Casting A Drizzt TV Show: 10 Actors Who Would Be Perfect For Dungeons & Dragons' Dark Elf Hero

Dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden is long overdue for his own movie or TV show, and there are some actors that stand out as candidates for his representative. The drow is unquestionably one of the best-known characters in Dungeons & Dragons since being created by D&D legend and best-selling author R.A. Salvatore. A legend of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, Drizzt Do’Urden journeyed across Icewind Dale in Crystal Shard, the novel marking his debut. Whoever played Drizzt would have to appear ready to tackle the numerous foes that Drizzt encountered in the novels, and others he could fight in the game.

Hailing from the Underdark, Drizzt and his two scimitars faced down mighty opponents, from dragons to sentient crystals and everything in between, but he wasn’t necessarily of mighty stature. 1996’s Heroes’ Lorebook described Drizzt as “5’4… about 130 pounds” and “somewhat larger than a typical dark elf.” Another clue provided in the Lorebook for anyone casting Drizzt was that “his handsome features” were “sharp and well proportioned.” Producers could work off this basic framework to create an epic Drizzt with the violet eyes, long, white hair, and obsidian skin described in the D&D world.

10 John MacMillan

The Voice Of The Sandman

John MacMillan played Laenor Velaryon in House of the Dragon for a brief spell, recalling Drizzt with long, white hair. He played “a good man and a fine knight,” in Daemon Targaryen’s words. Although Daemon commented that this would bore Rhaenyra to death, this kindness and honor is a good reference for Drizzt. Though lacking perhaps in the dark edge that may be important for Drizzt, Velaryon had an enduring legacy as a dragonrider, as proved by his dragon’s restlessness without him.

His legacy was to pass to his bastard half-brother, Addam of Hull, who also recalled Drizzt in a few ways. MacMillan also voiced a version of the mysterious fantasy icon the Sandman in a podcast, proving his gravitas for a role like Drizzt. As a relative unknown, MacMillan would be a blank canvas, providing an opportunity to become Drizzt completely and allow the role to take over his career. This kind of franchise-spanning actor would work well, considering the mountain of material available on Drizzt, from games to novels and comics.

9 Fabien Frankel

Ser Criston Cole Would Fit The Bill

House of the Dragon’s Fabien Frankel, in the role of Ser Criston Cole, would cut a fearsome figure as Drizzt Do’Urden. Born in 1994, Frankel’s youthful strength is juxtaposed with coldness in his portrayal of Ser Criston, whose moral ambiguity only darkens as the story continues. Handsome with flowing, long hair, Cole both looks the part and suggests an emotional range suited to playing Drizzt.

Cole is, of course, a skilled soldier, proving Frankel’s ability to manifest Drizzt’s confidence in battle. Across all the books featuring Drizzt, and according to the stats normally attributed to him, the drow is intelligent, which Frankel plays well as Cole and in other roles. Frankel’s breakout role in House of the Dragon sets him up well to fully embrace a new role that could take up many years and many movies or seasons.

House of the Dragon

Taking place about 172 years before the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon tells the tale of the rise of the Targaryens, the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria. The popular HBO spinoff show first starred Milly Alcock and Emily Carey as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower before they were replaced by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who play the older versions of the characters. Also starring in the series is Matt Smith (Prince Daemon Targaryen) and Paddy Considine as Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys Targaryen.

Cast

Jefferson Hall , Paddy Considine , Fabien Frankel , Ryan Corr , Eve Best , Gavin Spokes , Graham McTavish , Steve Toussaint , Olivia Cooke , Sonoya Mizuno , Bill Paterson , Matthew Needham , Emma D’Arcy , Matt Smith , Rhys Ifans , David Horovitch

Release Date

August 21, 2022

Seasons

2

Directors

Miguel Sapochnik , Clare Kilner , Alan Taylor , Greg Yaitanes , Geeta Vasant Patel , Andrij Parekh

Showrunner

Ryan Condal

Main Genre

Adventure

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8 Dev Patel

The Green Knight As A Dark Elf

Dev Patel gathered valid experience for playing Drizzt as Gawain in The Green Knight. Heroism was complicated for the mysterious, troubled individual played by Patel, and his character defied the narrative traditional for a knight of his sort. Patel proved that he could play a fantasy character in a medieval setting with complexity and an edge.

This menacing story is backed up by Patel’s other roles in a reckoning of Patel’s viability for Drizzt. Patel co-starred alongside Hugh Jackman and Yolandi, of the South African rap outfit Die Antwoord, in the surreal, dystopian sci-fi Chappie movie. He also played Zuko in The Last Airbender, confirming that Patel can aptly play a heroic figure with determination and spirit. Patel also has all the right features to make a Drizzt casting work behind the make-up.

Related

D&D’s Most Famous Hero Has A Novel That Was Never Released

There is a Drizzt Do’Urden D&D novel that has never been released, as it was written by someone other than the main author of the series.

7 Ben Barnes

Prince Caspian Would Fit Drizzt Perfectly

Ben Barnes would be truly an excellent selection for Drizzt. His roles have ranged from pure hero to utter villain to complexly dark leader, sitting somewhere in-between or not quite either. As Dorian Gray, Barnes was a morally decaying Englishman who sold his soul for eternal life. As Prince Caspian of Chronicles of Narnia fame, Barnes was exactly the kind of vibrant knight that Drizzt could take inspiration from.

Oddly, perhaps Barnes’ most relevant role for the part of Drizzt is the villainous Darkling in Shadow and Bone. Barnes’ General Kirigan was increasingly twisted, like Dorian Gray, but still managed to evoke sympathy, even as he turned more and more toward the darkness inside him. This moral complexity is a good note to be able to hit in Dungeons & Dragons’ famous dark elf.

6 Pedro Pascal

The Last Of Us Lead Has Both The Grit And Kindness For Drizzt

The Pedro Pascal seen in The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, even covered from head to toe in armor in The Mandalorian, was as close to tabletop and video game character Drizzt as anything could be on TV or in film. Even in full body armor as the Darksaber-wielding force of nature Din Djarin, Pascal was kind, tender, and gentle in his titular role, proving his capacity to play a multidimensional Drizzt. Fathering Grogu helped Pascal evince this textured portrait, and Pascal’s role as Joel, fathering Ellie in The Last of Us, built on it further.

Playing a Star Wars hero like Din Djarin in The Mandalorian would stand anyone in good stead to play Drizzt, and playing video game character Joel in The Last of Us cements Pascal’s suitability. Pascal may be toward the older side of a Drizzt casting. Having hidden his face and body behind armor for a whole 2 seasons, Pascal revealed quite how age-defying his performance was when he finally removed his helmet. His warm voice and aggression, bubbling underneath quiet restraint, could’ve belonged to a 20-year-old just as easily. Pascal has an ageless quality and the right grit for Drizzt.

5 Ismael Cruz Córdova

The Rings Of Power Elf Has Drizzt’s Intensity & Dexterity

Playing action hero Elf Arondir in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Ismael Cruz Córdova as good as signed up to play Drizzt. Córdova’s striking eyes tell whole stories in seconds in this role and others, launching intensity that seems to travel beyond the screen. This helps paint the picture of Drizzt’s glowing eyes, “violet in hue, even when he uses his infravision (which normally causes creatures’ eyes to glow red),” as described in Heroes’ Lorebook.

Drizzt’s eyes “are the windows to his passionate soul,” and by this measure, Córdova is the right Drizzt. As Arondir, Córdova communicated an uncanny likeness to Drizzt. Calm with a seething inner torment, he mooned over his human love interest, separated from her by racial prejudice and social expectation. This proves that Córdova would nail the nuances of Drizzt’s relationship with Catti-Brie. Performing lots of his own stunts, it’s clear that he can pull off a convincing maximum score for dexterity, which is key for Drizzt as a D&D ranger.

4 Henry Cavill

Drizzt Is More Geralt Of Rivia Than Superman

As easy as it would be to include a slew of Hollywood hunks in a Drizzt fancast, with both Hemsworths narrowly missing a spot, Henry Cavill may be the only one who has truly earned his position. Liam Hemsworth proves his viability for fantasy warrior Drizzt by stepping into Cavill’s shoes for The Witcher season 4, while Chris Hemsworth proved his chops for the role as Thor. But the wholesome good looks and square jaw shared by the Hemsworths and Cavill don’t seem quite sharp-featured enough for Drizzt. And yet Cavill is, somehow, an exception.

Conventionally good-looking, square-jawed, Brad-Pitt-looking actors don’t quite suggest the renegade outsider as much as actors with fewer heartthrob connotations. Where Cavill gets away with it, in this instance, is his experience playing Geralt of Rivia, and his pure and unadulterated commitment to gaming geekery. A painter of Warhammer figures and player of video games, Cavill left his role as Geralt in The Witcher as it wasn’t following the source material. Considered alongside the flowing, white hair of his gruff outsider Geralt, it’s clear that Drizzt would be in safe hands with Cavill.

Related

The Legend Of Drizzt Gave DnD Dark Elves A Great New Origin Option

R.A. Salvatore’s The Legend of Drizzt takes place in the 5e DnD default setting of Forgotten Realms, and provided an ideal backstory for drow heroes.

3 Oscar Isaac

The Otherworldly Actor Sometimes Seems More Elf Than Human

There is something spot-on about Oscar Isaac’s face for a Drizzt casting. His features are handsome, sharp, and well-proportioned, but they also carry a noble grace. In Dune, Isaac’s Duke Atreides was elegant and dignified even in death, and his melancholic gaze during life seemed to stare ahead to that very moment, facing down the constant danger of his role in life with the acceptance of a true leader. This quiet power, control, and modest heroism is what is needed of Drizzt on screen. Drizzt is “outwardly calm and composed,” according to Heroes’ Lorebook, making Isaac perfect for the role.

Isaac was also a hero on the level of Drizzt voicing an animated version of Spider-Man and playing Star Wars Resistance operative Poe Dameron in The Rise of Skywalker, The Last Jedi, and The Force Awakens. But these heroes are quite unique in Isaac’s career, because he seems far more lonely and sinister in most of his other roles, like Atreides. And that’s what guarantees that Oscar Isaac would give Drizzt depth above and beyond what most actors are capable of, while maintaining the star quality of a leading action hero.

2 Clinton Liberty

The Bastard Son & Ascendant Dragonrider Of House Of The Dragon

Born in 1998, Nigerian/Jamaican-Irish actor and dancer Clinton Liberty is currently best known for playing Addam of Hull in House of the Dragon, but this breakout talent is the perfect blank slate from which to build an iconic Drizzt from scratch. A bastard son and dragonrider moving upwards in rank and society, Hull is a social outsider in Rhaenyra’s court, searing forwards, proving his worth effortlessly with every move he makes. It’s not hard at all to see him playing Drizzt.

Drizzt also faced social rejection and prejudice in light of the violent acts of his culture. To what extent a movie or TV show would choose to portray this side of Drizzt’s background or not is uncertain, as Dungeons & Dragons faced controversy for its generalizations of Drow culture. Either way, Liberty’s youthful spark and complexity beyond his years should make him a serious candidate to play the ancient but youthful-looking Drizzt if any adaptation should finally start materializing.

1 Jacob Anderson

Vampire Grey Worm Is The Stoic Hero Needed

There may be no one currently working more suited to the role of Drizzt Do’Urden than Jacob Anderson. Drizzt is described as stoic in the books, and Anderson cut his teeth in Game of Thrones on what may be one of the most stoic roles in the history of film and TV. Anderson’s Grey Worm was a lesson in control. In this role, his sharp, angular features were handsome and haunted at the same time, like Drizzt’s should be. Grey Worm demonstrated his ferocity with a sword again and again – there is a lot of Drizzt in this steely warrior.

Anderson built on this icy fighter in his next big role as the ancient vampire Louie de Pointe du Lac in AMC+’s Interview with the Vampire. This character-driven fantasy allowed Jacob Anderson to shine like never before, following him from supernatural calmness to gut-wrenching drama and stylized hyperviolence. The searing intensity behind his eyes carried the difficult subject matter, and he was effortlessly at once a threat, a victim, a hero, and not always right all the time. This experience is deeply relevant, and Anderson may be the Drizzt that the world needs the most.

Dungeons and Dragons

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Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.

Original Release Date

1974-00-00

Publisher

TSR Inc. , Wizards of the Coast

Designer

E. Gary Gygax , Dave Arneson

Player Count

2-7 Players