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?

 

[pukunui]

One of the things I've often wondered is if Goldmoon's mother (or father) might not have been a plainsman or she inherited her traits from one of her non-plainsfolk ancestors.

...Or, she might have been taken in as an orphan or Moses-case as raised as if a nativeborn, though you'd think that sort of thing would have stood out in a way that one of the companions at some point would have floated that question if that was the case.

As mentioned above, I think all of these options would be worse than simply having her be a whitewashed Native American. They would all make her even more of a white savior than she already is.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Remember that Mormon theology, among other things, features gods who live on alien planets and that Native Americans are secretly white Jews who turned brown due to their wickedness, and it's stated that if Natives convert to Mormonism, it's said that they will turn white and blonde-haired.

 

[Umbran]

...Or, she might have been taken in as an orphan or Moses-case as raised as if a nativeborn, though you'd think that sort of thing would have stood out in a way that one of the companions at some point would have floated that question if that was the case.

I am not saying you cannot build a plausible history for a blond character among folks who look different and have different culture.

I am saying that doing so will look kinda racist. It says the native culture itself isn't good enough to have its own savior.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yeah Im starting to agree that if there is a DL tv show it won't be Chronicles. Probably different characters or other books. Perhaps all new stuff.

 

[Superchunk77]

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.

But why would Joe be there then? He's got a screenplay for the first book already done so having him there for something else seems kind of unnecessary?

Anyways, having Joe, Margaret and Tracy there shows me there's hope for something halfway decent being done with the IP. If WotC's involvement in it is slim to none, all the better.

 

[M.L. Martin]

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.

I suspect Weis is pretty indifferent to Goldmoon--she isn't big on clerics, and Goldmoon gets sidelined pretty quickly once the novels move away from the modules and she starts having more influence on the story's direction. Goldmoon is, in fact, the only Hero of the Lance not to appear in Legends, The Second Generation, or Dragons of Summer Flame--including the dead ones. (And Goldmoon's appearance in the War of Souls is probably due to the Fifth Age team having dusted her off and given her a new role in the Fifth Age.)

Now, Tasslehoff and kender, and Raistlin and the Wizards of High Sorcery--those are Weis' favorites, and will probably be more fiercely protected.

What I'm interested in is how the atheist tones it sounds like Manganiello's bringing to the project (judging from his introduction to the combined Chronicles volume) will play with Hickman's religious sensibilities, but it's been nearly 25 years since I last engaged with Hickman's theological approach to Dragonlance. He may have changed, and it's entirely possible I'm misreading Manganiello's comments to begin with.

 

[Superchunk77]

Yeah Im starting to agree that if there is a DL tv show it won't be Chronicles. Probably different characters or other books. Perhaps all new stuff.

Seeing that Joe's already got a draft screenplay done of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, I'd disagree with you there. Seems like a waste to just ignore that and start from scratch. Especially knowing that the original DL trilogy was what drew a lot of fans to the setting. And that they have already reprinted the book trilogy a couple months ago in a new hardcover anniversary format.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Seeing that Joe's already got a draft screenplay done of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, I'd disagree with you there. Seems like a waste to just ignore that and start from scratch. Especially knowing that the original DL trilogy was what drew a lot of fans to the setting. And that they have already reprinted the book trilogy a couple months ago in a new hardcover anniversary format.

This is true, but they are also re-releasing the Legends books in the same format in a couple months. Not to mention the trilogy they just finished (Dragonlance Destinies). So there's a lot of recent material they could pull from and not be the original Chronicles, but instead have them more of a cameo background sort of thing.

 

[pukunui]

Remember that Mormon theology, among other things, features gods who live on alien planets and that Native Americans are secretly white Jews who turned brown due to their wickedness, and it's stated that if Natives convert to Mormonism, it's said that they will turn white and blonde-haired.

Wow. That's ... interesting. Especially given how DL's gods, even the good ones, are essentially jerks who nuke their own people as punishment for not being faithful enough. And I've always found the whole "We didn't abandon you; you abandoned us!" line to be disingenuous. I mean, the gods had their true magic-using clerics all disappear during the Cataclysm. If that wasn't the gods abandoning their people, I don't know what is. The true clerics should have been allowed to stay and help the people in the chaos after the Cataclysm. Or, better yet, maybe the gods should have found a way to smite the Kingpriest without all the collateral damage!

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Wow. That's ... interesting. Especially given how DL's gods, even the good ones, are essentially jerks who nuke their own people as punishment for not being faithful enough. And I've always found the whole "We didn't abandon you; you abandoned us!" line to be disingenuous. I mean, the gods had their true magic-using clerics all disappear during the Cataclysm. If that wasn't the gods abandoning their people, I don't know what is. The true clerics should have been allowed to stay and help the people in the chaos after the Cataclysm. Or, better yet, maybe the gods should have found a way to smite the Kingpriest without all the collateral damage!

Since dragonlance is all about balance, the only way to bring balance to the universe is for the next series of dragonlance to be fedora tipping reddit coded stories about atheism