Tales From Woodcreek: Marvel Stars on Their Immersive New D&D Show, Assembling an All-Time Cast, and Setting the Bar High (Exclusive)

Deborah Ann Woll (Daredevil: Born Again), host of the immersive Dungeons & Dragons series Tales From Woodcreek, has been waiting years to bring this spooky story to life, and has done so quite literally.

Tales From Woodcreek is an unscripted series featuring a D&D campaign, played out in real-life with escape room-like elements, with episodes releasing weekly on the Dungeon Dudes YouTube channel.

Speaking exclusively with The Direct, Woll shared that started with an idea — a story Woll first began developing "a long, long time ago" — and a conversation with writer and director Ed Gass-Donnelly:

"Technically, 'Tales From Woodcreek,' ... I outlined, I should say, a long, long time ago. But then Ed was like... We were working on another project together, and he was like, 'I could get funding for a D&D thing.' I said, 'Well, I have some this, like, old material that I never did anything with.'

Eventually, the idea to make it "site specific" came about, as well as partnering with the Dungeon Dudes, and "it kind of kept growing from there:"

So then he and I started going through it, and I think over that process, kind of created something that was uniquely different on our own out of those initial just, you know, ideas. ... And I think that then the idea of, like, could we make it site- could we make it site specific? Could we really lean into, like, the physical, you know, aspects of it? And it kind of kept growing from there.

With this element in mind, a lot of the story had to come from the environment the show was being filmed in, Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto, Canada:

"Once we once we made it site specific, it was like, 'Oh, now we have to be inspired by this place.'"

Gass-Donnelly remembered one specific moment, where he and Woll found what he described as "such a creepy staircase," that they incorporated it into the story.

This all came together as the eight-episode series, now releasing on the Dungeon Dudes YouTube channel. The first three episodes are out now, with the rest releasing weekly.

Assembling the Tales From Woodcreek Party

One key piece of the puzzle was assembling the party of players. This included Woll's "Marvel sister" Anjali Bhimani (Aunt Ruby in Ms. Marvel), a "legend," as Woll put it, in D&D spaces due to her experience with Critical Role.

Bhimani heard about the project from multiple directions — Woll had reached out, she learned that the Dungeon Dudes were involved in a new project, and her manager got word about it, all around the same time. Luckily, she did not need much convincing, saying that she "blew past the rest of" the message when officially asked.

The show also features a guest player each week: Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist), Shaun Majumder (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Monty Martin, Kelly McLaughlin, Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel), and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation).

Woll said that she sought out people with "that childlike sense of wonder and imagination," as well as people relatively new to D&D:

"I think for my games particular, but I think D&D as a whole, you have to have that childlike sense of wonder and imagination. And so, you know, we wanted primarily people who were not that experienced, people who were new to D&D. That's always just something I like to do. And I think it's helpful for new players out there who feel like, oh, maybe it's too hard or too intimidating. And I just want to be like, 'Hey, look, this person that you love can do it, you know, without hesitation.' And so, you know, that's really fun for me."

They looked at people they knew — for instance, Woll explained, she got Henwick involved during a visit to the Daredevil set. But also, like in the case of Vellani, approached people.

Being a Canadian, Gass-Donnelley worried he would "get excoriated" by limiting the show to American players — especially given that the show was filmed in Canada. He described Vellani as "a Canadian I would love to see playing D&D," and went from there:

"I will get excoriated if I just hire all Americans on this project, right? So I was like, Iman's a Canadian I would love to see playing D&D."

Part of why she was chosen, though, was because part of the show's format would utilize confessionals, and he wanted to include people who would be engaging for audiences:

"It's been so fun in the edit, because like that allows us into, like, directly connect with the players, and the players are, we've always said, as interesting, if not more interesting than the characters. And because, like, we just love, especially for the shenanigans that we pull on them, it's- it's usually the players responding, because they're like, 'What the f is going on?' You know? And that's so exciting to watch."

Bhimani admitted, though, that bringing in these first-time players has now set "the bar" for D&D extremely "high:"

Gass-Donnelley: "There's still that magic about having someone discovering it for the first [time]- Even Iman was like, 'Is this what D&D's like all the time?'"

Bhimani: "Yeah, she's spoiled now. The bar is high."

At the head of the table, though, is Woll as host — a role Bhimani gushed about being able to experience her in. She described how Woll "takes such delight in everything that's happening that you can't help but feel that way:"

"One of the best things about getting to play with Deborah Ann at the head of the table is that she takes such delight in everything that's happening that you can't help but feel that way, even if it's spooky. Like there's sort of a deliciousness to savoring the spooky that that comes through, which does set up ... like, a safe space. As spooky as it is, you know, like, 'We're all OK, it's going to be fine. We're not going to go to deep, dark places in our heads and hearts, unless we're comfortable with that or any of that.' It's just- it's such a delight."

And that delight goes both ways, as Woll explained, adding that she hopes it reaches the "everyone at home as well:"

"When Ed and I were up at 3 a.m. every night before a new game, finishing the props and, like, putting the finishing touches on things and making sure everything was where it was supposed to be, I, you know, I just looked over and was like, 'We're just doing this to delight four of our friends tomorrow.' And I hope now that it's done, it will go forth and like delight everyone at home as well."