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?

 

[Umbran]

that does not change what they all look like in the paintings though.

Okay. So, find enough examples of Larry Elmore painting people of color to make it clear that the artist's bias isn't involved in that.

 

[mamba]

That they respect the source material? Why I never...

no, that they make it a good show. Of course they will deviate from the source in places, changes can be good, neutral, or bad however. The question is what the end result is, not whether there are changes

 

[mamba]

Right, and all of the characters are also fictional and have no real identity. They could cast only Japanese actors and it would as much represent the characters "identity".

guess we disagree on that

 

[Umbran]

As critics, we need to ask why the writers chose to show only the gods creating white people.

As critics, we need to actually look at the material and establish what information we actually have about that creation. That the gods created elves, humans, and ogres is established both in the texts and game information, but the moment (or period or process) of that creation is not, to my knowledge, ever explicitly depicted.

So then, as critics, we then need to interrogate ourselves - where do we get the idea that all humans on Krynn are white?

 

[mamba]

Okay. So, find enough examples of Larry Elmore painting people of color to make it clear that the artist's bias isn't involved in that.

I am not sure why it matters even if he had been biased, or even whether it was his bias vs Weis / Hickman’s.

The books describe them a certain way, the art depicts them a certain way, the two match.

When turning a book into a movie having established art to establish a visual identity is generally something that is considered valuable. It is not an accident that Alan Lee and John Howe were hired as the concept artists for LotR

 

[Scribe]

where do we get the idea that all humans on Krynn are white?

Nowhere, because that both isn't the case, and isn't the critical point of discussion with the established characters?

 

[Umbran]

I am not sure why it matters even if he had been biased, or even whether it was his bias vs Weis / Hickman’s.

If you are a canon literalist, it does not matter.
If you are a critic, then why it was done matters a great deal.

The books describe them a certain way, the art depicts them a certain way, the two match.

Do they? Have we established that the skin tone of all members of the Companions were canonically, explicitly white? Do we have passages mentioning all their skin tones? There is a very common tendency for authors to state hair and eye color, but skin tone is often assumed, not specifically mentioned in the work.

Raistlin was explicitly gold-toned. In later works, IIRC, Crysania was extremely pale. But the rest?

And if there are passages that establish that every member of the Companions was explicitly white, does that establish the entire human population was white?

When turning a book into a movie having established art to establish a visual identity is generally something that is considered valuable.

It is, except when it isn't. It isn't valuable, for example, if it makes the creators look kinda racist....

As critics are we so assured that the whiteness of skin is terribly valuable to the work? It their skin tone an important statement? Is that a statement that the creators today want to make?

Is, "Because that's the way they did it in 1984," really a good reason to do it that way today?

 

[Umbran]

Nowhere, because that both isn't the case, and isn't the critical point of discussion with the established characters?

Establishing what the world around them is like helps inform thoughts around the established characters. If the world is established as being all white humans, then having different skin tones becomes a big freakin' deal. If the world is not all white, then we can discuss the value of expressing some of that diversity in the established characters.

 

[mamba]

And if there are passages that establish that every member of the Companions was explicitly white, does that establish the entire human population was white?

at no point did I say anything about the population of Krynn being white, not sure where this is coming from at all. The books already tell us that not everyone is white, we do not need to extrapolate from a few known persons

As critics are we so assured that the whiteness of skin is terribly valuable to the work? It their skin tone an important statement?

no, it is not important to the story, I said as much already

Is that a statement that the creators today want to make?

ask the creators

Is, "Because that's the way they did it in 1984," really a good reason to do it that way today?

everyone can decide that for themselves. I prefer the adaptation to stick close to the original, but I am not going to lose sleep over it if it doesn’t.

I am no fan of the ‘if it doesn’t match the world I see outside my window, then I will boycott it’ approach though, the least interesting thing about a movie / series is how closely it resembles the city I live in

 

[Scribe]

at no point did I say anything about the population of Krynn being white, not sure where this is coming from at all. The books already tell us that not everyone is white, we do not need to extrapolate from a few known persons

Indeed.