One of this year’s most anticipated adventure features is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, from writers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. While promoting their film before the world premiere, stars Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis, who play Simon the Sorcerer and Doric the Druid respectively, spoke with Collider’s Steve Weintraub about the making of the movie. While chatting about everything from practical effects to D&D Easter eggs, the pair tell us that Daley and Goldstein, “…infused the story with the spirit of the game,” and compare the practical effects to those in ’80s genre classics like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal.
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In Honor Among Thieves, the world of D&D is brought to life, and like many a campaign, the movie centers on a particularly bizarre team of petty thieves who must embark on a hero’s journey. When Edgin the Bard, played by Chris Pine, and his partner and friend, Holga the Barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), accidentally retrieve an ancient artifact for a cult of Red Wizards looking to bring about the destruction of life as they know it, the pair enlist help to right their wrong. Aided by a ragtag team of individuals, they set out to defeat the most menacing evil they’ve ever faced. In addition to Smith and Lillis, Honor Among Thieves also features Regé-Jean Page as Xenk the Paladin and Hugh Grant as Forge the Rogue.

During their interview, Smith and Lillis discuss the evolution of a script, getting Honor Among Thieves from the page to the screen, and what changed in between. They share what they’re most excited for fans to see, talk about Themberchaud, aka “Chonky,” and what they loved most about the insane practical effects that brought the D&D creatures to life. You can watch the interview in the video above, or read the full transcript below.

COLLIDER: So let me start with a sincere congratulations. The movie’s awesome. You both went to Comic-Con, and Justice traveled to Brazil, you’ve been promoting the movie pretty good. So, how happy are you that the movie is awesome?

SOPHIA LILLIS: I’m relieved.

JUSTICE SMITH: Relieved? That makes me think that you didn’t know if it was awesome, or not.

LILLIS: Well, you never know, you never know. You read a script and you’re like, “Oh, this is fantastic. I really hope it it’s good, and it stays this way.” But you know, the thing with films is that it constantly changes. The script is one film, practically, you shooting it is another film, you editing it makes it an entirely different film.

I think it ended up being– it was a little different than the script, I guess. It’s gonna have to be, but they still had the right elements in it, and they still kept the humor, and I think our chemistry added to it, and everything. And I think, in the end, we made a really good movie, and I actually like it [laughs].

SMITH: Me too.

LILLIS: That’s good.

SMITH: That is good.

Image via Paramount

One of the things about the film is that it’s really funny, the action is well staged, and you actually care about the characters. What are you most excited for audiences to see in the film?

SMITH: Well, with fans, there’s a lot of Easter eggs that we’ve planted for them, and I think they’re gonna be happy. John and Jonathan also infused the story with the spirit of the game by making it funny, and by funny, I mean, like it doesn’t take itself too seriously. When you play the game, which I’ve only played once, but when you play the game, it is kind of just like farting around and trying to make your friends laugh, and I feel like there’s lots of that in the film.

LILLIS: Good job, good answer.

You want to add anything?

LILLIS: Oh, me. You said it pretty well.

I believe the dragon’s name is Chonky, I could be wrong about this.

SMITH: [Laughs] No, that’s not his name! That’s not even kind of his name.

LILLIS: Is it not?

SMITH: No! His name is Themberchaud. Themberchaud, I think.

LILLIS: Oh!

To be clear, I think it was either John or Jonathan that tweeted “Chonky” with the poster. You know what I mean?

SMITH: Ooh, hilarious!

LILLIS: Amazing.

Image via Paramount

Yes, so that’s how I could get confused.

LILLIS: So that’s it’s a nickname.

SMITH: It’s like a pet name for Themberchaud.

Just real quick, what was your reaction when you finally saw the finished effects of that dragon? Because it looks fantastic.

SMITH: It’s incredible. I kind of knew it was going to look like that because we had a lot of practical effects on set, and you could see the character design in the practical effects. There’s a scene where we have a dragon-born beggar, who’s a poor dragon-born creature, and the animatronics on this creature were insane. It blinked, it sweat.

LILLIS: They made a head with like all this facial recognition stuff, and there was a guy in the back also puppeteering it.

SMITH: And there’s a guy in it puppeteering it.

LILLIS: I love physical, practical effects, and I also just kind of like a Labyrinth type of thing. This is more of puppet stuff, but I love Dark Crystal, so seeing that kind of stuff. Sometimes even like the aarakocra people kind of remind me of some of the…

SMITH: But you can tell from that character design what the CGI was going to look like.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is in theaters March 31. For more on the ’80s throwbacks, check out our interview with Pine and Rodriguez below.