A sequel to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has been written, but it may never reach a cinema screen. Jonathan Goldstein, who co-wrote and co-directed the 2023 film with John Francis Daley, revealed at Comic-Con that the pair completed a follow-up screenplay — then dampened expectations almost immediately.

Goldstein told ScreenRant the duo "were hired to write" the sequel, but cautioned that the project may not be produced "for a number of financial reasons" because, as he put it, they are "expensive movies to make" (Deadline).

The numbers explain the hesitation. Honor Among Thieves grossed $205 million worldwide against a $150 million production budget — a gap that, once marketing and distribution costs are factored in, left the film short of profitability in its theatrical run. In the language of the business, worldwide gross refers to total box-office revenue across all territories; the studio's share of that is smaller after exhibitors and distribution partners take their cut. By any measure, $205 million against $150 million is a narrow margin.

The film had plenty going for it on paper. It holds a 91% critic rating and a 92% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes — strong marks on both sides of the aisle. Paramount and eOne had banked on the title early, officially announcing it in April 2022, securing a China theatrical release for February 2023, and opening it in the United States on 3 March 2023. The brand recognition of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, owned by Hasbro, was meant to provide a built-in audience.

For fans, the good news is that a finished script exists and the creative team behind the first film is still attached. The harder reality is that enthusiasm from writers and audiences does not, on its own, greenlight a nine-figure production.

The broader Dungeons & Dragons screen landscape has been similarly unsettled. Paramount+ ordered a live-action series in 2023, created by Rawson Marshall Thurber, only to pass on it the following year. Hasbro then shopped the project to Netflix, where it surfaced as a new iteration titled The Forgotten Realms, with Shawn Levy attached and Drew Crevello as writer-showrunner (Deadline).

So the fantasy franchise is not dormant — it has simply migrated. The television side has found a new home at Netflix. The film sequel, though written and ready on the page, sits in limbo while the accounting is weighed against the ambition.