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?

 

[Umbran]

I can see them bending on Plains People not being Native American (I think Weiss loves her version of Goldmoon)

Making Goldmoon a blond white woman cosplaying as a Native American is right out. Either make her people absolutely nothing like Native Americans, or, double down, and cast First Nations people in those roles.

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

Gnomes can probably be cut completely.
Mustaches as Solamnic Knights are fine. (No, really - make Solamnic Knights this species of sapient mustaches that need humans to carry them around - I'm good with that)

Kender... make no freakin' sense as a society as written. The "Teehee, it must have fallen into my pouch," was always annoying disingenuous nonsense, and is what led people to hate Tasslehoff, and kender in general.

It is fine to have a society with no real sense of personal property - that can work, and can even be interesting! Commune Kender could be awesome! But not having personal property does not mean that you can/should just pick up whatever catches your eye, and then forget about it. People need certain things to carry on their lives and do the work that needs doing every day. When the knives go missing, cooking dinner doesn't happen. If the plow is gone, the fields don't get prepared for planting, and so on. Stuff has to mostly stay put!

If they need Tass to be a kleptomaniac, make that a him thing, not a characteristic of his entire people.

 

[Superchunk77]

My guess is they'll do an animated or live action Dragonlance Chronicles show of the original trilogy. I can't see any D&D products coming out at this time, since D&D is trending towards that whole franchise model.

 

[Scribe]

Kender... make no freakin' sense as a society as written. The "Teehee, it must have fallen into my pouch," was always annoying disingenuous nonsense, and is what led people to hate Tasslehoff, and kender in general.

I love Tas, and Kender as God intended.

 

[Umbran]

My guess is they'll do an animated or live action Dragonlance Chronicles show of the original trilogy. I can't see any D&D products coming out at this time, since D&D is trending towards that whole franchise model.

Management as a "whole franchise" should mean that Dragonlance D&D products and videogame offerings and merch would all come out in a coordinated manner with a TV show.

Not necessarily all at the same moment, but in some way that made sense to take advantage of each other - like if you release the show to run from summer into autumn, you then make sure there's merch for the holidays, and so on.

 

[Umbran]

I love Tas, and Kender as God intended.

Tasslehoff Burrfoot was, in effect, the worst case of, "But that's what my character would do!" ever shown. If it had been at an actual table, I would have suspected Tass was run by the GM's significant other, because they were allowed to get away with being annoying to, and stealing scenes from, everyone else at the table.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Making Goldmoon a blond white woman cosplaying as a Native American is right out. Either make her people absolutely nothing like Native Americans, or, double down, and cast First Nations people in those roles.



Gnomes can probably be cut completely.
Mustaches as Solamnic Knights are fine. (No, really - make Solamnic Knights this species of sapient mustaches that need humans to carry them around - I'm good with that)

Kender... make no freakin' sense as a society as written. The "Teehee, it must have fallen into my pouch," was always annoying disingenuous nonsense, and is what led people to hate Tasslehoff, and kender in general.

It is fine to have a society with no real sense of personal property - that can work, and can even be interesting! Commune Kender could be awesome! But not having personal property does not mean that you can/should just pick up whatever catches your eye, and then forget about it. People need certain things to carry on their lives and do the work that needs doing every day. When the knives go missing, cooking dinner doesn't happen. If the plow is gone, the fields don't get prepared for planting, and so on. Stuff has to mostly stay put!

If they need Tass to be a kleptomaniac, make that a him thing, not a characteristic of his entire people.

Im just saying, Weiss loves Goldmoon and Kender as they are. If they get her to sign off on changing them, I will be surprised.

Perhaps Goldmoon is an adopted child of the Plainsmen? IDK

Kender are Kender like magic is magic. It just is and doesn't need an explanation. Heck their creation (and every other species with a weird quirk) in lore is literally "The god(s) did it on purpose."

 

[Stormonu]

Tasslehoff Burrfoot was, in effect, the worst case of, "But that's what my character would do!" ever shown. If it had been at an actual table, I would have suspected Tass was run by the GM's significant other, because they were allowed to get away with being annoying to, and stealing scenes from, everyone else at the table.

No, Tasslehoff was me when I was 14 or so. I'm fine with Kender as they are because I could relate.

And I'm someone who'd never steal or shoplift.

 

[Morrus]

Im just saying, Weiss loves Goldmoon and Kender as they are. If they get her to sign off on changing them, I will be surprised.

I will be surprised if it even matters, because I do not think this is about a TV show adaption of the Dragonlance Chronicles. Which is kind of a prerequisite premise for a lot of the speculation in this thread.

I would be delighted if it was though.

 

[Umbran]

No, Tasslehoff was me when I was 14 or so.

You know that most of the world finds 14-year-olds to be annoying, and they certainly couldn't have a working society like that, right? Right?

 

[Scribe]