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DnD movie director shows off its most magical practical effects

The director of DnD movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves shares some behind-the-scenes videos of the TTRPG film's best practical effects.

DnD movie practical effects - Paramount Pictures image of Chris Pine being directed on the set of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
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Dungeons and Dragons 

The newly-released Dungeons and Dragons movie is a treasure trove of practical effects, and director John Francis Daley has taken to social media to give fans a further peek behind the scenes. Daley has been sharing videos on Twitter since April 1, and these clips show how Honor Among Thieves brings DnD races and 5e spells to life.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves hit cinemas in the US and UK on March 31. It focuses on a party of adventurers led by Edgin the Bard (Chris Pine), who’s looking to save the world, right a wrong, confront a friend and get his daughter back – all at the same time. While we did spot some DnD movie mistakes based on 5e rules, our DnD movie review should let you know how much we enjoyed this portrayal of the Forgotten Realms.

The film’s core cast is very human-looking (with one very toned-down DnD Tiefling), but Honor Among Thieves introduces plenty of fantastical species as background characters. Daley’s videos show the practical side of bringing a DnD Dragonborn and a baby Tabaxi 5e to life.

“Using motion-capture, our puppeteer (in the background) mouths the dialogue which is translated to the facial movements of our Dragonborn”, Daley explains in a Tweet from April 2.

We also get a closer look at Jarnathan, an Aarakocra 5e with a short but show-stealing part in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Daley also gives us a glimpse of Doric the DnD Druid (Sophia Lillis), whose magic makes for some of the film’s best set pieces. Daley shares a clip of Doric portal-ing into a cluttered carriage, explaining: “To fit the orbiting camera in the carriage, we swung in one wall and swung out the other”.

Daley’s Twitter videos even show off some of the movie’s core DnD setting, the famed city of Neverwinter. The site of many DnD campaigns, Neverwinter seems to have been brought to the big screen with a largely practical set.

Looking for something to watch ahead of your Honor Among Thieves cinema date? Here are our favourite RPG-adjacent Dungeons and Dragons movies. Or, if you’re looking to play, here are the best DnD character builds and DnD character creator recommendations to get started.

Mollie Russell is Wargamer's resident D&D and guides specialist. She has a degree in Creative Writing and English Literature, and you can also find her writing at Pocket Tactics and in various poetry magazines. She's covered some of the biggest and weirdest releases for Wargamer - including the DnD movie, Frosthaven, and Baldur's Gate 3. Mollie is constantly playing Dungeons and Dragons, but she's still on her quest to try every tabletop RPG she can get her hands on. An avid fan of MTG drafts and horror board games, she will take any opportunity to info-dump about why Blood on the Clocktower is the best social deduction game. (She/Her)