Co-director Jonathan Goldstein revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 that a script for a sequel to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has been written, but the project may never be produced due to financial reasons stemming from the first film’s underwhelming box office performance.
The 2023 fantasy comedy was a critical darling, earning a 91% score from critics and a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the financial reality of the production creates a steep climb for any follow-up. While the film managed a global total of $205.46 million, that sum struggled to recoup an estimated $150 million production budget, according to reports from Variety.
The Completed Script and “Financial Reasons”
Despite the lukewarm theatrical returns, the creative team didn’t stop at the first film. Jonathan Goldstein and co-director John Francis Daley were officially hired to pen a second installment. The script is finished, but Goldstein is candid about the likelihood of it ever hitting a screen. In an interview with ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan at San Diego Comic-Con, the filmmaker admitted that he and his co-writers were hired to write a screenplay for a Dungeons & Dragons sequel.
“We actually wrote a sequel to Dungeons and Dragons. We were hired to write it. I don’t know that it will see the light of day for a number of financial reasons. They’re expensive movies to make, but it’d be great fun to do it. We love that cast, and we think we wrote something that fans would like.”
Jonathan Goldstein, Co-Director
This financial hesitation isn’t just a reaction to the bottom line. Hugh Grant, who played the villainous con artist Forge, questioned the lack of market research prior to the first film’s release in a 2024 interview with Vanity Fair. Grant stated: It’s the biggest mystery to me — why didn’t anyone do market research before? I think that’s what went wrong: basically, people just thought, I don’t want to see a film about this game.
Corporate Instability at Paramount and eOne
The path to a sequel is further cluttered by a series of ownership shifts at the studios involved. The original film was a joint effort between Paramount and Entertainment One (eOne), a subsidiary of Hasbro. Since then, both entities have changed hands.
- Paramount: The distributor was acquired by Skydance Media in August 2025.
- eOne: The production banner was acquired by Lionsgate in December 2023.
These regime changes mean the original champions of the project are gone. Former Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins had previously expressed interest in a second movie, but only on the condition that it be made for less. With Robbins no longer in charge and the company under new ownership, the internal appetite for a high-budget fantasy epic is uncertain.
The Shift Toward Television and Spinoffs
While the big screen looks bleak, the franchise is pivoting toward the small screen. A live-action series was originally in development for Paramount+ but was nixed in May 2024. The project subsequently found a new home at Netflix under the title The Forgotten Realms.
This shift suggests that while a $150 million theatrical budget is too risky, the intellectual property still holds value for streaming platforms.
A History of Box Office Struggles
The struggle to make D&D work in cinema is not a new phenomenon. The first live-action attempt in 2000 was a critical and commercial failure, grossing only $33 million against a $45 million budget. While 2023’s Honor Among Thieves was a massive leap forward in terms of quality and revenue, it still failed to reach the “blockbuster” threshold required to automatically trigger a franchise.
The original film, which premiered on March 31, 2023, faced stiff competition, released between John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which hurt its chances of success. Despite this, it rolled into its opening weekend as the number one movie in theaters domestically.
The current stalemate leaves the ensemble cast—including Chris Pine (Edgin), Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis, Justice Smith, Hugh Grant, Chloe Coleman, Jason Wong, and Bradley Cooper—in a state of limbo. Although Pine expressed confidence in 2023 that a sequel would eventually happen, the reality of 2026 is a finished script with no green light and a studio landscape that has completely shifted beneath it.
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