After nearly a decade of being caught in various phases of development, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has been delighting audiences with its combination of humor, action, and emotion, turning it into one of the surprise hits of the year. Generally, critical responses have been split into two camps — people who play the tabletop game and love the way it doesn’t take itself too seriously while providing an epic sense of adventure, and those who seem to think Marvel was the first and only geeky franchise to do things tongue in cheek, who end up complaining that films have been ruined by the franchise model. Thankfully, that second group is in the minority, and the film is mostly getting the praise it deserves.
Dungeons and Dragons was always bound to be a cult hit, thanks to the sheer devotion and love the game inspires among those who play it. This is also why it shouldn’t be so surprising that the movie has some A-list cast members like Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant. But even more surprising are some of the cameo appearances, especially one big one from a nine-time Oscar nominee and genuine global superstar.
Here are all the cameos in the Dungeons and Dragons movie listed and explained!
Bradley Cooper
We’ll start with the big one: Mr. Limitless himself, Bradley Cooper. The Hollywood heartthrob shows up during a relatively emotional scene in the film, and although his appearance is brief, it’s certainly created a lot of buzz.
Cooper plays a character named Mariamin, who’s the former love interest of the rough, strong warrior Holga (Rodriguez). Throughout the movie, Holga talks with the charming bard Edgin (Pine) about Mariamin, and how she wishes their relationship had worked out. The characters’ journey takes them near the village where her ex-lover lives and Holga takes the opportunity to drop by. What follows is a tender, but funny few moments as the audience realizes that Mariamin is a halfling (who stands at around three feet tall, but still has human-sized proportions), which contrasts heavily with the broad, muscly Rodriguez. The characters share a sweet conversation about their love, before Holga, Edgin, and the rest have to move on.
The A Star is Born actor only had his scene added in post-production, after he’d seen a cut of the movie and loved it. Director, DnD lover, and former Freaks and Geeks star John Francis Daley had previously worked with Cooper on Kitchen Confidential, and as per Variety, this connection is the reason why the serial award winner is involved in Honor Among Thieves.
I did a show [in 2005] called “Kitchen Confidential” with Bradley that only lasted 13 episodes. We had so much fun on that show because the stakes were so low….And, you know, he became a massive, prolific, incredible movie star-slash-filmmaker.
We had thought about a really fun cameo for this part. It was sent to his agent, but I sent him a letter saying like, “It’d be fun to play again.” I got a text from him from a number I didn’t recognize saying, “Yo, is this still John?” And I said, “Who’s this?” Because I’ve gotten weird texts before from strangers. He said, “BC from KC.” I’m like, “What?” “‘Kitchen Confidential!’” I’m like, “Oh, shit!” I immediately called him. He had just seen the film. He called it a triumph, which almost made me cry, because it had been a real long process working on this thing. And he was like, “I’m on board. Sign me up.”
Daley’s co-director Jonathan Goldstein discussed how they recreated the scene, and Daley ran the lines with Cooper. Rodriquez wasn’t required for reshoots as both directors were “really happy with how she played it,” and Cooper’s role was easy to patch in with blue screens.
Although Cooper brought gravitas and star power to the role, there was another unnamed actor who had previously taken the role and was edited out. In that same Variety interview, Daley discussed how hard it had been to get anyone in, thanks to shooting under the U.K.’s strict covid rules:
“We were in COVID, shooting under strict lockdown, especially in the U.K. And so all of the actors that we wanted to bring out, we would have had to quarantine for 10 days. So no one wanted to….It was really hard. There was a filmmaker that was a friend of the court at Paramount, who had been an actor as well and was down to do it…He gave an amazing performance. He was really good and nuanced. But there was always, in the back of our mind, this lingering desire to bring in that sort of dream casting.”
Tom Morello
The second big cameo in Honor Among Thieves (and a much less surprising one) is the famous lover of nerd culture and DnD, Tom Morello. The Rage Against the Machine guitarist portrays Kimathi Stomhollow in the movie, a mountain dwarf with supreme fighting and forging abilities, with a backstory worthy of its own film. The choice was a no-brainer for everyone involved, as the musician plays as Somhollow in his own campaigns, so he already knew the character and his quirks well.
Morello appears in the film when Forge (Hugh Grant) throws the main party of misfits into the High Sun Games. Stormhollow is one of the first victims of the displacer beast, although it’s incredibly hard to tell thanks to his makeup and costume. Morello’s involvement in the DnD world is well documented, and he famously plays in a star-studded game with names like Vince Vaughn and Joe Manganiello.
The cast of Dungeons and Dragons (1983)
While the cameos that non-fans of DnD might notice stop there, those who are well-versed in the game’s lore will also be interested to know that multiple members of the 1983 animated Dungeons and Dragons series make an appearance in the same scene as Morello.
A party who arrive at the maze at the same time as our main cast is made up completely of these voice actors, taking on the following roles: Hank the Ranger (Edgar Abram), Eric the Cavalier (Trevor Kaneswaran), Presto the Wizard (Seamus O’Hara), Bobby the Barbarian (Luke Bennett), Sheila the Thief (Emer McDaid), and Diana the Acrobat (Moe Sasegbon). This is very much a deep cut, though, so if you did spot them, well done!
