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?

 

[LordBP]

I know that within the context of the story, he was a hidden prince, but from the viewer's perspective, he spent the entire show with a neon sign above his head declaring him to be the secret Chosen One. It was glaringly obvious right from the get-go that the bastard wasn't really a bastard ...


It also came later, like when Arya literally swooped in out of nowhere to defeat the White Walkers, when the story had been building up to it being Jon.

I'm one of those people who doesn't mind where all the pieces ended up on the board by the end of GoT. I just didn't like how they got there. Some endings didn't feel earned in the rush to finish.

The Arya spider monkey act was the final straw for me.

If they would have had her act like an assassin to kill the White Walker, then I could have bought it.

 

[mamba]

Right. Yeah, I'm not waiting for GRRM to ever finish.

I kinda am, I stopped after the first three books because at his pace I have to start over after a new book anyway

 

[MockingBird]

That's a good point ... but isn't the flashback in the show presented as Bran "time traveling" into the past? GRRM could have done that in the book, too, and since I haven't read them, I wouldn't know!

Yeah in the show its from Brans viewpoint once he learns how to "time travel". He learns to do this is the books but if I remember correctly he can only travel within the werewood trees. But yeah as mentioned by others Jon is still dead by the end of the last book. I never planned to read them but I watched some YT videos talking about some of the subplots and my curiosity got the better of me. I couldn't stop reading them once I started lol. Plus the GoT lore is super interesting to me.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I know that within the context of the story, he was a hidden prince, but from the viewer's perspective, he spent the entire show with a neon sign above his head declaring him to be the secret Chosen One. It was glaringly obvious right from the get-go that the bastard wasn't really a bastard ...

Pretty much what I said (the story isn't as subversive as people think)

It also came later, like when Arya literally swooped in out of nowhere to defeat the White Walkers, when the story had been building up to it being Jon.

I suspect that was from the showrunners, not from Martin.

I'm one of those people who doesn't mind where all the pieces ended up on the board by the end of GoT. I just didn't like how they got there. Some endings didn't feel earned in the rush to finish.

Yes, because Martin provided the ending, and the showrunners decided how they got there. Which is why you got that mess. You cut out entire plots from the series and of course the story makes no sense. A skilled adaptor can condense storylines without doing that. That show didn't have a skilled adaptor.

 

[Nord Ronnoc]

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.

My sibling and I suggested making the Kender culture have a "share and share alike" mindset. It seems to work wonders. I'm thinking of having their culture encourage curiosity to further lengths compared to other species in the setting.

 

[Nord Ronnoc]

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.

I live in Utah, though I'm not a Mormon. I can vouch on some of that, at least.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

My sibling and I suggested making the Kender culture have a "share and share alike" mindset. It seems to work wonders. I'm thinking of having their culture encourage curiosity to further lengths compared to other species in the setting.

I don't think kender are really that difficult to get right. Look at how Tas is actually portrayed - yes, he's a kleptomaniac, but he's also unfailingly generous and loyal to his friends. So as for the examples of "knives going missing so dinner doesn't happen", in kender society you probably start cooking, realise your knives are missing, and then all your guests say "I've got a knife" and you probably end up with more than you started with. I can imagine some strange system were possessions keep cycling around the whole community and it all just somehow works in a very chaotic manner.

 

[Umbran]

I live in Utah, though I'm not a Mormon. I can vouch on some of that, at least.

Mod note:
I say, again, real-world religion is not a topic for conversation on this site.

Please stop.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean...cast it like the books and existing art describe the characters which have existed for decades?

Seems a pretty easy "issue" to thereby avoid.

Personally, I would find an all-white mostly male cast objectionable.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm one of those people who doesn't mind where all the pieces ended up on the board by the end of GoT. I just didn't like how they got there. Some endings didn't feel earned in the rush to finish.

Once they realised the ending they had wouldn’t go down well they just wanted to get it over with.