Do the kids from the ’80s D&D cartoon die in Honor Among Thieves?

When Paramount Pictures launched a brief clip from an motion sequence late in the D&D film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a sure subsection of legacy RPG followers instantly jumped on one element. As the movie’s protagonists face a lethal gladiatorial enviornment constructed round a altering maze stuffed with monsters, Edgin the Bard (Chris Pine) notices one other group of adventurers being dumped into the enviornment as effectively: the celebration of displaced kids from the 1983-1985 Saturday-morning cartoon sequence Dungeons & Dragons.

It’s a little bit in-joke for a few of the recreation’s older followers. The cartoon is difficult to search out legally lately — it isn’t streaming, and all earlier DVD releases are out of print, although there are many YouTube uploads on the market. But a era of followers remembers the present so fondly that a number of strains of toys are nonetheless being made to have fun the cartoon’s characters. More not too long ago, a virally well-liked Brazilian automobile business introduced the characters to dwell motion, and at last obtained them residence once more.

The ’80s characters’ look in Honor Among Thieves isn’t only a one-off sight gag, both — they recur all through the scene, they usually don’t accomplish that effectively in the gladiatorial fight that follows. Polygon talked to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves administrators John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to search out out what occurs to these kids after their big-screen cameo.

[Ed. note: Spoilers for some action in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves follow.]

In the gladiatorial-arena sequence, Daley and Goldstein observe Edgin and his celebration as they dodge a displacer beast, a mimic, and numerous traps by means of an ever-changing maze stuffed with traps and weapons. The ’80s characters — Hank the Ranger, Sheila the Thief, Diana the Acrobat, Eric the Cavalier, Presto the Wizard, and Bobby the Barbarian — additionally run by means of the maze, choosing up weapons and dodging the hazards.

Daley and Goldstein say that getting the rights to the characters’ likenesses was simple sufficient, since TSR owned them, and they might have been a part of the property bought by Wizards of the Coast. “The rights are kind of baked into the movie, just because it’s D&D,” Daley tells Polygon.

The solely precise problem with the sequence was determining the right way to make the cartoon characters match into the aesthetic of Honor Among Thieves’ world, whereas nonetheless being recognizable.

“The biggest struggle was trying to find a way to depict them,” Daley says. “Something that didn’t look too absurdly cartoonish. Because they’re based on this brightly colored cartoon. We didn’t want them to stick out like a sore thumb. So it was a real process.”

“We also had to find an adult to play Bobby the Barbarian,” Goldstein says. “Because working with a kid limits your hours. So we found a very muscular, not very tall man to play that role.”

Image: Paramount Pictures

One component is lacking from the celebration: Bobby’s pet unicorn, Uni. There are apparent budgetary causes for not designing a novel CG creature for such a short cameo look. But given how typically the cartoon’s plots revolved round the celebration having to rescue him or backtrack for him, the place’s Uni in Honor Among Thieves?

“They took Uni away,” Goldstein says.

“You know, it’s funny — I think the conscious decision was the idea that in these games, you’re not allowed to have an animal,” Daley says. “Uni unfortunately wasn’t able to participate.”

But what occurs to the ’80s characters in Honor Among Thieves? Edgin’s celebration finally discover them locked in an enormous brass cage, and strikes to free them. (Or be part of them? It seems as if the kids are no less than secure from maruading monsters inside that cage.) But the protagonists change their minds and run off, leaving the ’80s kids in the cage. Shortly after that, the villain Sofina (Daisy Head), one in all the Red Wizards of Thay, drops a large spell referred to as Beckoning Death on the enviornment to show everybody current into undead monsters. Edgin and his crew have escaped by then, and the enviornment has emptied, however — aren’t the ’80s kids nonetheless locked in that cage?

“We don’t kill them off,” Goldstein says. “The last we see in the movie, they’re safely in the Cage of Sanctuary, and they’ve escaped from the displacer beast. So let’s assume good things.”

Daley takes a harder-line tack: He thinks the Beckoning Dead spell might have gotten them in spite of everything. “We suggested that, but we would never overtly state it. Because I think we’re not allowed,” he says. “It’s like the spinning top at the end of Inception.”

Paramount, for its half, didn’t weigh in with an official reply to the query. But the studio did channel the ’80s characters in its personal means, by releasing a brief clip from the TV sequence with new audio, mocking the “rules lawyers” who griped about the film’s breach of fifth version Dungeons & Dragons guidelines. We don’t know whether or not these kids are nonetheless alive in the film canon, or they’ve develop into undead monsters — however we do know that 5 out of six of them approve of druid characters turning into owlbears.