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?

 

[Morrus]

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

Why? The point is that they are fake, powerless clerics in a world without gods.

Goldmoon would be a druid instead a cleric

The whole point of the story is that she's a cleric (of Mishakal) and brings the gods back to Krynn.

These changes add nothing of interest.

 

[Deset Gled]

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?

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.

I agree that the exact placement isn't critical (which is why I didn't bother getting exact numbers myself). But I think there is a notable difference from saying WoT is #2 of all time, and recognizing it as a mid range contender in the second tier of popularity. Especially when it's being used as a measuring stick.

 

[bedir than]

Ayoub seems likely to be reaching out to others too.

When I took over D&D, I had some very specific folks I wanted to bring back to The Table. Today, I had the honor of welcoming these folks back home. Amazing things ahead @JoeManganiello @WeisMargaret @trhickman
@Wizards_DnD #dungeonsanddragons

Link to X

 

[Umbran]

I agree that the exact placement isn't critical (which is why I didn't bother getting exact numbers myself). But I think there is a notable difference from saying WoT is #2 of all time, and recognizing it as a mid range contender in the second tier of popularity. Especially when it's being used as a measuring stick.

You are free to think what you want.

If you want to get in an argument over what folks think about series that aren't the actual subject of the thread, well, we can see how that turns out, hm?

 

[dave2008]

Has a book audience ever been happy with changes?

Small sample size, but yes I have been happy with changes from book to screen and sometimes wish they had changed more (JP)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

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

I liked the Wheel of Time series, but will admit that knowing how expensive it was, how risk-averse streaming platforms can be, and how much material they had to adapt, it was always going to be a long shot that it completed the story.

That being said, it's a completely different scale. The entire Chronicles trilogy fits within the first two Wheel of Time books, page-count wise.

Maybe Netflix still has those Skeksis costumes from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance laying around. They could make good draconians.

(In all seriousness, I agree that animated is by far the more likely format.)

Heh, yeah, that'd work. Practical would be the way to go for Draconians, maybe with some CGI touchups, if they did a live action version.

 

[dave2008]

I also continue to be sad that there is not a Arcane level quality Eberron animated series.

I don't understand the love for Arcane. Maybe I'm weird but the first season didn't hook and my son thought the 2nd season was worse so I just dropped it. What do you think is so great about Arcane?

 

[DarkCrisis]

Weiss and Hickman have been adamant that WotCs 5E Dragonlance is not their Dragonlance. Hence they the new novels are "Classic Dragonlance".

It will be interesting to see if they and Joe are involved in an Live Action thing and how much sway they have to the production. I can see them bending on Plains People not being Native American (I think Weiss loves her version of Goldmoon) and I can see them being cool with making the Gully Dwarves smarter.

I don't see them bending on Tinker Gnomes, Old School Kender, and mustaches on Solomnic Knights etc.

 

[Umbran]

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.

Wild speculation is wild speculation.

The gullys could be retconected

Call it "re-imagined", and yeah, because the original's pretty bad.

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

I think giving the Seekers actual powers rather gets in the way of their entire concept.

Indeed, the more outright magical power you show, the less the gods being away will seem to matter. Expect very little magic power in the War of the Lance.

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).

Do not expect any adaptation to screen to reference classes directly. Classes are not meaningful to non-gamer viewers.

 

[Deset Gled]

You are free to think what you want.

If you want to get in an argument over what folks think about series that aren't the actual subject of the thread, well, we can see how that turns out, hm?

Sorry, I just caught up to your previous green text. My bad.