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?

 

[Deset Gled]

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.

Kind of a tangent, but that's overselling WoT readership a little but, isn't it? I think Harry Potter, Narnia, Game of Thrones, and Discworld are ahead of it. Brian Sanderson will probably surpass some of those in the near-ish future. I don't know if we call Anne Rice fantasy or not, but if it counts it beats WoT. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's some pulp kids series that's a dark horse I'm not even thinking about.

WoT is up there, of course, but probably not top 5. I also have no idea how much of that is spread across the series or if it's front loaded.

 

[Dire Bare]

I disagree. I'm rereading them now (along with the Lost Chronicles, so all 6 books in order*). They are still enjoyable. I got a particular kick out of how they addressed the Hauberk issue. For those not in the know, in the original Chronicles, a few times they typed "hauberk" when they meant "halberd". It was...odd to read Flint break the shaft of a hauberk and ready himself for battle. Well, in the Lost Chronicles (written years later), they address that by Theros saying "in dwarvish, the word hauberk is very close to halberd, so it was just a slip of the tongue"

*

1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight in its entirety
2. Dragons of the Dwarven Depths
3. Dragons of Winter Night up until the end of book 1
4. Dragons of the Highlord Skies
5. Dragons of Winter Night book 2
6. Dragons of Spring Dawning up until the ship goes down in the Maelstrom
7. Dragons of the Hourglass Mage
8. Finish Spring Dawning

I don't think that's what @Reynard meant.

Yes, the books are still enjoyable! Otherwise, why adapt them?

The books have problematic elements that don't hold up decades later, as does much of the fantasy written in the 80s and the D&D game itself. Mostly how the story deals with the various fantasy races like kender, gully dwarves, gnomes, and even the goblins and draconians.

If they DON'T make some changes there . . . I'm not watching (and I suspect I'm not alone). If they DO make changes in how race/species are portrayed, some hardcore fans will be upset, and the culture warriors looking to complain about "woke" in media will come out of the woodwork . . .

 

[Morrus]

I do think that might also depend on nostalgia? I tried reading the books for the first time during the start of the pandemic and well, I did not get far. Which might be a problem if you want to make a show that is appealing to a lot of people and not just niche D&D players.

I similarly bounced off Wheel of Time. Our anecdotes are not relevant.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I mean...it is what it is regarding the Plains people, I can see some adjustment without it doing damage to the story. The Gully Dwarves would likely be softened into a more lovable take (who doesnt love Bupa anyway?) without focus on any of the more questionable bits.

I dont see either as a major problem with some adjustment or simply lack of focus.

I agree that it shouldn't be a big deal. For example, casting Amber Midthunder as Goldmoon and Martin Sensmeier as Riverwind would be awesome. But you just know the regular crowd would throw a big tissy fit. Cuz they always do...

 

[Sacrosanct]

Kind of a tangent, but that's overselling WoT readership a little but, isn't it? I think Harry Potter, Narnia, Game of Thrones, and Discworld are ahead of it. Brian Sanderson will probably surpass some of those in the near-ish future. I don't know if we call Anne Rice fantasy or not, but if it counts it beats WoT. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's some pulp kids series that's a dark horse I'm not even thinking about.

WoT is up there, of course, but probably not top 5. I also have no idea how much of that is spread across the series or if it's front loaded.

Especially if you only count the people who finished the WoT books. That's like, what? 17 people?

 

[Parmandur]

Kind of a tangent, but that's overselling WoT readership a little but, isn't it? I think Harry Potter, Narnia, Game of Thrones, and Discworld are ahead of it. Brian Sanderson will probably surpass some of those in the near-ish future. I don't know if we call Anne Rice fantasy or not, but if it counts it beats WoT. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's some pulp kids series that's a dark horse I'm not even thinking about.

WoT is up there, of course, but probably not top 5. I also have no idea how much of that is spread across the series or if it's front loaded.

It's complicated: Wheel of Time has sold over 100 million books, and on one hand that's only like 6 or 7 million copies per novel, ut on the other hand more than one person can read a given copy of the novel, which might be a library copy or go through resale secondhand, etc.

It is up there with those others, at least, there are not many fantasy series more widely read than Wheel of Time, particularly if you narrow it to Epic Fantasy then it's pretty much just LotR and GoT (both of which had cultural phenomenon adaptations, and GoT had not outsole WoT prior to the TV show still hasn't overall: 90 million copies to 100 Million for WoT).

 

[Dire Bare]

Kind of a tangent, but that's overselling WoT readership a little but, isn't it? I think Harry Potter, Narnia, Game of Thrones, and Discworld are ahead of it. Brian Sanderson will probably surpass some of those in the near-ish future. I don't know if we call Anne Rice fantasy or not, but if it counts it beats WoT. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's some pulp kids series that's a dark horse I'm not even thinking about.

WoT is up there, of course, but probably not top 5. I also have no idea how much of that is spread across the series or if it's front loaded.

Why pick nits?

Wheel of Time is a beloved and important fantasy franchise. Is it bigger than Narnia, Harry Potter, or other series? Who cares about the ranking?

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think that's what @Reynard meant.

Yes, the books are still enjoyable! Otherwise, why adapt them?

The books have problematic elements that don't hold up decades later, as does much of the fantasy written in the 80s and the D&D game itself. Mostly how the story deals with the various fantasy races like kender, gully dwarves, gnomes, and even the goblins and draconians.

If they DON'T make some changes there . . . I'm not watching (and I suspect I'm not alone). If they DO make changes in how race/species are portrayed, some hardcore fans will be upset, and the culture warriors looking to complain about "woke" in media will come out of the woodwork . . .

For what it is worth, Mangianello made it pretty clear when he has talked about his plans that it would involve the necessary changes, and he has buy-in from Wiess & Hickman for his ideas...so if he gets the chance I think he could thread that particular needle.

 

[Umbran]

Kind of a tangent, but that's overselling WoT readership a little but, isn't it? I think Harry Potter, Narnia, Game of Thrones, and Discworld are ahead of it. Brian Sanderson will probably surpass some of those in the near-ish future. I don't know if we call Anne Rice fantasy or not, but if it counts it beats WoT. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's some pulp kids series that's a dark horse I'm not even thinking about.

WoT is up there, of course, but probably not top 5. I also have no idea how much of that is spread across the series or if it's front loaded.

How are you measuring "top"? Doing some quick searching...

Lord of the Rings as a series has sold over 150 million books worldwide.
Narnia has overall sold over 120 million books
The Wheel of Time over 100 million.
Game of Thrones is over 90 million.
Discworld - over 80 million

Harry Potter - over 600 million.

Now, those are as series, and some series are longer than others, so that LotR over 3 or 4 books (if they are counting The Hobbit), becomes more impressive than Narnia's over 7 books. But also, LotR and Narnia have been around decades longer than, say, WoT...

But, really, as we look, they are all basically in a pack of similar size, when compared to Potter. So maybe stop quibbling over who is really "the top"? Distant second is the best any of the rest are gonna get.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If we are talking about a team of scriptwritters the worldbuilding of Krynn could be altered radically. For example new characters could be added for a possible future spin-off.

The gullys could be retconected, they wouldn't be so silly, only a bad reputation to be dumbest ones, they stupids couldn't survive in a zone with goblinoid raids.

The order of the seekers could show spirit magic or psionic powers.

Goldmoon would be a druid instead a cleric and Riverwind would be a barbarian because Tanis is the ranger. Sturm would be a paladin or a crusader(martial adept).

I guess it will be a serie and that should mean more time to tell the story with more details.