The Mists are gathering at Netflix, as the streamer is developing ‘Ravenloft’, a new live-action Dungeons & Dragons series from writer John August, filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón and Hasbro Entertainment.
The project is a fresh attempt to bring D&D to television and, importantly, is not connected to ‘The Forgotten Realms’, the previously announced Netflix series which entered development in 2025 with Drew Crevello writing and Shawn Levy executive producing. That project is no longer moving forward at the streamer.
Rather than heading into the more traditional high-fantasy territory of ‘The Forgotten Realms’, ‘Ravenloft’ will lean into one of the darker corners of the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The series is being developed as a prestige fantasy mixing adventure, gothic horror and tragic romance, with the story centred on the origins of vampire Darklord Strahd von Zarovich.
The drama will chart Strahd’s journey through power, love and obsession, leading to his undead transformation and eventual status as one of D&D‘s most infamous villains. For anyone who likes their fantasy with fewer sunny taverns and rather more cursed castles, supernatural intrigue and terrible life choices, this could be a particularly interesting corner of the franchise to explore.
The Ravenloft campaign setting was originally introduced to Dungeons & Dragons in 1983 by Tracy and Laura Hickman, and has since grown into one of the tabletop game’s best-known settings. The gothic-horror world has expanded through novels, campaign modules, video games and companion rulebooks, while Strahd himself has become one of the franchise’s most recognisable villains.
The character and setting also received a recent pop-culture boost thanks to references in the finale of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’, a series which had been weaving Dungeons & Dragons into its mythology from the very beginning.
John August will write and executive produce ‘Ravenloft’. His credits make him a particularly good fit for the material, having written or co-written five Tim Burton films: Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie. His other film work includes Go, Charlie’s Angels and Aladdin.
Alfonso Cuarón will executive produce through Esperanto Filmoj alongside Richard Schwartz and Gaby Rodriguez, with Gabriel Marano executive producing for Hasbro. Cuarón previously worked with Netflix on Roma, which earned 10 Oscar nominations and won three, including Best Director and Best Cinematography for Cuarón.
The project also arrives after several previous attempts to get a live-action Dungeons & Dragons series onto television. Paramount+ previously gave a different adaptation a straight-to-series order in 2023, but that ultimately failed to move forward. Hasbro does, however, still have ‘Baldur’s Gate’ in development at HBO, with Craig Mazin, co-creator of HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’, working on the adaptation of the hugely successful video game franchise.
There is no word yet on casting or when production could begin, and Netflix has not ordered the project to series at this stage. Given the number of D&D television adaptations which have disappeared into the development dungeon over the past few years, it is probably wise not to book a trip to Castle Ravenloft just yet. Still, Strahd, John August and Alfonso Cuarón is a pretty compelling combination on paper.
‘Ravenloft’ is currently in development at Netflix, so may or may not go to series. We’ll let you know when we hear more.
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