Upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie is reportedly delving deep into the RPG’s history

The upcoming Dungeon & Dragons movie will focus on cursed item of supreme power the Eye of Vecna. The gnarled organ first appeared in 1976, and is still included in 5E lore.

The news comes following a recent report from Comicbook.com based on claims from an anonymous source.

Vecna - also known as ‘The Undying King’ or ‘The Maimed One’ - was an unspeakably evil arch-lich. His leftover eye and hand can grant unknowable power, but at a cost.

According to the D&D 5E Dungeon Master’s Guide, the user must gouge out their own eye and place the Eye of Vecna inside the socket to attune. The eye then grafts itself in your head, and if you ever remove it: you die.

While the eye grants plentiful benefits such as truesight (which lets you see the ethereal plane and invisibility, among other things) and X-ray vision, every time you cast a spell using it, there is a five percent chance that Vecna will tear your soul from you, devour it, then control you like some kind of sad meat puppet.

A similar process is followed for the rotted hand, which can force you to commit an evil act every time you use it.

Filmwise, Comicbook.com reports that a group of adventurers will be seeking the Eye of Vecna. These characters will comprise grieving, flame sword-wielding ex-slave fighter Raven Hightower, gnome thief Olivan Trickfoot, seven-foot scaly half-dragon Hack Karroway and leader of the masked warriors Alyssa Steelstrong.

However, the upcoming film’s main antagonist will not actually be the ages-old lich Vecna - who has already featured in a Critical Role campaign - but instead a white-haired drow who previously enslaved hero Raven. Among the villains is also included lady tiefling Damala and a warrior dubbed ‘the Beast’.

Also included is fierce gold dragon Palarandusk, who is well known within the Forgotten Realms setting as ‘The Unseen Protector’. He lives in the Sword Coast - where popular Forgotten Realms’ cities Waterdeep and Neverwinter reside - and looks after a gnome village. According to the Comicbook.com, rumours are currently circulating that the huge scaly boy will be voiced by Zac Efron.

No actors as of yet have been confirmed, although its main production studio Paramount is said to be seeking a lead among A-Listers such as Will Smith and Chris Pratt. Thus far, directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley - who previously directed black comedy Game Night and wrote Spider-Man: Far From Home together - will be at the helm of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons film.

The last three films within the Dungeons & Dragons canon have been, without respite, bloody awful. Failures both critically and at the box office, the last release in 2000 with Jeremy Irons (and a comedy sidekick turn from Marlon Wayans) bombed. Of the screen adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons, the animated series that ran from 1983 to 1986 is the least reviled.

The Dungeons & Dragons film is reportedly set to hit the big screen in July 2021.