Dragonlance Here's That Official Dragonlance Novels Announcement, Featuring Classic Characters & An Old Logo!

We've known about it for a while due to lawsuits and product placeholder pages on Amazon, but Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have just announced their new Dragonlance series of novels!

It returns 'the most beloved characters from the original novels', as well as a 'new, strong protagonist'. Previous information from the lawsuit about this series indicated that the first book was to be called Dragons of Deceit, and the second Dragons of Fate. The Amazon placeholder page says the release date is 29th July 2021. Of course, any of that information may have changed.

Original (classic) DL logo

Later (Fifth Age) DL logo​

The branding refers to "Classic Dragonlance" and uses the older, original (and my favourite) Dragonlance logo. Whether that in some way distinguishes it from any potential WotC Dragonlance materials remains to be seen. The logo changed in the 1990s, and continued to be used throughout the 3E era.

The news was shared on Twitter and on Tracy Hickman's website.

 PRESS RELEASE

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Wilmington, NC – January 25, 2021 – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are pleased to announce a multi-year licensing agreement with Wizards of the Coast to produce a new, three book series of Classic Dragonlance novels.

The new trilogy will return fans to the most beloved characters from the original novels along with introducing a new strong protagonist. The books will be published by Del Rey Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Although a publishing date has not yet been formally set, they anticipate announcing when the first book will be released later this year.

“We couldn’t be happier to be returning to the world we love,” says Margaret Weis. “Dragonlance is what brought Tracy and I together so many years ago. We’re thrilled to be able to do this for existing lovers of Krynn while bringing our beloved characters to a new generation of readers.”

The first Classic Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, was written by Weis and Hickman and published in 1984. Since that time, more than 190 novels have been published in the setting. Weis and Hickman have collaborated on numerous series over the last 30 years including projects set within the world of Classic Dragonlance and outside of it. Two notable series are The Death Gate Cycle and The Darksword Series, both published by Penguin Random House.

“We credit the fans of Dragonlance for making this journey possible,” says Tracy Hickman. “We wrote this series out of our thanks to them for this amazing life-long journey…and from our wish that they join us once more on the road to Solace.”

The license for the series was secured by Weis & Hickman in 2018. Their recent dispute with Wizards of the Coast was resolved at the end of 2020, with all parties pleased to have come to agreement on how best to move forward with the trilogy. All are focused on producing the best series possible and will not comment on the past dispute other than to say it has been resolved.

Watch for additional news from Weis and Hickman about Classic Dragonlance and other projects on the horizon in the coming months.

 

[Wolfram stout]

It almost certainly will not. Weiss and Hickman famously loath tying their Dragonlance stuff to other D&D worlds and want to keep Dragonlance independent. When a module was made putting Lord Soth in Ravenloft, they went and killed Soth to nuke even that small connection.

Heh, yeah. I was at a Gen-Con in 94(ish) and sat in on their panel. Your post reminded me of HIckman saying something to the effect of "That Soth guy in Ravenloft? I am not sure who he is, but he is not the one we wrote about" --paraphrased as that was many years ago.

I am interested in the new book though.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I understand W&H don't like the idea of a reboot but my opinion is later or sooner WotC will need an event like DC infinite crisis to explain the reasons for future retcons. And I read an article from Bell of Souls about the adventure of the Frozen Maiden where it told something... in my opinion it may cause a reboot of D&D worlds.

I admit the idea of a reboot of an old franchise may be too risky, but we can't say it was totally impossible.

 

[bedir than]

If there is a reboot of Dragonlance, and I have sait it several times, it will have to be an event linked with all the worlds of D&D multiverse.

I suspected the revival would be near year of a Dragolance videogame, but we know these a lot of time.

At least I hope a cinematic CGI animation for the trailer of the books.

If there was a reboot the language of "Classic Dragonlance" wouldn't be used or necessary

 

[Morrus]

I wonder if there’s going to be a branching? W&H take their characters and story in one direction while WotC takes the setting in another.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Krynn was connected to Spelljammer from the start (of Spelljammer). Krynn tinker gnomes are a significant faction.

And Spelljammer connects to FR, Greyhawk etc.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

Doug Niles was part of the same team Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman were on. There are several more members of the Dragonlance team that were integral to the building of the setting than just W&H. There are no legal issues. W&H never owned Dragonlance in any way, shape, or form. Period. TSR, then WotC, now Hasbro are the sole owners of the setting.

 

[Morrus]

There are no legal issues.

If a lawsuit is not a “legal issue”, what is?

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

The legal issue was because of the breach of contract. A lot of people are under the impression that MW&TH are the owners of the Dragonlance IP, which is more what I was referring to. There wouldn't be any legal issues with turning Dragons of Deceit into a novel, despite the module being written by Doug Niles, as Doug Niles never owned the module, he wrote it as an employee of TSR. Sorry, for the lack of clarity.

 

[Morrus]

A lot of people are under the impression that MW&TH are the owners of the Dragonlance IP

Are they?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Are they?

I was once.