Forget Legend Of Drizzt, This Upcoming D&D Book Gives Us An Even Better (& More Cancel-Proof) Story For A TV Show

With a Legend of Drizzt TV series appearing to be a long shot, one upcoming Dungeons & Dragons book offers up an even better idea for a TV show - mostly because it's more cancelation-proof. Written by bestselling author Delilah S. Dawson and publishing on May 13, 2025, Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of the Strahd will return readers to the familiar realm of Barovia for another adventure. The synopsis teases a thrilling story with some dark elements - and it would make for a great live-action adaptation.

In Ravenloft: Heir of the Strahd, five adventurers find themselves suddenly awaking in the fog-shrouded realm of Barovia, with no knowledge of the other and no memory of how they got there. Their welcome to the land is nightmarish and harrowing, and before they can get their bearings, a mysterious carriage appears carrying an invitation from the evil Strahd von Zarovich, inviting them to dinner at Castle Ravenloft. The five strangers have no choice but to accept if they want to find their way home, but they soon learn that what awaits them inside the fortress may be even more horrifying and dangerous than the misted lands outside. It's a story tailor-made for TV.

A Ravenloft: Heir Of The Strahd TV Show Should Lean Into Horror

Horror Is Huge On TV Now; Fantasy, Not So Much

It's not as though horror has ever experienced a dry spell, but horror TV shows are doing extremely big business right now, and plenty of series are experimenting with the genre. Mike Flanagan's work on Netflix, for example, offers slow-burn, character-study horror in his shows. Anthology series like the ever-changing American Horror Story or Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities offer their horror in smaller bites. And critically acclaimed series like From, The Last of Us, and Evil show that the horror genre is finally starting to be taken seriously as an art form.

Unfortunately, other genre series aren't faring as well. High fantasy and magical realism shows have been getting axed left and right, especially on streaming: Shadow & Bone, Willow, The Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance, and My Lady Jane are just a few fantasy shows that have recently been unceremoniously canceled after just a season or two. Streaming services almost always give vague statements about the cancelation, even of popular shows, leaving audiences frustrated. The explanation given is usually that the budget doesn't justify the viewership numbers, but that's not really an explanation, and it's not clear why the fantasy genre has continually suffered.

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Considering that, it would be really smart for a TV adaptation to lean into the horror elements of Dungeons & Dragons' Strahd and the Ravenloft setting. With the horror genre appearing all but bulletproof and the fantasy genre seeming too vulnerable on TV right now, Ravenloft: Heir of the Strahd has a leg up on other live-action D&D adaptations, such as Legend of Drizzt, as it can operate as a horror show with fantasy elements rather than a fantasy show with horror elements. In doing so, that can help it avoid the fate of so many other fantasy series, or the many Dungeons & Dragons live-action TV shows canceled by Paramount before they had even begun.

Ravenloft: Heir Of The Strahd Could Expand Past The Usual D&D Audience

It Can Introduce A Fresh New Take

Neverwinter Strahd Ravenloft vampire with bats and castles in the background.

Besides being less prone to cancelation, a Ravenloft: Heir of the Strahd TV show has the benefit of expanding beyond the typical D&D audience. Too many people unfamiliar with Dungeons & Dragons remain uninterested because they think it's just all elves and wizards when it's so much more. That's a real shame, because there's great D&D content out there that appeals to people outside the fantasy genre, but they aren't giving it a chance. Just look at how Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves became a Netflix hit after disappointing at the box office, as people who didn't bother to see it in theaters finally watched it at home and loved it. The potential is there, as is the audience.

There's Too Much Potential With Dungeons & Dragons Not To Experiment

Hollywood Would Be Foolish Not To Take The Opportunity

Right now, besides the aforementioned Honor Among Thieves, which seems unlikely to get a sequel, we only have Prime Video's animated The Legend of Vox Machina series, which has been wildly successful. It's been so successful that all three seasons of Vox Machina have achieved a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics score, with the 93% audience score being almost as high. Besides that, an animated series based on The Mighty Nein is also in development at Amazon. And it's recently been announced that Netflix is doing a live-action D&D show, The Forgotten Realms, now that Paramount dropped the ball. But there's still more to mine in D&D.

Virtually anything goes in D&D, and it's an incredible blank slate for the right TV adaptation.

Dungeons & Dragons, like any franchise that is decades old, has a vast world to explore and so much to pull from in terms of stories and characters. Thanks to the wide-open aspect of the gameplay, it's also very easy to get experimental and do something unique while still telling a story within the framework of Dungeons & Dragons. Virtually anything goes in D&D, and it's an incredible blank slate for the right TV adaptation. In an era with so many weird, genre-mashing TV series and daring genre shows finding audiences, it would be an enormous missed opportunity not to explore the universe of D&D to its full potential.