After a long-gestating legal battle with Courtney Solomon, director of the first Dungeons & Dragons movie and the right’s holder to the film franchise, Warner Bros. is finally making their first casting addition to the live-action movie: Ansel Elgort.

According to Deadline, the young Fault in Our Stars actor, who got more Hollywood street cred for starring in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, is in early negotiations to star. This would mark Elgort’s first hardcore fantasy movie, though he’s been a mainstay of the Divergent sci-fi franchise and appeared in the Chloe Grace Moretz-led remake of Carrie.

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Image via Summit Entertainment

This is certainly a coveted role — becoming the face of the studio’s next big franchise after the DC Extended Universe, Harry Potter, and the LEGO universe — but it didn’t really work the way the actors of the original film probably hoped. Marlon Wayans and Justin Whalins were starting to make a name for themselves, while Jeremy Irons and Thora Birch were already packing some star power. And yet, that film flopped, but hopefully this new take will have better luck.

Legendary recently debuted Warcraft, another hardcore fantasy film based on a beloved D&D-esque property, with little success. (In fact, most critics bashed it.) Even if this new film doesn’t find success, Elgort has enough going on that it wouldn’t harm him much.

Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) is directing Dungeons & Dragons based off a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson (The Conjuring 2). Johnson likened the tone to Guardians of the Galaxy during an interview with Collider.

This new Dungeons & Dragons will be a Guardians of the Galaxy-tone movie in a Tolkien-like universe. Because when you think of all the Hobbit movies and The Lord of the Rings, they have an earnestness to them, and to see something fun, a Raiders romp inside that world, I feel is something the audience has not seen before.


Vin Diesel, a diehard D&D fan, expressed interest in appearing in the film and revealed he had been approached in the past about starring, but that the script at the time wasn’t where he thought it needed to be.

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Image via Paramount Pictures

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