‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Directors Admit To “Emasculating” Film’s Male Leads, Claims This Was Done “Not For Woke Reasons” But “Because It’s Funny And Fun And Fresh”

Edgin (Chris Pines) is silenced in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), Paramount Pictures
Edgin (Chris Pines) is silenced in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), Paramount Pictures

Doing their part to continue one of the most uninspired entertainment in recent years, the directing duo of Johnathan Goldstein and Jon Daley have admitted their their upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves emasculates its male leads – though they claim this was not done for “woke reasons”, but because they thought the idea was “funny and fun and fresh”.

Justice Smith plays Simon, Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Chris Pine plays Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

Justice Smith plays Simon, Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Chris Pine plays Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

RELATED: ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Directors Admit To Using Established IP As “A Costume” For Their Own Stories: “We’re Still Going To Make The Movie That We Want To Make”

Goldstein and Daley, perhaps best known as the screenwriters behind the titular web-slinger’s first official MCU outing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, revealed their less-than-flattering approach to their film’s male character during a recent interview with Variety’s Adam B. Vary.

Tom Holland does his best Tobey Maguire impression in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Marvel Entertainment

Following brief discussions regarding their own personal histories with the original game and their ostensibly-respectful-but-ultimately-cynical feelings towards working with established IPs, the pair were eventually met with an observation from Vary that “the lead female characters — Michelle Rodriguez’s Holga and Sophia Lillis’ Doric — are at the forefront of the action scenes, and the men are often hanging back.”

Sophia Lillis plays Doric in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

Sophia Lillis plays Doric in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

“That was not an attempt at wokeness on our part,” defended Goldstein in turn.

“Swear to God, it wasn’t,” Daley backed up his creative partner. “We liked that Holga is the bruiser that does the dirty work for Edgin, and he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. We also love emasculating leading men. ”

Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) acquires a new piece of gear in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), Paramount Pictures

Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) acquires a new piece of gear in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), Paramount Pictures

RELATED: Wizards Of The Coast And Dungeons & Dragons Executive Kyle Brink Demands White Males Leave Tabletop Gaming

“Just because it’s funny and fun and fresh,” said the former Bones star. “It was the dynamic we had with Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman’s characters in [our previous co-directorial outing] Game Night.”

“Or Tom Holland versus Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming,” interjected Goldstein.We like our male heroes to be challenged and not simply heroic.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is unhappy with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Marvel Entertainment

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is unhappy with Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) latest attempt at heroics in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Marvel Entertainment

“What’s funny is that in our casting process on multiple films, we’ve met movie stars that you would think are comfortable enough in their own skin that they would be able to portray themselves in a vulnerable light,” Daley then recalled.

“But a lot of them really don’t feel comfortable doing that,” he continued. “Obviously, we won’t name a name here, but there is a notable movie star,” – Goldstein quickly quips “I can think of two” – “who is so handsome and awesome and will not make himself look weak. That’s so shocking, because to me, that feels like the most fun that you could have as an actor.”

Chris Pine plays Edgin and Regé-Jean Page plays Xenk in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

Chris Pine plays Edgin and Regé-Jean Page plays Xenk in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures.

“I think they think they love to do that,” agreed Goldstein. “But when it comes down to it, they’re not really willing to look foolish or ‘less than’.”

“We’ve talked about this before with [Honor of Thieves star] Chris Pine,” Daley noted as their time with Vary drew to a close. “What we love about Chris is that he’s hyper-aware of that and wants to make himself look as bad as possible, almost to a fault. Sometimes we’re like, “All right, no, you have to be a hero in this moment.”

Chris Pine plays Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

As noted above, despite the duo’s insistence that their decision to emasculate Pine’s, Regé-Jean Page’s, Justice Smith’s, and Hugh Grant’s character is some sort of subversive and ground breaking new story angle, anyone who has engaged with any piece of entertainment in the last decade knows that not only is this idea far from fresh, it’s become outright overused.

From Marvel’s lead Avengers being continually replaced by new female characters who are shown to have better control over their respective power-sets – such as Black Panther, the Hulk, and Thor – in both their films and comics, to Amazon employing every embarrassing ‘girl boss’ writing trope to prop up Galadriel over her male peers in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, there is nary a beloved franchise that hasn’t seen its male characters suffer character assassination in the name of identity politics.

Daisy Head plays Sofina in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is set to roll into theaters on March 31st, 2022.

Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Justice Smith plays Simon and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Justice Smith plays Simon and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

NEXT: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ To Remove Term ‘Race’ From Game Lexicon Due To Its “Prejudiced Links Between Real World And Fantasy Peoples”

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