When the Knights of Badassdom trailer debuted at Comic-Con this weekend, it was accompanied by a very understandable moment of meta confusion: It stars actors who’d been swarmed all weekend by Comic-Con fans — like Ryan Kwanten, Peter Dinklage, and Danny Pudi — but now, those actors were essentially playing those fans. The conceit of the film is that Kwanten and Dinklage (joined by a fellow HBO actor, Treme’s Steve Zahn) are D&D-playing nerds given to cosplay and dress-up, but when they accidentally summon an actual succubus, they have to actually fulfill the roles they’ve always fantasized about, Galaxy Quest style. More important, it’s the rare project that puts Kwanten in funny costumes instead of stripping him out of them. (But at least he doesn’t have to contend with rapey were-people in this one. Advantage: Badassdom!)
