Fans of both Dungeons & Dragons and Transformers have voiced their concerns about Elon Musk expressing an interest in purchasing Hasbro, the company that currently owns the rights to the franchise.
Musk, who has been handed a role in Donald Trump’s administration after helping him win the US election, teased purchasing Hasbro after taking issue with comments from Jason Tondro, the product lead on another Hasbro property, Dungeons and Dragons.
This comes just days after Musk and Donald Trump Jr had joked about the Tesla CEO purchasing MSNBC.
On 22 November, Musk responded to the forward by Tondro in the 40th Anniversary book “Making of D&D”, where they attempted to distance themselves from elements of the original game, created by E Gary Gygax and make it more inclusive.
After seeing this on X/Twitter, Musk took exception to this, writing: “Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the f*** is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC [Wizards of the Coast]?? May they burn in hell.”
Tondro was then reportedly asked about Musk’s pushback, admitting that he was surprised at the criticism, believing that the backlash would come from “progressives and people from underrepresented groups who justly took offence at the language of OD&D”.
Of Musk, Tondro said: “I just don’t take those critiques seriously even now. I consider those people not worth listening to, so I didn’t anticipate their ‘outrage.’”
After being made aware of this, Musk bluntly said: “How much is Hasbro?” According to Forbes, shares in Hasbro are currently worth $63.89.
Hasbro has owned Dungeons & Dragons since 1997, and although it is unclear as to whether Musk is actually serious about buying the company if he did acquire it he would wind up owning several other toy and game properties including Star Wars, Ghostbusters, My Little Pony, Peppa Pig and Pokemon, to name but a few.
Some Dungeons & Dragons fans have spoken out about the prospect and aren’t too thrilled about Musk potentially owning the game.
One said: “There is probably no one I’d less want to play D&D with than Elon Musk.”
A second wrote: “If there’s one entity worse than Hasbro to own DnD, it’s Elon Musk.”
A third joked: “D&D actually requires work, intelligence, and camaraderie to fully enjoy, so I’m not sure why Elon cares about it at all since he possesses none of those qualities.”
There has also been considerable pushback to this idea from fans in the Transformers community, who are not happy about the idea of Musk owning the property.
Responding to a story about Musk’s interest in Hasbro, one fan said: “HOLD UP THATS NOT THE WORST PART, TRANSFORMERS ARE UNDER HASBRO. ELON MUSK MIGHT OWN TRANSFORMERS? F***ING NOOOOOOOOOO.”
Another person said: “The idea of Elon Musk buying Hasbro and by extension Transformers is a horrifying concept.”
A third said: “Elon Musk better not buy Hasbro and ruin Transformers.”
Transformers One, which was produced by Hasbro, was the most recent film released under the franchise. Despite being praised by critics, the animated movie, featuring the voices of Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson, struggled at the box office.