Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar, a heroic paladin. Though Xenk only appears for one act, he leaves his mark on the movie as he guides the group through the Underdark to retrieve the Helm.
During a recent interview with ComicBook, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves producer Jeremy Latcham revealed the role of Xenk was originally reserved for a famous D&D character – Drizzt. Latcham explains that Drizzt appeared in the movie's early scripts, but due to an unnamed controversy involving the character, he was replaced by the newly created Xenk. The producer also revealed the large city in Underdark was originally going to be Menzoberranzan, Drizzt's home city. Read what he shared below:
The original plan was for the Xenk character to be Drizzt. And Wizards [of the Coast] had wanted us to add Drizzt. There was some controversy around Drizzt, and we were like,"We might not want to be in middle of that controversy, so let's take Drizzt out of the movie." But we had kind of fallen in love with this idea of a character that shows up for an act. So why don't we refine that and start to make him Xenk? Then [Goldstein and Daley] wrote up this Xenk backstory, and then we dovetailed that into the villain story, and then they came back with a draft that had Xenk in it, and everyone was happy. So that was the evolution there.
The city that we see right before the intellect devourer joke, that was intended to be Menzoberranzan. That was the original intention. I don't know if we ended up leaving it that when we actually did our final internal map. There was some controversy about it based on where we were with Dolblunde, which was kind of a made-up place.
Who Is Drizzt & Why Was He Replaced In The DnD Movie?
Drizzt Do'urden is a legendary character featured in over a dozen Dungeons & Dragons novels by R.A. Salvatore, starting as a ing character in the Icewind Dale trilogy. After exploding in popularity, Drizzt became a prominent character in the Forgotten Realms setting and went on to lead a long series of books, beginning chronologically with The Dark Elf trilogy. In of his character class and backstory, Drizzt is an atypical drow ranger who renounced the malevolent customs of his kind in Menzoberranzan and became a legendary hero in the North.
Latcham didn't reveal what the controversy was that prevented them from featuring Drizzt in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, though he is most likely referring to a statement issued by Wizards of the Coast in 2020 changing how drow are depicted in D&D media. Latcham and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein loved the role that Drizzt played in the early script, though they didn't want to be caught in the midst of a controversy. This is what led them to create the heroic character of Xenk, who got to steal the show instead.
Source: ComicBook
