D&D on screen in September 2026: a Ravenloft series at Netflix and a finished sequel script
Two pieces of Dungeons and Dragons screen news landed in the first week of September 2026. On 3 September Deadline reported that Netflix is developing Ravenloft, a live-action series about how Strahd von Zarovich became a vampire, written by John August with Alfonso Cuarón as an executive producer, and that the Forgotten Realms series announced in 2025 is no longer in development. Two days later the directors of Honor Among Thieves said the sequel script is finished and they are looking for a studio to make it. Here is what is confirmed, what is not, and why the Strahd choice makes sense.
· 5 min read · TerrainTale
Ravenloft: what was reported on 3 September 2026
Deadline's exclusive, picked up the same afternoon by Engadget, Gizmodo and EN World, describes a prestige fantasy series that follows the making of Strahd von Zarovich, charting his path from tragic antihero to one of the game's most notorious villains. John August is the writer and an executive producer; Alfonso Cuarón is an executive producer; Hasbro Entertainment, which owns the property, is attached. The platform is Netflix.
The outlets disagree on how far along it is. Engadget's headline says Netflix has ordered the series; Gizmodo and EN World say it is in development, which is a stage short of an order. Deadline's own wording, as reported by the others, is development. Treat it as a project in development with a writer attached, not as a show with a cast or a date, because neither has been announced.
Why Strahd, and why August
Strahd is the one D&D villain with a novel-length backstory, a beloved adventure and a character arc that does not need the game to explain it: a conqueror who murders his brother for the woman he loves and is cursed into undeath for it. Curse of Strahd, the 2016 adventure, is regularly cited as the most popular published campaign of the fifth edition era, and its Barovia is a self-contained gothic setting a television audience does not need a rulebook to enter.
August's credits are the reason the pairing reads as deliberate rather than opportunistic. He wrote or co-wrote Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie for Tim Burton, which is the gothic register the pitch describes, and Cuarón's involvement, from Y tu mamá también to Gravity and the third Harry Potter film, is the prestige signal. Whether either stays attached through production is the usual open question.
The Forgotten Realms series is dead
The same report closed the door on the other Netflix D&D project. A live-action Forgotten Realms series, announced in 2025 with Drew Crevello writing and Shawn Levy of Stranger Things producing, is no longer in development. EN World's summary of the Deadline piece gives the reason as difficulty arriving at a strong narrative, with no official statement from Netflix or Hasbro.
That is a common fate for setting-first adaptations. The Forgotten Realms is a continent with a hundred stories and no single one; Ravenloft is one castle with one story, which is why the second pitch is easier to write. Gizmodo's report also notes that a separate Baldur's Gate 3 series remains in development at HBO with Craig Mazin, so the Realms are not entirely off screen.
- Announced 2025: Forgotten Realms, Drew Crevello writing, Shawn Levy producing.
- Reported 3 September 2026: no longer in development, no official reason given.
- Still in development elsewhere: a Baldur's Gate 3 series at HBO, per Gizmodo.
Honor Among Thieves 2: a finished script and no studio
On 5 September 2026 EN World reported, from an interview on The Discourse podcast relayed by The Playlist, that John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who wrote and directed the 2023 film, have finished a script for a sequel. The rights had sat with Paramount through Hasbro, and the filmmakers are now seeking a studio partner to greenlight it. No cast, no date, no studio.
Daley's explanation for why the first film needs a second chance is timing. It opened four days before The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which broke records, and finished at about $208 million worldwide against a budget reported at $150 million, a result that was neither a flop nor a franchise. In the same interview he called the first film a product of not-so-great timing. The film's reputation has grown since, which is the argument the script is making to whichever studio reads it.
What it means for the game, if anything
Probably little in 2026 and possibly a lot in 2028. A Strahd series that reaches screens would send new players to Curse of Strahd and to whatever Wizards publishes to meet them, the way the Baldur's Gate 3 launch did in 2023. For a table running Barovia now, nothing changes; the 2024 rules already handle the adventure, with the Hide and surprise changes the main thing to watch when the party sneaks through Castle Ravenloft.
It is also a reminder of where the money is going. Hasbro Entertainment now has a Ravenloft series, a Baldur's Gate series and a sequel script in various states of not yet made. None of them is a certainty, and a post like this one will need to be reread in a year to see which survived.
Running Strahd's castle on a grid
If the news sends your group back to Barovia, the castle is the fight the series will eventually stage and the one most tables remember. It rewards a map with height, because the castle is towers and stairs and a chapel with a 60-foot ceiling, and it rewards real darkness, because the count sees in it and the party does not. A 3D table with torches that cast shadows does the dread for you; TerrainTale's Crypt kit and the Crypt of the Pale Knight starter scene are a moonlit graveyard and a crypt beneath it, which is roughly where the adventure starts.