As the final season of “Stranger Things” looms on Netflix‘s upcoming calendar, subscribers wonder what might fill the massive, fantasy TV-sized void left after it premieres. But Deadline may have the answer there, and, curiously enough, it involves Shawn Levy.
The outlet reports that Netflix will team up with Hasbro Entertainment, Levy, and “WeCrashed” creator Drew Crevello for a live-action TV take on “The Forgotten Realms,” the “Dungeons & Dragons” campaign setting. First introduced in 1987, the fantasy world swiftly became one of the RGP’s most popular settings. It’s worth noting here that it’s also the source material for the 2023 movie “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” but the upcoming series will not tie into events from that film.
Crevello writes the pilot for “The Forgotten Realms” and serves as showrunner. He’ll also executive produce the series with Levy and Dan Levine of Levi’s 21 Laps banner. “Red Notice” director Rawson Marshall Thurber previously oversaw an initial iteration of the series with Crevello and Hasbro subsidiary eOne at Paramount+ in 2023. However, that project didn’t move forward, partially due to eOne getting acquired by Lionsgate.
“The Forgotten Realms” then returned to Hasbro Entertainment, who redeveloped a new concept unrelated to Paramount‘s original plans and “Honor Among Thieves.” That’s when Levy took interest, and Netflix inevitably got involved. And Netflix has big plans for the IP: if the fantasy series does well, it could be a launching pad for an entire “D&D” universe backed by the streamer.
Now over 50 years old, “Dungeons & Dragons” is one of Hasbro’s most enduring and popular brands, a table-top role-playing game (TTRPG for short) set in a world full of humans, elves, and orcs overseen by a Dungeon Master and navigated by rolls of multisided dice. Since the franchise first launched in 1974, it’s evolved to include novels, videogames, comics books, and more, with “The Forgotten Realms” once its most enduring properties.
Basically, that means if Levy and Crevello’s ‘The Forgotten Realms” catches on with Netflix subscribers, then a whole lot of “D&D” content will be on the screeners over the next decade. But the show needs to finish development first, so don’t expect it on Netflix until late 2026 at the earliest.
