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?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

No reason not to try again.

Dragonlance is sort of a perfect subject for TV adaptation, it has a pretty solid trophy story and characters, but it would also hardly be a crime against humanity and literature to change it up for the screen.

Animation and D&D are both in very different places from 2008. There have been multiple successful animated series based on RPGs. And doing it as a live action TV series, that would require a heck of a budget for the special effects, what with all the dragons and draconians.

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Did you say cooking? Pretty sure this book had recipes. Back when we were so invested in a setting we needed the sheet music and recipes.

You know, I still regularly crack open Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home to make something from the cookbook section. I don't each chicken, but I can say that the Gnomish Chicken recipe works great with fish.

In a lot of ways, I think it was ahead of its time as envisioning D&D as a culture, as something you could experience outside of just playing the game.

 

[Reynard]

Animation and D&D are both in very different places from 2008. There have been multiple successful animated series based on RPGs. And doing it as a live action TV series, that would require a heck of a budget for the special effects, what with all the dragons and draconians.

I don't know. If Wheel of Time could not make it work, I have serious doubts about DL.

 

[mamba]

I don't know. If Wheel of Time could not make it work, I have serious doubts about DL.

not sure Wheel of Time failed due to its budget. Rings of Power certainly didn’t. There is more that determines success than the budget

 

[Reynard]

not sure Wheel of Time failed due to its budget. Rings of Power certainly didn’t. There is more that determines success than the budget

I meant in general. WoT is probably the biggest non-Tolkien fantasy ever (maybe Stormlight has surpassed in in sales?) and still could not hold an audience. I think GoT was an anomaly and DL would legit bomb no matter how good the production was because the story just isn't very good.

 

[Scribe]

A high quality faithful adaptation of Chronicles and Legends would make me sooooooooooooooo happy.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know. If Wheel of Time could not make it work, I have serious doubts about DL.

Wheel of Time alienated a large part of ghe book audience fairly aggressively, and made very strange adaptation choices.

I don't know if the Dragonlance audience would have the same reaction to changes, the quality of the original material is somewhat distinct in those two cases.

 

[Parmandur]

not sure Wheel of Time failed due to its budget. Rings of Power certainly didn’t. There is more that determines success than the budget

Wheel of Time is one of the biggest budget TV shows ever made, the production quality was excellent.

The issue of alienating fans seems very far removed in the case of DL,since the books are pills fun instead of the un-depth mythological crunch of Wheel of Time.

 

[payn]

I meant in general. WoT is probably the biggest non-Tolkien fantasy ever (maybe Stormlight has surpassed in in sales?) and still could not hold an audience. I think GoT was an anomaly and DL would legit bomb no matter how good the production was because the story just isn't very good.

I think you need to build to a general fantasy size then. Animation might have a more suitable budget even if it has a lower ceiling of audience. A live action series would be tough if it needs a lot of CGI.

Problem with WoT is its running concurrently with RoP. Despite folks preferring WoT after its second season, RoP was too big to fail after Amazon dropped a billion bucks on the rights alone. So, they cancelled the better show in favor of the bigger name. The two shows likely would continue to cannibalize each other.

In defense of fantasy, the only genre that seems to have no limit is children shows and police procedurals.

 

[Reynard]

Wheel of Time alienated a large part of ghe book audience fairly aggressively, and made very strange adaptation choices.

I don't know if the Dragonlance audience would have the same reaction to changes, the quality of the original material is somewhat distinct in those two cases.

Has a book audience ever been happy with changes?

 

[Parmandur]

Has a book audience ever been happy with changes?

Fans who invest in books as their favorites ever? No. But despite Dragonlance being well liked and people are fond of it...I seriously doubt there are many people invested in it to yhe same degree as Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones.

And if they involve Weis and Hickman, make them happy ambassadors for the changes...then I doubt even the most hardcore of DL fans would make too much of a stink. The books simply aren't of the same caliber as a Lord of the Rings or Wheel of time: mediocre fun fantasy books are much better fodder for adaptation, IMO, see also that Shannara show that was quite OK.