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?

 

[GreyLord]

If we are going to change the ethnicities of Characters from Dragonlance I propose the following...

Caramon and Raistlin are Black. I relate more to these guys anyways, so make it so.

Goldmoon and Riverwind probably could be Native American? Or make them Scandinavian Barbarians/Vikings?

Make all the Elves as Asian. Tanis would be Half-Asian.

That half/half idea actually could possibly be very relevant to the struggles of a large number of US Americans deal with today...perhaps.

Just some thoughts if we are going to change the ethnicity of characters of Dragonlance.

 

[Parmandur]

No one's denying you a show with the characters you grew up with ... you've already got that! Well, a movie anyway ...

Now, that's just cruel, lol

 

[Scribe]

You're acting like your books would get magically rewritten to match the new version when you know perfectly well that won't happen.

No, I'm not.

I think it was pretty clear, but here you go.

I want a new show, with new production values, a great budget, and actors which reflect accurately the characters of the books as is, and as per the Elmore art/covers, we grew up with.

Simple.

Tell you what, I'll compromise!

Give me Chronicles and Legends, as they should be, and then you can all go hog wild with your great idea of changing the characters for all the further adaptions, just like we got LotR, and then they just decided to start changing stuff up for Rings of Power.

Cool cool, everyone wins.

 

[Parmandur]

If we are going to change the ethnicities of Characters from Dragonlance I propose the following...

Caramon and Raistlin are Black. I relate more to these guys anyways, so make it so.

Goldmoon and Riverwind probably could be Native American? Or make them Scandinavian Barbarians/Vikings?

Make all the Elves as Asian. Tanis would be Half-Asian.

That half/half idea actually could possibly be very relevant to the struggles of a large number of US Americans deal with today...perhaps.

Just some thoughts if we are going to change the ethnicity of characters of Dragonlance.

Given the post-Apocalyptic setting, of a formerly continent spanning cosmopolitan society laid low...I think just having low-key diversity, similar to other recent shows, is fine. Have a bunch of different types of people, ot doesn't have to be systematic like that.

 

[TwoSix]

Give me Chronicles and Legends, as they should be, and then you can all go hog wild with your great idea of changing the characters for all the further adaptions, just like we got LotR, and then they just decided to start changing stuff up for Rings of Power.

Cool cool, everyone wins.

“Should be” doing a lot of work there lol.

I hope the cast looks pretty much like the cast of Sinners.

 

[Scribe]

“Should be” doing a lot of work there lol.

I mean I'm open in my desire here, dont change it. Obviously a few others here would disagree and thats great, they can be wrong in their bias.

 

[Libertad]

The nature of differing mediums means that changes to the core story are inevitable. The original AD&D adventures for Dragonlance changed a lot of aspects from the novels. And the 15th Anniversary of said adventures practically dynamited the railroad tracks in favor of a more open-world campaign that allowed for alternative solutions to various events in the Chronicles. It's a huge change, but one that I imagine many gamers would welcome, as the railroady aspect of the original campaign detracted from peoples' enjoyment of Dragonlance.

So too is a movie or TV series based on the original Chronicles/Legends going to be different. The real question is what changes are worth it, and what original content is worth preserving.

Regarding the casting of ethnicities, Goldmoon's original portrayal of having blonde hair and blue eyes is based off of a racist myth about Native Americans. The very religion that propagated that belief has revised and acknowledged its inaccuracy nearly 20 years ago, has attempted to distance itself from in a variety of ways, so even among the faithful it's something that people are shying away from. Edit: My initial reading on the religion's stance over Lamanite curse was mistaken in believing that they were more overtly condemnatory of the belief, where it more likely appears that they just want to downplay its influence.

On a similar note, the silver dragon D'argent sometimes disguises herself as a Kagonesti elf in the Chronicles and some versions of the adventures. The Kagonesti are noted in-universe as being darker-skinned than other elves, as well as having a culture closer to nature and being hunter-gatherers. But D'argent's elven disguise notably has light skin and hair.

In the real world in the United States (which houses a significant amount of D&D players and Dragonlance fans), there's an increasing mainstream acceptance of white supremacist viewpoints. The richest man in the world, the very same man who threw a hissy fit over a D&D history book, gave two Nazi salutes on national television and made social media posts claiming that Jewish people are fomenting a genocide of white people via mass immigration from non-European countries.

I do not believe that Weis, Hickman, or other DL writers have white supremacist sympathies. On an older Facebook post, IIRC Hickman notably left the Republican Party because of their embrace of Trump, a Nazi sympathizer, who ran for President and won.

As for how this ties back into Dragonlance...what message does it send to have not one, but two female characters coded as Indigenous, being the most prominent and powerful of said groups in-universe? But who both have light skin and hair not typically associated with Indigenous people? Is this something worth preserving and carrying over, given what kinds of people we know will latch onto it?

 

[Parmandur]

“Should be” doing a lot of work there lol.

I hope the cast looks pretty much like the cast of Sinners.

The car of Rings of Power seems like a pretty good model.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I do not believe that Weis, Hickman, or other DL writers have white supremacist sympathies. On an older Facebook post, IIRC Hickman notably left the Republican Party because of their embrace of Trump, a Nazi sympathizer, who ran for President and won.

I can assure you Hickman is very much not a supporter of white nationalist ideology. He is quite outspoken against that kind of thing. In fact, just the other day I had this interaction:

 

[mamba]

Because that is how he is depicted in the art of the original material

lol, forgot about that one. Original in an extended universe kind of sense, not even a Weis/Hickman book, let alone from the Chronicles trilogy we are kinda expecting / discussing here