylines and IP to base a series on.
Levy recently wrote, produced and directed Marvel's blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine. He is currently working on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.
Crevello created and produced the Apple TV limited series WeCrashed starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway.
As usual, I only know the game by name, so I'm not really biased in that regard.