The Lego Batman Movie might not have blown away the box office like its predecessor The Lego Movie did, but it has quickly gained a lot of fans, and it’s done wonders for director Chris McKay. He’s already secured the director’s chair on the Nightwing movie, and now he’s in talks with Paramount to take the reigns of the new Dungeons & Dragons film.
McKay is in talks to direct from a script written by Michael Gillio, with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis producing. This will be one of the first films from AllSpark Pictures, which, of course, intends to create a Hasbro-centric cinematic universe that aims to challenge Marvel’s vaunted MCU.
Dungeons & Dragons is a popular tabletop role-playing game that allows players to build their own adventures in a fantasy environment. Talks of a film adaptation have been long gestating, though there’s perhaps more hope for this project, as Paramount has already set a release date of July 23, 2021.
That means the potential film will arrive after new instalments from G.I. Joe and the Micronauts, while Paramount is also considering rebooting the Transformers franchise after The Last Knight didn’t make much of an impact at the box office. Yes, their idea for a six-film series that has outstayed its welcome with audiences, is to go around and do the whole thing all over again.
It seems unlikely that a Hasbro cinematic universe could ever work akin to the cohesive synergy of the MCU, but studios will continue to try for the box office goldmine that is the interconnected universe until the end of time it seems.
Back to McKay, who is probably unconcerned with any extended universe talk. The timing seems to work out perfectly for him. He revealed that he’s in the middle of casting and getting the script finished for Nightwing, so would likely complete that film before moving onto D&D straight away. He’s also attached as an executive producer for The Lego Sequel.
It’s easy to see why McKay is appealing to Paramount as a D&D director, as he created a manic, hugely fun world in The Lego Batman Movie, the kind any epic fantasy tale is looking to emulate. Fantasy movies, especially ones adapted from popular games are often tricky to adapt to the silver screen (hello, Warcraft), so if he signs on, we’ll wish McKay the very best of luck.
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