Famous nerd Joe Manganiello to co-direct Dungeons & Dragons documentary

A new Dungeons & Dragons movie (called Honor Among Thieves and starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Regé-Jean Page) is coming next year, but it’s not the only way that Hasbro’s eOne studio is planning to celebrate the iconic role-playing brand. The company has also signed off on a documentary about the history of the game from Joe Manganiello (who is not only a famous fan but an “official ambassador”) and Kyle Newman (director of gamer comedy 1UP) in honor of Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th anniversary… which is in two years. So there’ll be a bit of a wait.

But hopefully the wait will be worth it, because Deadline says the two filmmakers have spent years getting the exclusive rights to “over 400 hours of archived, never-before-seen footage going back to the game’s creation in the early 1970s.” They’ll also have the cooperation of current rights holder Wizards Of The Coast, which has given them “access to highly confidential developments concerning the game and brand.” Highly confidential! Ooh la la.

There will also be interviews with other famous fans, which we assume at least means all of the celebrity nerds in Manganiello’s famous Hollywood D&D group (like Vince Vaughn, Tom Morello, and Game Of Thrones’ D.B. Weiss). Beyond the appearances from people like that, it will be interesting to see how much of the eventual documentary focuses on the actual creation of the game by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and how much will be about Wizards of The Coast’s (and now Hasbro’s) expansion and stewardship of the brand.

Again, there’s plenty of time before anyone needs to figure it out, with the documentary not scheduled to come out until 2024. It’ll also be kind of awkward if the scripted D&D movie is a flop and this documentary is all about how wonderful and iconic the brand is, so let’s cross our fingers that it doesn’t work out like that.