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.

 

[Remathilis]

Yes, exactly: hence why ended up at Ollie's. Stuff that sells well is not dumped in Clearance shops.

I have a conspiracy theory;

When WotC started selling books directly as part of the DnD Beyond bundles, they had three specials:

Buy Dragonlance, get the board game
Buy the DMG, get the terrain case
Buy the MM, get the creature case

Those are the three things dumped at Ollie's. Is it possible that WotC felt those were going to be bigger sellers and over-ordered them as part of this bundling promotion and then found out people weren't as keen on the promotion, leading to a lot of overstock direct at the manufacturer rather than farmed out to it's sales points (Amazon, LGS)?

I don't think it helped that they were overpriced and niche, and sales reflected that, but I think these three items in particular were unique in the being overproduced for the promos.

 

[Zaukrie]

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

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have a conspiracy theory;

When WotC started selling books directly as part of the DnD Beyond bundles, they had three specials:

Buy Dragonlance, get the board game
Buy the DMG, get the terrain case
Buy the MM, get the creature case

Those are the three things dumped at Ollie's. Is it possible that WotC felt those were going to be bigger sellers and over-ordered them as part of this bundling promotion and then found out people weren't as keen on the promotion, leading to a lot of overstock direct at the manufacturer rather than farmed out to it's sales points (Amazon, LGS)?

I don't think it helped that they were overpriced and niche, and sales reflected that, but I think these three items in particular were unique in the being overproduced for the promos.

Sounds plausible.

 

[Burnside]

I have a conspiracy theory;

When WotC started selling books directly as part of the DnD Beyond bundles, they had three specials:

Buy Dragonlance, get the board game
Buy the DMG, get the terrain case
Buy the MM, get the creature case

Those are the three things dumped at Ollie's. Is it possible that WotC felt those were going to be bigger sellers and over-ordered them as part of this bundling promotion and then found out people weren't as keen on the promotion, leading to a lot of overstock direct at the manufacturer rather than farmed out to it's sales points (Amazon, LGS)?

I don't think it helped that they were overpriced and niche, and sales reflected that, but I think these three items in particular were unique in the being overproduced for the promos.

The Creature Case actually wasn't in the Ollie's Fire sale fwiw, just the other two.

The terrain case and creature case bundles were also created AFTER those two products got solo releases; I think they were already performing below expectations and that's what prompted the creation of those bundles - i.e. to try to recoup something on them, not the other way around.

FWIW, I actually own and like both the Creature Case and Terrain Case, and I'm sad they flopped. A lot cheaper than minis and 3D terrain.

 

[Remathilis]

The Creature Case actually wasn't in the Ollie's Fire sale fwiw, just the other two.

My two creature cases with 2.99 Ollie stickers say otherwise. Though I got mine after Christmas when they got a "restock"

 

[Osgood]

While I would have been interested to see this series, I can't say I'm surprised. Dragonlance was a decent story for the time, but times have changed. I don't have demographics, but I suspect these boards skew older than the D&D player base as a whole, and I think a lot of us around here don't fully appreciate how different the current culture is. We can't really expect what was cool in the 80's to still be cool with the younger generation now (for perspective, that would be like expecting us to get excited about WWII era stuff back when DL first came out!). I feel like WotC was heavily leaning in to nostalgia for a while, but I think it's past time to shift to new stories an new ideas more.

 

[Stormonu]

​

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."

This makes me glad it was cancelled, to be honest. To me, a lot of the allure of Dragonlance is its look and straying too far from that ... makes it something else, like in the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie.

Also, if they cancelled this based on the (lack of) sales of Warriors of Krynn. Oh boy, does WotC not understand why that product didn't sell.

 

[Burnside]

My two creature cases with 2.99 Ollie stickers say otherwise. Though I got mine after Christmas when they got a "restock"

Poor old creatures.

 

[Burnside]

Regarding the Dragonlance show, I would bet that Honor Among Thieves performing below expectations had more to do with killing it than the board game sales. "Let's try this again, but with a less popular setting!" doesn't exactly sell itself.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I mean, saw it coming after Hasbro started tightening its belt and the D&D movie didn't get MCU numbers.

and of course the half-baked (quarter-baked) adventure and board game not making sales is 100% Hasbro's fault. Make better adventures? Make a Setting book?