Is Vecna in ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves?’

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Everyone at some point in time has likely heard of Dungeons & Dragons. The fantasy tabletop role-playing board game has existed since the mid-’70s, but because it’s chock-full of richly layered fantasy lore, it hasn’t always been commercially accessible. That all changed with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Unlike its failed predecessors from the early 2000s, Honor Among Thieves hit every mark, landed every joke, and gave hope for a new era of fantasy films in Hollywood.  

The movie showcases a plethora of monsters and magic, but it was the sight of one specific villain that conjured up memories of a little show on Netflix called Stranger Things. The villain in question, who is seen wearing a red robe, shares a physical resemblance to Vecna from Stranger Things, a humanoid creature whose body has decayed to such an extent that the flesh on his skin is nothing more than raw muscle tendons. He has a hole where his nose should be and his body is overtaken by moveable vines that protrude from the back of his head and extremities. 

Stranger Things famously relies on the creatures and concepts in Dungeons & Dragons, such as Vecna and Demogorgons, for its storyline. It’d only make sense if the red-capped villain in Honor Among Thieves was Vecna. But is he? Or is he just someone who’s also missing a nose?

Is the big bad in Honor Among Thieves Vecna?

A majority of Honor Among Thieves is spent trying to save Edgin’s (Chris Pine) daughter from the clutches of Hugh Grant’s deceptively conniving character Forge. However, the sub-plot lingering in the background is the evil plan brewing inside Forge’s ride-hand Sofina (Daisy Head), a Red Wizard of Thay sorcerer. 

Sofina aims to cast a necromancy spell over the town of Neverwinter and create an army of undead. Partway through the movie, though, we see her conversing with a hooded figure in the shadows and learn that he’s actually the one pulling the strings. Through a flashback sequence, we see said hooded figure casting the very same necromancy spell over a crowd of onlookers, and that’s when we get a good look at his face. And what a face it is. 

It takes only a single glance to see the immediate resemblance between him and Vecna, but as it turns out, he is not Vecna at all. His name is Szass Tam. 

Szass Tam is a character from the Forgotten Realms campaign in D&D. He is the leader of the Red Wizard of Thay and a lich, aka an undead creature, just like Vecna. He is the Zulkir, or ruler, of Necromancy, and based on his failed efforts to successfully turn the town of Neverwinter into an undead army, Honor Among Thieves is likely not the last we’ll see of him.

A sequel to Honor Among Thieves has not been confirmed yet, although the film’s directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are fully on board. Should Paramount Pictures greenlight the project, it’s almost guaranteed that Vecna, ahem sorry, Szass Tam will be back to wreak havoc.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is currently showing in theaters. You can check out our review of the film here.