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?

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Regardless, whenever I hear the phrase "updated for a new audience".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes, but once the showrunners ran out of books to adapt and the creator left the writers room the show took a massive turn. A good story doesn't matter if the showrunners can't adapt it competently.

I will point out that the original GoT author hasn't been able to adapt the story competently either. The trouble with setting out to subvert tropes is that you paint yourself into a corner. "Has a satisfactory ending" is an unrealistic trope - and it was Tolkien, not GRRM, who hung a lampshade on that: "don't adventures ever end?"

As I said, the original story doesn't matter. The GoT TV show looked good, and had a good cast. Which made it initially much better and more popular than the novels upon which it was based. What it lacked is any idea of where it was going, a problem with the novels that the TV show inherited by trying to copy them too slavishly.

 

[Parmandur]

I will point out that the original GoT author hasn't been able to adapt the story competently either. The trouble with setting out to subvert tropes is that you paint yourself into a corner. "Has a satisfactory ending" is an unrealistic trope - and it was Tolkien, not GRRM, who hung a lampshade on that: "don't adventures ever end?"

As I said, the original story doesn't matter. The GoT TV show looked good, and had a good cast. Which made it initially much better and more popular than the novels upon which it was based. What it lacked is any idea of where it was going, a problem with the novels that the TV show inherited by trying to copy them too slavishly.

I mean, the thing about the controversies around the end of the show? The stuff people don't like is really clearly where the books have been going based on foreshadowing since Book 1. Soooo, I think Martin has lost the desire to finish if he knows how controversial the planned endings are...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean, the thing about the controversies around the end of the show? The stuff people don't like is really clearly where the books have been going based on foreshadowing since Book 1. Soooo, I think Martin has lost the desire to finish if he knows how controversial the planned endings are...

Yup, painted into a corner. A good ending would have betrayed the point of writing the novels, a bad ending betrays the audience who has stuck with it for so long.

I don’t think the TV audience would have been any happier with “they all lived happily ever after” or “everyone dies”. They just tried to split the difference.

You are probably right, the TV ending was pretty much what GRRM planned at the start. I can’t imagine he didn’t tell the show runners where he was heading.

 

[mamba]

I mean, the thing about the controversies around the end of the show? The stuff people don't like is really clearly where the books have been going based on foreshadowing since Book 1. Soooo, I think Martin has lost the desire to finish if he knows how controversial the planned endings are...

to me it wasn’t so much that they ended up where they did, as you wrote it has been foreshadowed for a while, but how abrupt it was. If they had given it two seasons rather than one rushed half-season things might have been different.

It also didn’t help that in the last two seasons the supposedly smartest man in Westeros constantly made the dumbest decisions in Westeros

 

[plecostomus]

My weird request is that if it's a TV show, I hope the dragons are small.

Like this:

Not this:

I have nothing against big dragons. I just think it's cool that Dragonlance has these dragons which are conveniently sized for riding. I'm not sure this is an actual rule though, it might just be a book cover/module art thing. But consider this my formal request.

If they get to the Overlords storyline, then they can have big dragons.

 

[Bolongo]

Wasn't Manganiello also supposed to take over the kickstarted, but now 12 years delayed, D&D documentary as well?
Whatever became of that?

 

[AnotherGuy]

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.

I love how people champion for 3 feet tall halflings to be able to have 20 Strength because fantasy but take issue with other fantasy because it doesn't make sense with their reality.

Personally, I'd love for them to bring to life on screen the time before the Cataclysm - I just imagine there is just so much interesting content in that period to explore - the utter fall of civilisation on a continent and the impending destruction.

EDIT: To be clear I'm referring to Kender.
Kender can still have no sense of personal property but that perhaps is aggravated when they are away from home. While they are with other Kender they can as you say enjoy a commune society where they share the plow and if they go adventuring together they don't care who has the knife, cooking utensils, the flask of oil, the tinderbox etc. They just ask amongst themselves for those items and this is because they are wired differently as a result of their creation. But amongst dwarves, elves and humans this quirkiness is frowned upon and criminalised.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I love how people champion for 3 feet tall halflings to be able to have 20 Strength because fantasy but take issue with other fantasy because it doesn't make sense with their reality.

Personally, I'd love for them to bring to life on screen the time before the Cataclysm - I just imagine there is just so much interesting content in that period to explore - the utter fall of civilisation on a continent and the impending destruction.

If bodybuilders with dwarfism start saying that halflings with 20 strengths are offensive to them, we should listen. Until then, it's a fantasy scenario.

Native Americans having their culture stolen from them and commodified, and mixed race people being fetishized, are both real, extant problems and real people have expressed pain and hurt because of them, and if we want to call ourselves consciencious naughty word beings we should at least listen to their pain and determine whether or not we really need to perpetuate it in a book series designed to sell toys and games.

 

[AnotherGuy]

If bodybuilders with dwarfism start saying that halflings with 20 strengths are offensive to them, we should listen. Until then, it's a fantasy scenario.

Native Americans having their culture stolen from them and commodified, and mixed race people being fetishized, are both real, extant problems and real people have expressed pain and hurt because of them, and if we want to call ourselves consciencious naughty word beings we should at least listen to their pain and determine whether or not we really need to perpetuate it in a book series designed to sell toys and games.

I do not have an issue with a recast of Goldmoon...in the same way I love Corlys Velaryon in House of Dragon.

I was referring to Kender. Are you saying Kleptomaniacs Anonymous have found Kender offensive to them and that we need to listen?