D&D Secret Level “The Queen’s Cradle” (Episode Review)
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It’s been almost 40 years since Dungeons & Dragons last appeared on television, with the popular 1980s animated cartoon series ending back in December 1985. Now, however, D&D is back on the small screen thanks to a new Prime Video animated TV series entitled Secret Level, which just premiered on December 10th, 2024.
Developed by the creators of the popular Netflix adult animated series Love, Death + Robots, each episode of Secret Level is based on a popular gaming franchise, with the first episode taking place in the Dungeons & Dragons universe and showcasing many of the aspects fans have been longing for (namely, plenty of dungeons and plenty of dragons).
So is the latest D&D foray into television worth tuning into? Below, we stream together all the details.
What is the D&D Secret Level episode about?
— SPOILERS AHEAD —
The D&D episode of Secret Level is entitled “The Queen’s Cradle” and is 13 minutes in length. The story takes place in the popular Forgotten Realms D&D campaign setting and follows the exploits of a group of powerful adventurers: Mora, a Goliath Paladin, Tally, a gnome wizard, Luzum, a dwarven monk and Ahokal, an orc druid.
The heroes soon find themselves coming to the rescue of a human boy named Solon, who has been kidnapped by the infamous Cult of the Dragon and has been afflicted with a terrible curse. To aid in his recovery, the group of adventurers take him to the dwelling of Oriel, a powerful and benevolent gold dragon.
Unfortunately, the dreaded Cult of the Dragon is in hot pursuit, with their forces led by a vicious Lich who rides atop a demonic bat creature. The heroes soon learn that Solon is earmarked as a sacrifice to the legendary dragon goddess Tiamat and must make a fateful choice between saving their own lives and saving the Realms.
— END SPOILERS —
Who was involved in the creation of the D&D episode?
Secret Level itself was created by Academy-award nominated American filmmaker Tim Miller, who is best known for his work directing the 2016 Deadpool film and creating the adult animated anthology series Love, Death + Robots. Miller also is the co-founder of the visual effects company Blur Studio, which worked extensively on Secret Level.
“The Queen’s Cradel” episode is written by Oscar nominated screenwriters KD Davila and Levin Menekse and is based on a short story by fantasy author Brooke Bolander. It was also co-directed by the team of Maxime Luère, Léon Bérelle, Dominique Boidin, Rémi Kozyra, all of whom had previously worked on Love, Death + Robots.
It’s not clear how deeply Wizards of the Coast was involved in the development of the episode, other than signing off on the official license for Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s likely they had some say on how the material was shaped given how closely the guard the brand and the lore.
Final Thoughts & Review Score
“The Queen’s Cradle” may be one of the greatest adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons ever made. And that’s saying something considering we’ve seen recent releases like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Honor Among Thieves. For an episode that’s just 13 minutes long, Secret Level packs in an incredible amount of story, character development and D&D lore.
It’s an impressive visual feat as well, with jaw dropping animation and realistic characters (despite occasionally treading close to the uncanny valley). What’s really unique about Secret Level’s D&D episode, however, is just how well it captures the overall feel of playing the game. Watching the dwarven monk Luzum unleash a Ki-powered attack or seeing the gnome wizard Luzum cast a fireball spell, is not only visually stunning, but beautifully captures what’s made D&D so endearing for over 50 years.
In short, “The Queen’s Cradle” is an absolute masterpiece of Dungeons & Dragons entertainment. It’s not clear how fans and the general public will react to Secret Level, but if nothing else it’s proof that D&D still has plenty of stories left to tell. You can stream the complete episode of Secret Level now on Amazon Prime Video.
Final Review Score: 20 out of 20
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
