Given Hollywood’s track record of adapting fantasy games in general, and Dungeons & Dragons in particular, we’ll admit we were skeptical that a new D&D movie could be anything less than a big expensive disaster. But with each new addition to the film’s cast and creative team — Game Night’s Johnathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley! Chris Pine!!! — we are forced to conclude that maybe, just maybe, the Dungeons & Dragons movie is going to be … dare we say, good?
The latest casting announcement seems to confirm that hypothesis. Deadline reports that Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith will join Pine’s adventuring party (we assume — plot details are still being held under wraps). Smith has already starred in a fun big-screen adaptation of a beloved gaming franchise, Detective Pikachu, and Rodriguez is part of the other hit ampersand franchise, Fast & Furious. Both of them have the fun, heightened energy needed to carry a big-budget franchise film. Of course, a D&D movie has wasted an all-star cast before, but as long as Goldstein and Daly don’t put Chris Pine in blue lipstick, we should be okay. Wait, scratch that — we definitely want to see Chris Pine in blue lipstick.