D&D Movie/TV Joe Manganiello: Dragonlance TV Show No Longer In Development

Actor Joe Manganiello has confirmed that the anticipated Dragonlance TV show that he had been working on is no longer being developed. In an interview with ComicBook.com. According to Manganiello, following poor sales of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen and the Warriors of Krynn board game last year, "Dragonlance is not a property [WotC] are interested in developing further currently". This decision was also prompted by Hasbro's sale of its media studio, eOne.

In March last year, Manganiello confirmed during an official D&D video update that he was working on a TV show for WotC, and a D&D live action series was greenly by Paramount in January. It's not clear if these are the same property.

Manganiello also talked about his approach to the property, and the new designs he had for the world, the dragons, and even the casting. "I want to make [the show] because I want to see it and I just want to feel that excited and electric about something. The characters...like the casting, I have a look book with over 1,000 pages, but it's not what you expect. The design concepts I had for the world, for the armor, for the swords....I had a fresh take on what the dragons were going to look like, it was going to be nothing like anyone has ever seen."

He has been working on a script for years, and was told by TV executives that his pilot was one of the best fantasy scripts they had ever read. He even offered to buy Dragonlance from WotC.

You can watch the whole interview at the link above.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the term ‘generic fantasy’ has lost any meaning to me. It is just such a subjective term. What isn’t generic fantasy?

If your fantasy involves dragons and a random assortment of heroes making a long and perilous journey through the wilderness, accompanied by someone who could plausibly be considered a wizard, you've got a generic fantasy.

That's Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, Willow and the Dragonlance Chronicles.

It's not Game of Thrones or Harry Potter.

Amazon Prime already has two generic fantasies and, frankly, neither is exactly setting the world on fire. Disney cancelled Willow. It would have been a shock if the studios decided to get into the same niche when the audience doesn't seem to be there in satisfactory numbers.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Curated lists are for DMs, not WotC, to decide.

Yup. DMs can decide to ignore the limitations of the setting, if they wish. That doesn't mean that every setting needs to be "kitchen sink".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Disappointed. Going to be hard to monetize this brand is they take zero chances.

The way to make Dragonlance more attractive as a licensed property is to make it a hit again in the RPG space. I have faith WotC could do it. I am skeptical that they will, though.

 

[Incenjucar]

Planescape and Spelljammer both fall pretty easily into Space Opera style of writing.

Dark Sun maybe closer to Vikings.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The way to make Dragonlance more attractive as a licensed property is to make it a hit again in the RPG space. I have faith WotC could do it. I am skeptical that they will, though.

I DO find it funny that it's very likely that IF Dragonlance had set the world on fire as a TTRPG product, and yet the show wasn't greenlit, 'everyone' would be saying, "Of course you don't base your decisions to greenlight a TV show based on TTRPG sales! DUH!"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I DO find it funny that it's very likely that IF Dragonlance had set the world on fire as a TTRPG product, and yet the show wasn't greenlit, 'everyone' would be saying, "Of course you don't base your decisions to greenlight a TV show based on TTRPG sales! DUH!"

Well, I wouldn't be one of the people saying that. There would still be valid reasons not to greenlight it -- Rings of Power, Wheel of Time and Willow -- but at least there would be demonstrable sales to point to.

I'm confident that Amazon scooped up Vox Machina based on numbers they could see on a piece of paper, including Critical Role Kickstarter numbers, YouTube subscriptions, podcast downloads and more.

Dragonlance doesn't really have any current numbers to show other than the most recent product numbers.

 

[Incenjucar]

Vox also went to animation, which while expensive makes more sense for the genre. Live action fantasy on a budget tends to look baaad.

 

[michaeljpastor]

I've said before that they may look at the sales and reception of the various settings that they have released in the last 10 years to see what settings they would further develop in the next (10) years. If I recall correctly, Dragonlance was toward the bottom of that list. If they are looking at DnD as a brand, they'll develop the ancillary products correspondingly. He simply picked the wrong horse.

Additional comments after watching the video:

• Tracy and Margaret were all about it - given the kerfuffle that occurred with the authors in the recent past, I would see them wanting to avoid any future kerfuffles.
• I'm writing for my old boss Michael Lombardo (?) at HBO and the team at eOne - I think that's the most significant point. Development deals in Hollywood are all about relationships, and rise and fall based on them, and those relationships were severed with the sale of eOne.
• I don't know if HBO was the intended studio/carrier, but given how crappy the Warner/Discovery merger turned out, HBO is in a period of retractment until it all falls out. I wouldn't bank on them as a partner (especially given how far out a release of such a series would be given how much post-production is needed with all the SFX involved).
• Joe's Q rating is diminished nowadays, from everything that's occurred with DCEU to his divorce (stupid and unfortunate, but true).
• The Dragonlance books are very old and not on the top of the zeitgeist list, quite frankly.

Additional observation:

• The Streaming Golden Age is over, and Joe was looking at a multi-season show. When two seasons are not a guarantee even when a season has high ratings or reviews, his scope may have been too big a bite to take. Season Twos being signed before a single episode is aired are going to be happening less frequently presumably.
• Fantasy epic saturation (particularly with D&D) - there's a lot of fantasy movies/series out now (which I, of course, don't mind one bit). D&D has Honor Amongst Thieves and tangentially, Critical Role. Despite the objective numbers from theaters, I think Honor Amongst Thieves is going to get a sequel as it was received well and its numbers on streaming are really good. I could see WOTC and Hasbro wanting to be conservative and wait-and-see and bank on the goodwill that the movie produced rather than risk it on an "unknown" quantity.
• WOTC is going to be very distracted with the 50th anniversary this year and they absolutely positively must get this right, or any development deals will be for naught.
• Baldur's Gate 3 has a better cachet right now than Dragonlance. I predict that there will be a BG3 development deal soon, and it will be announced during the 50th anniversary year. They'd be idiots not to (and expect a BG3 splatbook to come with it).

 

[Dire Bare]

I have to chuckle that he built a 1000 page lore bible for something with that many books already produced

As @Mannahnin pointed out, Manganiello made a lookbook, not a series bible.

But making a series bible for a potential Dragonlance show would not be weird at all.

The existing lore of Dragonlance is vast, contradictory, and in some parts problematic. And most of it isn't needed for a TV series based on Chronicles. A series bible or lore bible would bring together the lore of the adaptation, not the source material.

 

[Queer Venger]

bummer we are not getting a D&D tv show, even more bummed out we are not getting a D&D Saturday morning cartoon; super bummer that WotC is not managing their media properties better (BG3 being the exception).

TBH I never had any confidence that Manganiello was the person to be a show runner. Though a very talented actor and great D&D/DL advocate; he doesn't have the show runner chops for this. He was certainly very active the first few years of 5e (probably to gain the confidence of WotC/Hasbro) and his Deathsaves licensed merch company, (which I own a few t-shirts) seems to have failed all three death saves .

So Im not surprised this whole project got canned but remain hopeful we get quality tv media in the future.