Posted in: Audio Dramas, Comics, TV | Tagged: Audio Drama, Dungeon Masters, dungeons and dragons, felicia day, jon hamm, podcast, QCode, Tabletop RPG, Temple Hill, wil wheaton

Jon Hamm to Lead Dungeons and Dragons-Based Drama Thriller Podcast

Jon Hamm will star in Dungeon Masters, a podcast thriller based on a real-life missing persons case centered around Dungeons and Dragons.

Jon Hamm will star in and executive produce a new audio drama thriller series called Dungeon Masters, which will be produced by QCode and Smile and Twilight producer Temple Hill. The series is created, written, and directed by journalist and author David Kushner, based on his research and writing about the table-top RPG Dungeons & Dragons, inspired by the real-life missing person case which inadvertently made the game (in)famous and contributed to the (in hindsight, ridiculous) moral panic over the game. Come on, if you're reading Bleeding Cool, you already know what Dungeons & Dragons is, and we call it D&D.

Set in 1979, the series gives listeners a behind-the-curtain look into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, told through the lenses of private investigator William Dear (Hamm), a swashbuckling-style tough guy, and creator of the game, Gary Gygax (Wil Wheaton). The series follows Dear on his quest to find Dallas Egbert, a Michigan State student who supposedly disappeared in the steam tunnels under his University while enacting a real-life version of D&D.

The rest of the cast are already players of Dungeons and Dragons in real life, including Wil Wheaton (Star Trek), Felicia Day (Supernatural, Third Eye), Kristian Nairn (Game of Thrones), Emily Axford (Adam Ruins Everything), Anjali Bhimani (Ms. Marvel) and Mark Daugherty (Captain Marvel). Hamm, Kushner, QCODE and Temple Hill Entertainment are the producers. The series will premiere on August 12th.

Hamm said, "It was great to delve into the mystery of Dallas Egbert with this talented team and group of actors. I'm excited for listeners to follow the journey of William Dear and immerse themselves in the series."

Kushner, one of the most optioned journalists in Hollywood, said. "I've been obsessed with the disappearance of Dallas Egbert since I was a kid playing D&D. When I was interviewing the game's co-creator Gary Gygax for Wired, he told me how influential Dallas's disappearance was on the game. I always thought the real story of William Dear's search for Dallas would be an amazing way to immerse people into the world of the game and the gamers who play it. And since the game is built on storytelling, it felt perfect for a podcast."

Multiple QCode podcasts have been developed as TV series or movies. We understand there are conversations about this material potentially making its way to the screen, too.

Please Note: Whether Egbert really was LARPing D&D during his disappearance was never proven or confirmed, despite being a hook for both Dear's eventual book that this series is inspired by and the media hysteria about the game, so take this series in the spirit of fiction and entertainment as it was intended: with a grain of salt.

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