Can the Wii play DVDs?

I did a quick search and it doesn’t look like they’ll be doing it all or at least anytime soon.

No. Nor does it play audio CDs. It’s how they keep the price down.

Nope, however, some mod chips allow you to play dvds.

they are trying to add this functionality to the Japanese version of the console, but there are no plans for the US. from what I understand, the reasoning is that DVD players are so easy and cheap to come by in the US that adding that functionality to the Wii would just drive up the cost.

It has a dvd drive built in, you just need to hack the wii in order to play them. This website can show you about it, and it involves no extra hardware. All you are doing is changing the software, similar to jailbreaking an iPhone.