How Dungeons & Dragons pulled off the Wild Shape escape: 'It was a lofty endeavor'
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Warning: This article contains mild spoilers from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Among the first ideas that came to directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein when conceiving Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, before they even pitched Paramount, was a sequence involving Doric, a druid now played by It girl Sophia Lillis with the shape-shifting ability known as Wild Shape.
The filmmakers previously tried their hand at a tracking shot (one single, uninterrupted take) with their previous movie Game Night. The camera followed the likes of Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, and Sharon Horgan as they played a high-stakes round of keep-away with one coveted Fabergé egg. With D&D, the duo wanted to one-up themselves.
"It's such a fun and immersive way to tell a story within the context of a scene, as long as it's justified," Daley tells EW in an interview with Goldstein. "Being chased and following the character as it goes from different animals that suit its physical environments just felt like a really delicious way to portray a chase scene."
Paramount Pictures and eOne Sophia Lillis stars as the shape-shifting druid Doric in 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves'
In his pursuit to reunite with his daughter and steal the riches from a backstabbing old cohort, the bard Edgin (Chris Pine) needs the services of a druid, a nature-loving spell-caster with the power of Wild Shape, which allows them to transform into various animals. That's where Doric comes in.
Sneaking into the Neverwinter castle as a fly, Doric spies on Forge (Hugh Grant) in the hopes of finding where he's going to be storing all the winnings from an upcoming tournament. The devious red wizard Sofina (Daisy Head) snuffs her out, forcing Doric to transform in and out of various animal shapes in order to escape the castle with her life. The final cut makes it look like one continuous shot as Doric switches between a mouse, a hawk, a cat, a certain bird creature, and finally a deer. Of course, visual effects sorcery did some of the work, but that provided its own obstacles.
"It was really challenging because, obviously, we were having to fuse multiple sets and outdoor locations in a way that feels like it's all being filmed in one shot," Daley says. "We also tried as much as we could to rely on practical environments. Obviously, our animals were fake for the most part, with the exception of our cat, but it was a lofty endeavor and one that I'm so appreciative of the studio for allowing us to do because I think everyone knew going in that this was going to be über ambitious and really tough to pull off."
According to Goldstein, the sequence evolved as they realized what they logistically could pull off. "When you're in the storyboard and [previsualization] stage, everything seems possible. And then you get closer to it and you have to make certain changes," he says.
Goldstein remembers one version of the sequence where Doric leaps through a wall as a mouse into a dining hall filled with soldiers who try to bash their beer mugs down on top of her as she scurries across the table. Another version gave a different spin to Doric's fall down a chimney and into a small house in cat form.
Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures and eOne John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein on the set of 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves'
"Originally when the cat lands in that little cabin, it looks over and there's a dog growling at it, and then it changed into, I think, a hyena and then eventually changed into Doric," Goldstein explains. "We felt that wasn't quite working. So we had the idea of having a family be there. We shot that family against blue screen in L.A. and merged the two things together."
"There was also a moment when the mouse enters the cell with the prisoner. In order to climb up the wall, it changes into a lizard. That was gonna be the first time that we really showcased that transformation without blocking it with any kind of foreground elements," Daley adds. "We knew that to go from animal to humanoid form is always going to be bizarre-looking. We get into uncanny valley territory that I don't think anyone wants to see Doric in a grotesque half-transformation state, but it was one of those opportunities where it's going from a CG asset to another CG asset."
They felt they could do the Wild Shape more like how Doric transforms from horse to Owlbear earlier in the film. "Ultimately, we couldn't afford to build another animal asset for that sequence, so it stayed a mouse as it's climbing the brick wall to the window," Daley adds.
In a separate interview with EW and her costars, Lillis says she initially assumed she would have to deliver some kind of animal-like movement for the performance. She put in the work before realizing it would largely be done through CG.
"What I did was I watched a lot of animal documentaries and videos of animals and how they move," she says. "Like, how a bird flies off the branch. What do they do first with the arms and the legs? And how do they land? 'Cause I thought I was at least going to do something animal like."
"I also did a movement class and stuff like that," she adds. "It was kind of embarrassing to walk around animal-like."
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