Joe Manganiello Uses Dungeons & Dragons to Make a Difference at Children’s Hospital

Justice League and True Blood actor Joe Manganiello uses Dungeons & Dragons to make an impact on the lives of hospitalized children. Recently, Manganiello appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show to discuss his new movie Archenemy. During the appearance, he spoke about his work with the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he serves on the board of directors. Manganiello mentioned to Clarkson that he started a Dungeons & Dragons club at the hospital to provide the children with an escape from medical treatment, which sometimes takes hours to complete. “One of the beautiful things about D&D is that you go into this other world and you’re not you, and it’s super immersive,” he said. “I thought that maybe that would work for the kids – that maybe for a few hours they could not have to deal with what they were dealing with, and escape and play as a character. And it worked.”

Manganiello said that he got in touch with Wizards of the Coast and had the company sent tons of D&D material to the hospital. Then Manganiello and his brother made a trip to the hospital and taught some of the children there how to play. The Kelly Clarkson Show even brought on a double transport survivor who played D&D with Manganiello during his stay at the hospital to reconnect with the actor on the show. You can check out the full interview up above.

Manganiello has a long history with Dungeons & Dragons and serves as an ambassador of the game. He has a famous Hollywood home game that has WWE Superstar the Big Show and Vince Vaughan among its players, and has appeared on countless charity streams and games. Manganiello also co-wrote the official D&D adventure Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, which features his personal character Arkhan the Cruel.

In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Manganiello confirmed that he would return as Deathstroke in the upcoming “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, which will appear on HBO Max. “Getting that call from Zack to put the suit back on, it was fun,” Manganiello said about the upcoming project. “It was weird, because it’s four years later. Four years later. But I had had a lot of thoughts after all those false starts about the character and what I wanted to do with the character. So, when Zack called me up, I got to really put my stink on him in a few different ways that were very satisfying.”

Archenemy is available to watch on demand through Amazon Prime and YouTube now.