D&D General What Are Dragonlance's Weis & Hickman, and Actor Manganiello Cooking Up?

Actor and D&D superfan Joe Manganiello and Dragonlance co-author Tracy Hickman have both posted a cryptic image on their respective social medias showing themselves, along with Margaret Weis standing together in front of a large dragon statue at Wizards of the Coast's offices in Renton, Washington.

Hickman's image was accompanied by the words "Something is coming...", and in Manganiello's case "WE'RE BACK", to which Wizards of the Coast replied "Welcome back to the table!" A later photograph from Weis also included Laura Hickman and Dan Ayoub, who was named head of Dungeons & Dragons back in July of this year.

The posts have sparked speculation as to what they might mean, with guesses ranging from a revival of Manganiello's Dragonlance TV show project--which was no longer in development after he stated in February 2024 that "Dragonlance is not a property WotC are interested in developing further currently"--to a new Dragonlance-based D&D adventure.

Weis and Hickman co-wrote a new Dragonlance trilogy in recent years following a legal dust-up with Wizards of the Coast which was ultimately dismissed without prejudice, so it would seem that any bad blood from the dispute has been left in the past.

The question now remains--what are they all cooking up this time?

 

[Parmandur]

I will be surprised if it even matters, because I do not think this is about a TV show adaption of the Dragonlance Chronicles. Which is kind of a prerequisite premise for a lot of the speculation in this thread.

I would be delighted if it was though.

I mean, who knows exactly what...but Mangianello has been openly working to make a TV adaptation of the Dragonlance Chronicles for years. And he is at least in talks with WottC about something Dragonlance, it seems.

 

[Morrus]

I mean, who knows exactly what...but Mangianello has been openly working to make a TV adaptation of the Dragonlance Chronicles for years.

I am aware. I've reported on it.

 

[Parmandur]

I am aware. I've reported on it.

It does seem unlikely that it will come to fruition...but it is certainly something Mangianello wants to happen.

 

[mamba]

GoT had not outsole WoT prior to the TV show still hasn't overall: 90 million copies to 100 Million for WoT

GoT did that with 5 books though, so a lot more per book, which probably translates into more readers as well

 

[Umbran]

Im just saying, Weiss loves Goldmoon and Kender as they are. If they get her to sign off on changing them, I will be surprised.

Perhaps Goldmoon is an adopted child of the Plainsmen? IDK

So, make her a white person assuming someone else's culture, and then are the Chosen One/White Savior?

That's arguably worse.

I can get that Weiss may be attached to Goldmoon, but the character's a really unfortunate example of some really racist tropes.

Kender are Kender like magic is magic. It just is and doesn't need an explanation. Heck their creation (and every other species with a weird quirk) in lore is literally "The god(s) did it on purpose."

Yeah, but realize that the gods are specifically no longer there watching out for them for them to make sense! Folks in the Age of Despair need to be able to get a freaking harvest planted, grown, and harvested, without a god, and people in the culture need to be able to actually do work.

Make the Kender communal. They kick Tass out until he could learn some freakin' self-control and personal responsibility.

 

[pukunui]

Im just saying, Weiss loves Goldmoon and Kender as they are. If they get her to sign off on changing them, I will be surprised.

I just can’t see WotC keeping them as is no matter how Weis feels about them.

Perhaps Goldmoon is an adopted child of the Plainsmen? IDK

That is arguably much worse. Better to either strip any Native American references from the Plainsmen or reimagine Goldmoon as not being Aryan. I suppose you could say she’s special because she was born with golden hair, but that still implies that blond hair is better than brown.

Kender are Kender like magic is magic. It just is and doesn't need an explanation. Heck their creation (and every other species with a weird quirk) in lore is literally "The god(s) did it on purpose."

That may be so, but I don’t think that’ll be good enough justification for 21st century audiences. Better to make kleptomania a Tas trait, not a kender trait. And maybe some tinker gnomes have OCD but not the whole species. Some gully dwarves can be as thick as bricks but mostly it’s just racial prejudice on the part of hill dwarves.


Look, I love the story the Chronicles tell, but they are not well written,* and they have a lot of problematic elements that will need changing, regardless of whether DL gets a new show or a new setting book.

That being said, it’s a lot easier to ignore problems in a setting book than it is in an adaptation of a story featuring those elements. The previous 5e DL book has only the vaguest hint about gully dwarves, for instance, but a Chronicles show would need to address them since they are a major feature in the Xak Tsaroth section. (I wouldn’t want to cut them entirely, though, since the Bupu-Raistlin interaction is important.)



*When my girls were younger, I loved reading books to them. Discworld novels were great because Pratchett’s prose rolls off the tongue so well, it’s like he wrote his novels with the intention that they be read aloud (probably a result of his many years as a journalist). When I tried reading the Chronicles to one of my daughters, it was awful. That prose is not meant for reading out loud. It’s unnecessarily clunky and convoluted at times. They really needed a better editor. And don’t get me started on their poetry / songs.

 

[Umbran]

I mean, who knows exactly what...but Mangianello has been openly working to make a TV adaptation of the Dragonlance Chronicles for years. And he is at least in talks with WottC about something Dragonlance, it seems.

... you do realize that this discussion thread is under a story that Morrus wrote about all that?
When he says he reported on it, he means as the opening of this thread, he reported on it.

 

[Parmandur]

GoT did that with 5 books though, so a lot more per book, which probably translates into more readers as well

Of which 12 to 15 million books were sold before the show became a mainstream cultural phenomenon...the Wheel of Time had sold 90 million before the show dropped, which goes to show that the show certainly helped sell the books, but it wasn't the watercooler shared cultural experience that exploded ASoIF into that stratosphere. I remember being into Game of Thrones before it was cool lol.

If Sanderson's Cosmere books get a culturally relevant adaptation...oh boy.

 

[Parmandur]

... you do realize that this discussion thread is under a story that Morrus wrote about all that?
When he says he reported on it, he means as the opening of this thread, he reported on it.

Yes, and he also reported on this over the years when Mangianello was talking about it. I know he knows.

 

[Stormonu]

You know that most of the world finds 14-year-olds to be annoying, and they certainly couldn't have a working society like that, right? Right?

Considering some of the bizarre societies that sprang up in the real world, yeah - I could see it working. (Maybe not for terribly long, but then again...)

One of the things I've often wondered is if Goldmoon's mother (or father) might not have been a plainsman or she inherited her traits from one of her non-plainsfolk ancestors.

...Or, she might have been taken in as an orphan or Moses-case as raised as if a nativeborn, though you'd think that sort of thing would have stood out in a way that one of the companions at some point would have floated that question if that was the case.