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?

 

[Akodoken]

I'm checking any hopes I have until I see this come to fruition. And depending on what we actually get, whether it is supported or not. I've been burned too many times. But... fingers crossed

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

You don't think the Angles or Saxons or their ancestors ever existed in the stone age? Ok. (I assume it was a "gotcha' at me because "Anglo-Saxon" as an identity only existed post classical era but you knew what I meant so no need for pedantry)

Well, no, I didn't understand what you meant, which I why I replied to your post.

 

[pukunui]

Alhana Starbreeze. But it’s not just elves. Dragonlance had a habit of making every important female important character the mostest beautiful ever. Goldmoon, Kitiara, and Chrysania as well. Even Tika, who is initially described as above, later is described with her own beauty features that surpass most. It’s a very common trope in early DL.

From page 28 of my copy of Dragons of Autumn Twilight:

Caramon wants Tanis and Flint to guess who Tika is. She gives them a hint that Caramon once said she was so ugly her father would have to pay someone to marry her.

Tanis replies: “Well, the years have proved him wrong. I’ve traveled many roads, and you’re one of the prettiest girls I’ve seen on Krynn.”

Elmore was absolutely obsessed with putting feathers in womens' hair. He did it in his non-Dragonlance art too.

Elmore was born in 1948, so he would have come of age during the hippy era (late 60s / early 70s). It’s no wonder he likes to include feathers and deer skin and all that in his paintings.

 

[Parmandur]

From page 28 of my copy of Dragons of Autumn Twilight:

Caramon wants Tanis and Flint to guess who Tika is. She gives them a hint that Caramon once said she was so ugly her father would have to pay someone to marry her.

Tanis replies: “Well, the years have proved him wrong. I’ve traveled many roads, and you’re one of the prettiest girls I’ve seen on Krynn.”


Elmore was born in 1948, so he would have come of age during the hippy era (late 60s / early 70s). It’s no wonder he likes to include feathers and deer skin and all that in his paintings.

I'm not running down Elmore or even his art by suggesting a modern take should be different: what he did in the 80s was of the time and rather place, but a modern show should navigate more carefully.

 

[pukunui]

I'm not running down Elmore or even his art by suggesting a modern take should be different: what he did in the 80s was of the time and rather place, but a modern show should navigate more carefully.

Agreed. I’m not running him down either. I still have a fondness for his art style, especially his landscapes.

I’ve just been trying to argue the point that Elmore’s paintings are as much an interpretation of the story as a modern take would be.


Moving on to page 35, we have the companions all turning to look at Fizban and noticing that Goldmoon has pulled down her hood.

“All were immediately overwhelmed by the beauty of the Plainswoman. They stared in silence.”

 

[Scribe]

Elmore was born in 1948, so he would have come of age during the hippy era (late 60s / early 70s). It’s no wonder he likes to include feathers and deer skin and all that in his paintings.

There certainly is something to Elmore and his uh appreciation for some of the trappings of Native culture applied to his models and his art.

 

[pukunui]

It’s interesting to see how arcane and divine magic have changed over the years. These days, everything’s just magic. But in the Chronicles, we have Raistlin stating that the blue crystal staff is not magical.

“It is truly a sacred staff of healing, blessed by some god. It is not magic. No magic objects that I have ever heard about have healing powers.”


On page 52, we get a bit more description of Sturm: “Although Sturm was only four years older than Caramon, the knight’s strict, disciplined life, hardships brought on by poverty, and his melancholy search for his beloved father had aged the knight beyond his years. Only twenty-nine, he looked forty.”

Still no indication of Sturm’s “ethnicity”, though.


EDIT: OK, on page 60, we learn that, in addition to her fur-lined cape, Goldmoon wears “the soft doeskin breeches of her people with a fringed overskirt and belted tunic” with “boots made of soft leather”. Riverwind, meanwhile, wears a bearskin cape.

That does sound like Native American cultural attire, but it doesn’t have to look like theirs.

 

[Morrus]

I believe the whole 'for modern audiences' is way overrated. Modern audiences do not just watch shows where the cast is all colors of the rainbow and half of them are non-cis. Maybe I am out of touch, but I believe a good story is more important than 'forced diversity', even for modern audiences.

So, to clarify, in your eyes it's a binary choice--having white characters is "a good story" and having non-white characters is not a good story?

I submit that you can have good stories where there characters are not all white. I further submit that the skin colour of the characters does not affect the story one whit, unless it is literally a story about skin colour.

 

[EthanSental]

I’m going to re-listen to the various Dragonlance novels I have on Audible, which is about 20 of them..maybe we’ll know more about the project by the time I’m done!

Edit - Paul Boehmer, narrator of the chronicles and some Strahd Ravenloft novels does a fantastic job on them.

 

[pukunui]

It’s not until page 107 that we get an actual description of Flint: “The dwarf looked old, but then Flint had always looked old. His face, what could be seen through the mass of gray beard and moustaches and overhanging white eyebrows, was brown and wrinkled and cracked like old leather … The change was in the eyes. The fiery luster was gone.”