Spelljammer Jeff Grubb was surprised by Spelljammer

[briggart]

I just checked, and the lawsuit did start in 2020. So the timeline is;

• H&W started writing new books, with WotC's permission.
• WotC started developing Dragonlance, H&W sues WotC. Which happens first isn't clear.
• H&W dismiss lawsuit.
• WotC completes and announces Dragonlance for 5E.

So the lawsuit and the development started roughly at the same time. To me, it looks like if there was any chance of getting H&W's input on Dragonlance, it went up in smoke when they sued. I know Hickman consulted for Curse of Strahd, so I wouldn't be surprised if WotC started DL development and intended to get input, then the lawsuit started and they decided "Naw let's not, let's do it ourselves only."

Another point that could have affected WotC decision is that CoS was the first 5e adventure HC developed fully in house by WotC. I remember Perkins mentioning in an interview that he was getting so stressed about finishing CoS in time that he checked-out a bunch of old Ravenloft products from WotC archive and took a week of vacation so he could read them and focus on CoS without having to deal with his other duties. They seem to have a much larger staff now and they seem to have planned these releases well in advance, so it's possible they simply felt they had all the needed manpower in house for DL and SJ.

 

[Ghost2020]

It's pretty poor form on WOTCs part not to consult the original creators of a setting when they decide to actually do something with it. Not even telling them before the public is pretty inexcusable in my opinion.

Not at all. It's not his IP. He developed it when he was at TSR. He has no control of future content, and they're clearly going in a different direction.
If he wants to get back into it, as stated before, DMsGuild would allow him to do a version he prefers, or new material that he never had a chance to explore.