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?

 

[Parmandur]

sure it failed, bad reviews, drastically reduced viewer numbers. It hasn’t been cancelled but that is not the same as not failing

The critical consensus on Rotten Tomato and Metacritic for both seasons is positive, and per Amazon they have made nearly $400 million from the first two seasons and juiced retail numbers for Tolkien stuff.

Is the show controversial? Sure. But the most common user review on Google is 5 out of 5. It is working for it's producers moneywise, getting good reviews, and is liked by a great number of people. Seems about as successful as could be expected.

 

[Parmandur]

I disagree, and by that logic we would never know that anything failed or succeeded.

There are metrics to go by, we do not need to speculate about what someone in charge may or may not consider acceptable. If you spend 3 times as much as a comparable show that gets 50% more audience (numbers entirely made up…), you failed, no matter whether the guys in charge are honest enough to publicly admit it.

Right, and if you look over the results of objective metrics it is doing fine.

 

[Parmandur]

Couldn't disagree more with this post. Lots of people liked WoT from the beginning.

Thwt is true, and while I bounced off of it, it was a well-made show. I do think it is fair to say that Game of Thrones was better received.

 

[Zaukrie]

Thwt is true, and while I bounced off of it, it was a well-made show. I do think it is fair to say that Game of Thrones was better received.

Sure, but That's like saying a hall of fame player is better than a random guy, imo. Got is a massive success. Every fantasy series pales in comparison.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, but That's like saying a hall of fame player is better than a random guy, imo. Got is a massive success. Every fantasy series pales in comparison.

Unfortunately for the showrunners, one of the main reasons they went with a book series thst was so much more successful than GoT was pre-show (the HBO quadrupled the nivep sales for Martin)...being the next GoT was the goal.

 

[payn]

The critical consensus on Rotten Tomato and Metacritic for both seasons is positive, and per Amazon they have made nearly $400 million from the first two seasons and juiced retail numbers for Tolkien stuff.

Is the show controversial? Sure. But the most common user review on Google is 5 out of 5. It is working for it's producers moneywise, getting good reviews, and is liked by a great number of people. Seems about as successful as could be expected.

What is interesting though is if you look at RT audience for some reason GoT and WoT have great rankings, but RoP plummets.

 

[Parmandur]

What is interesting though is if you look at RT audience for some reason GoT and WoT have great rankings, but RoP plummets.

What's also interesting is looking at the viewer numbers for Season 2 of RoP, though one should take those user numbers with a giant grain of salt. If you look at the Google user reviews, the most common ranking is 5, followed by a 1. So, yeah, controversial, and it seems to be mainly for reasons we shan't go into due to forum rules, frankly.

 

[Morrus]

What's also interesting is looking at the viewer numbers for Season 2 of RoP, though one should take those user numbers with a giant grain of salt. If you look at the Google user reviews, the most common ranking is 5, followed by a 1. So, yeah, controversial, and it seems to be mainly for reasons we shan't go into due to forum rules, frankly.

It got famously review bombed. Anybody coming to conclusions about its “success” or lack thereof based on reviews is not paying attention.

 

[Scribe]

but RoP plummets

My mother in law (yes, shes old, huge LotR fan) gave up on it even, I dont know maybe its just not great?

 

[payn]

My mother in law (yes, shes old, huge LotR fan) gave up on it even, I dont know maybe its just not great?

I thinks its surviving on brand alone.