Dungeons & Dragons movie stages Freaks And Geeks reunion sans Freaks
Like certain residents of the Overlook Hotel, Sam, Neil, and Bill have always been here.
Film News Freaks
The titular geeks of Freaks And Geeks, Paul Fieg and Judd Apatow’s seminal and culture-shifting coming-of-age dramedy, are still rolling the dice in Sam’s basement. Well, that is if a new video promoting Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is to be believed. Though their voices have dropped an octave or three and their beards are now as full as the day as long, Martin Starr, Samm Levine, and Honor Among Thieves co-director John Francis Daley slip back into their alter-egos with relative ease. Levine, for example, never lost that incredulous furrowed brow of someone hearing blasphemy about the third act of Stripes, and he isn’t afraid to use it.
Appropriately enough, this is sort of where we last saw them. While they left the basement to say goodbye to Sam’s sister Lindsay at the end of Freaks And Geeks’ only season, the rest of the episode deals with the boys starting a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Perhaps our Dungeon Master Harris, who is strangely absent from the check-in, placed a containment spell on the game, forcing them to remain at the board for the rest of eternity.
The last time the Freaks and the Geeks got together was a 2012 photo shoot for Judd Apatow’s comedy issue of Vanity Fair. Everyone showed up except creator Paul Feig, who Levine calls, and we’re taking this entirely sincerely and without irony, a “jerk.”
Feig, who doesn’t seem at all how Levine characterized him, commented in 2021 about a potential reunion, falling back on that old chestnut: “If suddenly this amazing idea hit me, then, sure, I would do it.” A fantastic idea like a minute-long promo for John Francis Daley’s Dungeons & Dragons movie? Probably not. “I’m just nervous about it,” Fieg continued. “Because you can count on your hand the number of reunions where you went like, ‘Oh, I’m so glad they did that.’ After you watch it, you’re almost always like, ‘Hmm, I kinda wish they didn’t do that.’”
Apatow also fell into the “never say never” camp but considers the finale “oddly perfect and magical.” “We didn’t quite understand why, but it seemed like a way to say goodbye to everyone,” he said. “So then, to open up that door and explain everything that happened always feels like too big a prospect. We also have always thought that a lot of their lives wouldn’t have gone that well, and who wants to see that?”
After this latest reunion, fans are probably okay with leaving the door closed on Freaks And Geeks. But, honestly, does anyone really want to see how badly Nick Andopolis’ life turned out?
19 Comments
By the time this video is set in there’d actually been a D&D movie.
It’s entirely possible they never heard of it because it was so bad
Who you got?
Cintus Supremus! Zero Charisma!
Freaks and Geeks was amazing but I am thinking I am good without any kind of continuation of the story. Seeing the cast as middle aged people in I guess the early 2000’s wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting as high schoolers in the 80’s. Plus even if you could get the cast back together, the behind the scenes crew of writers and directors was so stacked with talented people it would be really hard to duplicate what they had. The closest thing I have seen to any kind of reunion lately was when my wife andI rewatched the entire series of ER a couple of years ago. There are a few seasons where both Linda Cardellini and Busy Philipps were in the cast, but the annoying thing was they barely even said anything to each other. It was especially annoying since the director of Kim Kelly is my Friend (a great F&G episode) directed a bunch of ER episodes at that time.Also wouldn’t it be funny if Paul Feig had no interest in a reunion but Paul Fieg wanted one?
“It was especially annoying since the director of Kim Kelly is my Friend”Oh cool, how did you get to know each other?
Maybe Paul Fieg is Paul Feig’s non-union Mexican equivalent?
Well, it makes sense it’s only the geeks. Wasn’t there that episode where a non-geek thought it would be funny to give one of the geeks peanut butter and he had an anaphylactic reaction? Later, said geek invited him in the spirit of reconciliation to a con and he almost went but as he got close to their group, he just couldn’t do it. I also seem to remember one of the geeks (probably Martin Starr for obvious reasons), was dressed as Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor.My point is, you wouldn’t expect the freaks to go to something D&D related, would you?
I mean *I* would certainly expect Daniel to be there!!!
James Franco’s character got into D&D by the end of the season, he was a geek deep down. And the kid who gave Martin Starr peanuts was a former geek who kind of missed it.
They even name-drop “Carlos the Dwarf”
Word to the wise: the freaks in the title are Lindsay, Nick, Daniel and Kim. There was never going to be a reunion where it’s “the three geeks and that guy who showed up in the background in a couple episodes and then almost befriended Bill”.
a limited F&G series would work. i want to see a linsey/sam kitchen scene again. sorry to brag bit i got my photo into the special edition year book dvd set!
“sorry to brag bit i got my photo into the special edition year book dvd set!”
I’m sorry you think that’s brag-worthy.
That clip really shows how important the writing on F&G was.
James Franco must be in the john.