When Dungeons & Dragons first debuted as a tabletop game in 1974, it was clear that the game was here to stay. Between the imagination aspect of the game and escaping into dark, uncharted  realms, players could put themselves inside small figurines and create their own characters, some creating campaigns spanning over decades and multiple generations. It’s easy to look at a game like Dungeons & Dragons and feel quite small (like a figurine) to this vast world, and there were many occasions where different forms of Dungeons & Dragons were presented, but no one had attempted to bring the game onto the silver screen. Cut to almost 50 years later, when co-writer/directors John Daley Francis and Jonathan Goldstein brought their childhood love to life, and created their own world in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. To create this world of D&D, costume designer Amanda Monk and costume assistant Georgina Homer found themselves thrown into this brand new world, similar to staff writer Leia Mendoza. 

Leia Mendoza: Hi Amanda! I am so excited to talk to you about Dungeons & Dragons. I actually went to the world premiere at SXSW, and I actually study fashion and costume and I first wanted to talk about the armor of the film. I find that armor is probably the most tedious aspect of wardrobe and costume especially in a film like this. Dungeons & Dragons has a very medieval feel to it and something I feel that was utilized very well is how the armor has each character with their own color palettes. Doric has green, Kira has a yellow color, and Simon also has a cloak that’s yellow and Edgin has blues. When you first read the script, did you have an idea of what colors were going to be for the character’s wardrobe or armor would be based on their personalities, or did you formulate and come up with the essential colors throughout the whole journey of the costume process? 
Amanda Monk: The armor, I think, is always based on the character. Whether it’s good or evil, so obviously the evil had the dark colors and the black and more sinister aspects. We used the armors for others and we had blue underneath and that has the harping color. So a lot of it is obviously is that we used so many references to Dungeons & Dragons because you have to get that side right. This is very much a real important experience for many, many people and they know the world of Dungeons & Dragons so well. John and Jonathan played it as children too, so you’re honoring other people’s knowledge of this world. So of course, that also affects color choices throughout. You’re always doing things for the character and your character indicates the color palettes you’re able to use whether you’re doing good, evil, outlandish, all those things! They relate to whatever color you decide to use in the armor. I just remember the armor was really interesting for us because we wanted to create many different types or armors, we didn’t want it to all look the same. So we used different materials, we used leather and we used studding, different colors and we would re-spray it. We took breast plates from one piece of armor and added it to another to create a different silhouette. We weren’t always tied to a very specific period because it was more of a fantasy realm, so we could actually be more creative with our choices. But the main thing is the numbers and the quantity you need. Obviously, they’re not metal because none of our actors would ever want to be wearing metal, so they’re all made with polyurethane, but when you come to the stunts, you can’t use that because it’s quite uncomfortable too. Quite often, we’d have to make whatever armor was used in a stunt sequence and we would have to re-fabricate it in leather that was more comfortable for the stuntsmen to wear. So, when you just think about armor, it may seem like it’s quite a boring thing to do, it’s actually creatively a massive thing to do and to consider, you consider color, you consider texture, you consider shape, comfort, it’s quite a major consideration and major problems with armor. Strapping it on, I can’t tell you! It’s rubbing here, it’s not fitting well here, you’re like “We just want to strap it in,” but we can’t! You just have to try to make it as comfortable for everybody for the cast and for your stunts, it’s quite a major part, consideration. 

Leia Mendoza: I also caught onto this, but I also really liked the amount of natural resources that was heavily used and was an influence. Doric’s costume specifically, I took floral design when I was much younger and I noticed that there was a lot of tree bark. 
Amanda Monk: Oh yeah!
Leia Mendoza: There was also flora and fauna. What was the experimentation process like, because I had never seen anybody use florals and nature as armor specifically, and what other types of natural resources did you and your team go through before selecting the ones that Doric wore? 
Amanda Monk: Well, we did a lot of research into natural fabrics and anything that you can actually use that is still in development, like bamboo is being used more with fabrics now. We actually used a lot of fabric that was actually made from bark. I’m looking over because I have one of my assistants with me who is working on the movie I’m working on now who also worked with me on D&D, so she’s good to have as someone to jog my memory! We did use that amazing bark fabric we sourced. 
Georgina Homer: Yes!
Amanda Monk: We had a really great buying team on this job and our chief, Klaire Jamsworth, found some amazing fabrics. We used flora and fauna and we used these amazing dried leaves that look like skeletons, which can then spray into coats to make it more hard wearing. You use those within Doric and the..what was it called? 
Georgina Homer: It was emerald enclave. 
Amanda Monk: Emerald enclave! There you go, it’s coming back to me! We just researched a lot of natural fabrics that you can use from fauna and flora, and of course, we can use leather because it was a natural fabric to use. We wove it, we strengthen it.
Georgina Homer: We embossed it. 
Amanda Monk: We studded it, yeah! Our leather work department were very busy on this movie and very creative, I had to say. 

Leia Mendoza: I know that John and Jonathan are such huge Dungeons & Dragons fans, were there any specific pieces were they were leaning more towards a yes or more leaning towards if something wasn’t Dungeons & Dragons since they grew up with it, what were the conversations like?
Amanda Monk: There was always concept art and we always had something drawn up, and we sent something over to them to look at and approve. We used as many people as we could to approve and everybody remembers different aspects of the game, and they play different games. I had to learn all about it from scratch because I’ve never played the game before, so yeah, they always got approval on everything! I can’t remember them actually ever saying “No, that’s not right,” because it was always a collaborative conversation. We drew from their knowledge and we drew from other people that we leaned on quite heavily for research. We went out to the experts and we got their feedback, because the last thing you want to do is to disappoint your audience that loves Dungeons & Dragons. So, it was a very collaborative process and we were all very mindful of getting everything right or not to offend or disappoint most importantly. 

Leia Mendoza: I also feel that because I didn’t know anything about Dungeons & Dragons going into the movie. I remember at the end of it, when I finished, I remember thinking “I have to learn everything about this world,” and I didn’t know one thing. One of the things that I feel that is so important especially with a film like this is the silhouettes and how to differentiate how each character is so uniquely different. I think because it’s also such an iconic game, there’s so many different people who have so many different ideas and perceptions of how these characters should look, or how a character should be styled in these games. Out of all the characters, who did you think was more of an easier silhouette to visualize when you were sketching and who seemed to be the hardest one to get an actual idea started from?
Amanda Monk: Woah, that’s hard! They all had their own challenges, to be honest. You know, Michelle Rodriguez, her barbarian costume for Holga was that we were trying to get the right balance between barbarian but also something a bit sassy. The lookalike armor had another texture, I wouldn’t say any of them were particularly easier than the other because we wanted it very much to be signifying all the different spaces within the game. So, we were mindful of the blurb and we read every type of description for each type of class or race, and we took that as our starting point and obviously there are many images out there to look at and to get references from D&D. We just went from there. I can’t think if anyone was particularly easy, they all had their own challenges. In fact, Edgin probably should’ve been the easiest but ended up being quite difficult, so there you go! You think with the lute-playing bard would be quite an easy costume to come together, but because it’s one of the leads, you have to make it as iconic as you can. That actually became one of the hardest, just finding the right shape of a leather jacket and the right tone for his travels. I’m probably not being very helpful with the answering the question, but they all had their own challenges! I remember with Doric using the fauna and flora, it also had to be sustainable within the movie time. She did a lot of stunts and action, and some of those fabrics were not the most robust.  So, we had to make many versions of it and because we used those as fabrics, they’re quite hard to manipulate sometimes. A fabric made of bark has limitations, so maybe hers was the most challenging in the end. Possibly getting to a point where we were using fauna and flora but we wanted her to look like an action hero. 
Georgina Homer: We were making sure that it worked with everything and that she could move. 
Amanda Monk: She needed to move, so yeah, I think each character had their own sort of little difficulties or considerations, if we shall say! 

Leia Mendoza: No, you answered my question just right, don’t feel like you didn’t answer it right! I can imagine also too with the stunt doubles, the costumes that went into those. Did they have similar material? 
Amanda Monk: We would try and copy exactly the same. We try and use the same costume materials wherever we can because you don’t want the audience to see that switch between the actual lead and the stunt. It’s got to be seamless, so I think costume is one of those things that you hone in on, and if there’s any difference, the game’s over. We tried to use exactly the same fabrics. We had a few tricks up our sleeves occasionally, which might be some 3-D printing to look like another layer and in fact it wasn’t. But, most of the time, and this is mainly more for the armor, so you could move and do fight scenes again. Some of the lower skirt of the armor, we actually cheated and made it out of polyurethane. We actually printed at one point on one of the legs. I didn’t like it too much, but the stunts liked it! I’m very careful of using the same fabrics, you just make it for a different size in order to accommodate stunt padding or the stunt rig harness, but I do try to make the same costume again all the way through, just in the different sizes. 

Leia Mendoza: I think that was my last question, but thank you so much! I love hearing about the armor and costume process especially with such a film like this. 
Amanda Monk: Well, especially since this is what you’re studying, you must love hearing all about this! 

Leia Mendoza: Yes! I always love talking to costume designers because I just feel like there’s so much research and so much that goes into it, and I’m just so fascinated with you guys and your team did for this film. It really translates so well on the screen and I’m sure that every Dungeons & Dragons fan who watched the film really appreciates the different outfits and different creations that your team made. 
Amanda Monk: So far, touch word, we’ve had some really good feedback from D&D fans and players, and for me and my team, has been really important that they loved it! It was a new world to us and it was a new world to many other viewers but also a very well known world to others, and they were the others that I didn’t want to disappoint. So far, the feedback is that they haven’t been disappointed so phew! I think we got away! 

Leia Mendoza: It was so good and congratulations being a part of one of my favorite action film of 2023! I love it so much, the costumes and everything about the film. Thank you so much!
Amanda Monk: It was a pleasure! 
Georgina Homer: Thank you! 

You can watch Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on demand or streaming on MGM+ now.
Check out our review of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves here.