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.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

The problem isn't generic, the problem is presentation. I go over this a lot in my last few posts in this thread but to be abundantly clear, I think that Dragonlance would need a massive facelift to be attractive to a large audience in our contemporary day and age. I do not think the original books are that interesting of a story anymore, and I think FR has a lot more interesting, unique tidbits then Dragonlance by a massive mile. A kitchen sink like FR will always be more interesting then a very constrictive medieval setting like Dragonlance because in FR I can go to White Plume Mountain or fight illithids in spaceships above Baldur's Gate, while in Dragonlance I can bully gully dwarves and travel around with the white savior Goldmoon.

You can go to wizard's crazy towers and fly spelljammers in Dragonlance too so I'm not sure that's a point of difference.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

That's a bit of a chicken-egg question.

The gods departed Krynn (and took all their spellcasting clerics with them) a considerable time before the Cataclysm. It was I believe meant to be a sign of godly disapproval and a warning to Istar to change their ways, but didn't get read that way (Istar was all 'Paladine is weary, we must go EVEN HARDER to stamp out Evil to help him out' and just went on Inquisition-ing along just as they had before). The good gods of course, largely argue that Krynn abandoned them first by embracing the teachings of the Kingpriest and doing all sorts of evil in the name of the Good. And even before the Kingpriest showed up, clerics were getting very rare. The last Kingpriest, Beldinas (the guy who actually ended up getting himself Cataclysmed), was actually a monk from a remote mountain fastness chosen by wild acclamation when he proved he could actually cast cleric spells, which was a very big deal at the time.

Part of the point of the unfolding narrative of Dragonlance is that the perception is that the Gods abandoned Krynn, but the reality is the reverse. Sincere clerics still got spells. Crysania even had hers post-Cataclysm when she, Raistlin, Caramon and Tas were fighting in the Dwarfgate Wars. She attempts to heal someone using Paladine's name and the guy rejects her (and Paladine). The whole idea is that "the fall" (ie the cataclysm) is a consequence of human action, not divine fiat, and the return of the gods is basically people accepting that and moving past blame.

Now that's a religious idea quite common in Christianity (and other faiths) but probably not shared by some. And that's ok. But its quite different to how people continually characterise it (Paladine get's annoyed and drops a meteor, lol).

 

[humble minion]

Too much of WoTC is driven by ideas like Crawford's "to me Dragonlance is the 1E modules."

No, just no. The novels were far more successful and had multitude more readers than the adventure modules ever did. Dragonlance is the Weis/Hickman novels.

I entirely agree with you about the prominence of the DL novels over the modules in the public nerd consciousness. The whole story of Rastlin and Caramon, and the death of Sturm, and even bloody Tasselhoff's pickpocketing are 100% THE iconic elements of Dragonlance, and they're all straight from the novels (even though the characters did exist as pregens in the modules, the events and personalities, helped out by Larry Elmore's classic illustrations, are what really stuck in the geek memory)

Somewhat in Crawford's defence though, I think when he said that, he was more referring to the War of the Lance being the classic age of Dragonlance, and that this was in the context of people asking if SotDQ was going to advance the timeline yet again beyond whatever ridiculous state the last of the 3e-era novels left it in, post the Chaos War and War of Souls etc etc etc etc etc.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I entirely agree with you about the prominence of the DL novels over the modules in the public nerd consciousness. The whole story of Rastlin and Caramon, and the death of Sturm, and even bloody Tasselhoff's pickpocketing are 100% THE iconic elements of Dragonlance, and they're all straight from the novels (even though the characters did exist as pregens in the modules, the events and personalities, helped out by Larry Elmore's classic illustrations, are what really stuck in the geek memory)

Somewhat in Crawford's defence though, I think when he said that, he was more referring to the War of the Lance being the classic age of Dragonlance, and that this was in the context of people asking if SotDQ was going to advance the timeline yet again beyond whatever ridiculous state the last of the 3e-era novels left it in, post the Chaos War and War of Souls etc etc etc etc etc.

It was a canon discussion, and I'm pretty sure there was the hint of a bristling about how the novels eclipsed the modules. (Do people want Verminaard surviving his death and calling himself VERMINAARD LIVES backwards?)

 

[AnotherGuy]

The problem isn't generic, the problem is presentation. I go over this a lot in my last few posts in this thread but to be abundantly clear, I think that Dragonlance would need a massive facelift to be attractive to a large audience in our contemporary day and age. I do not think the original books are that interesting of a story anymore, and I think FR has a lot more interesting, unique tidbits then Dragonlance by a massive mile. A kitchen sink like FR will always be more interesting then a very constrictive medieval setting like Dragonlance because in FR I can go to White Plume Mountain or fight illithids in spaceships above Baldur's Gate, while in Dragonlance I can bully gully dwarves and travel around with the white savior Goldmoon.

Dragonlance is not about bullying gully dwarves or white saviours.
If that is your best take on DL, then sure you're not going to like what the setting has to offer.

IMO, for those that enjoy DL, the problem is not the setting but the iconic characters and their respective relationships with one another within the books, which so endearing to the reader/fan that it is difficult to translate that into a module or game because you most certainly will fall short and thus your DL game will always feel less than.

@Hussar mentioned this some time ago in some thread, (paraphrasing) that games like SW and DL are complete/done. The iconic stories have been written for those settings...what you do at the game table will almost always be less than.

 

[Vincent55]

Hasbro is in it for the money, nothing else just like all the ones at the top, trying to squeeze every last drop out of everything they can. This is why they want to go to digital and drop books, movies, and anything else that is physical, as once these are done they can't make too much more from them. As in digital they can charge a fee to remain connected and monetize the heck out of the thing, selling microtransactions. I have reverted to the books and older editions to distance myself from the vtt craze and electronic downloads and books. Many others will still put out the books and fill the gap left by D&D, and over time take their place as they slowly sink into the history books as the one who started it all.

 

[Burnside]

Well, this is a real bummer, and it seems that those Dragonlance board games showing up in clearance stores were part of a trial balloon to see if people wanted Dragonlance

They showed up in clearance stores because people didn’t buy them. That’s what he meant when he said they “performed poorly.”

 

[wicked cool]

Go small first. I’d go saltmarsh or reach for Ravenloft. I could tell that Dragonlance wasn’t going to make it. Special efffects budget through the roof

 

[humble minion]

They showed up in clearance stores because people didn’t buy them. That’s what he meant when he said they “performed poorly.”

Yep. And to be fair, they were kinda rubbish and I don't in the least blame anyone who didn't buy one. I ended up with a copy of the boardgame because i bought it in the deluxe bundle, which arrived in my country a solid 3-4 months ahead of the book alone. It just seemed - pointless. Limited replay value, limited interest if you're not also playing the campaign module, limited interest if you ARE playing the campaign module because quite often your PCs will not be present for the scenario, not leveraging any of the recognisable Dragonlance characters or other IP, etc etc etc.

I honestly don't know what WotC were hoping to achieve with it - maybe a trial balloon for selling future adventure modules in a much more expensive quasi-Beedle-and-Grimm package with a load of peripherals? But whatever their intention was, it seems pretty clear it flopped hard.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Shy would they need to have continuing support, the books basically have everything needed...?

Not really. Sure the adventure was self contained but it really lacked the breadth and depth to make it at all interesting for
Groups like mine. If you are used to material that came out in prior editions it seemed like a 2D advanture and setting and it was quite clear it would never be anything more.