Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Between a preponderance of franchise movies coming out in this coming holiday season, with Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the lead, at least one film with a two-part title promises something relatively fresh. The latest Dungeons and Dragons is Paramount Pictures’ reboot of the prior trilogy (2000-2012), and promises a mix of action and comedic flair, leading off with the star power of Chris Pine, perhaps not unlike what Dwayne Johnson was able to do with the Jumanji franchise.

The musical through-thread for the trailer is a meticulously spliced and edited rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” (1969)—reasonably contemporaneous to D&D’s founding in the mid 70s. It works well as a nostalgia piece for older audiences, while also standing as a classic track for those who may be unfamiliar.

A micro-teaser precedes the trailer proper, which begins with an ominous set by the percussion, the brief introduction culminating in the dragon at 0:25. The iconic Jimmy Page riff for “Whole Lotta Love” leads the studio title cards at 0:30; notice how the phrasing of the riff is synched neatly with the narration. At 0:52 the music cuts, this time synched with a dramatic blackout—only for Pine to deliver a deadpan one-liner, neatly piecing together the film’s mix of action and comedy.

At 0:57, there’s no doubt the editors sought out that landscape of barren ice to coincide with Robert Plant’s initial lyric (“you need cooling”). Note how Plant doesn’t deliver the next line as expected, instead allowing more time and space for the film’s dialogue to proceed. From 1:00 to 1:04 we see some action synched to the beat, at which point Plant resumes. Throughout we experience frequent interruptions of the musical flow for punch lines.

By 1:17 it becomes clear that some real liberties have been taken with the arrangement of the song, with part of the beat spliced and looped. At 1:28 it seems that section of the song may have even been re-recorded or overdubbed in the service of modernizing the track—a straighter beat and heavier guitars provide a solid backdrop for the montage that follows.

At the same time, however, something subtle happens in the arrangement that turns this around, with Zeppelin yielding fresh ideas for trailers accustomed to orchestral epic percussion and unyielding synthesizers. At 1:52, as the warrior leaps towards the dragon in a profile shot, we hear a smattering of toms where we might expect timpani, and the swagger of John Bonham where we might expect fervent, straight eighth notes.

Rather than a straight use of the song, it’s evident that the music editors took advantage of the song’s elements and recognizable timbres and textures to lend a fresher sound to the epic trailer music elements that are now standard fare.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves arrives in theatres March 2023.

— Curtis Perry