Nerds of the world, rejoice! Playing Dungeons & Dragons is cool! Finally!
What do Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Drew Barrymore, Stephen Colbert, Mike Myers and Jon Favreau have in common? They all play the game, according to the Hollywood Reporter. As Martin Starr, an actor on the HBO series, “Silicon Valley” says,
“If nerds were still poor and living at their mothers’, nobody would be paying any attention to Dungeons & Dragons. But nerds rule the world, and D&D is making a big comeback — and I’m excited about it.”
For those who have never played, or heard of the game, players pretend to be mystical creatures and beings while using multi-sided die to determine their actions and fates.
It seems natural for actors to take to the game, the article hypothesizes, because what is role-playing but a form of acting?
Dan Harmon, the man behind the TV show, “Community” has taken to creating animated versions of his D&D games and making them available to be downloaded and watched. The resurgence in popularity of one of the most famous role-playing games of all time likely means that another attempt at bringing the movie to life on the big screen is imminent. There have been two previous attempts at making D&D movies and neither has fared well. The next version is expected in theaters at some point in 2018. But even seasoned players have their doubts that a movie will ever capture the thrill of the game.
Still, even among D&D’s most hard-core fans — including 31-year-old Deborah Ann Woll, star of Netflix’s Daredevil and a seasoned Dungeon Master who has spent hours drafting maps from scratch and devising intricate strategies — there is deep skepticism that any film version can capture the essence of what makes the game so beloved. “The adventures I’ve had in Dungeons & Dragons will always be more exciting than anything they could put on a screen,” she says, “because it was me and I lived it, and it was spontaneous. That’s just always going to be more exciting.”
