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?

 

[mamba]

Then it doesn’t matter if they have a different skin tone.

to a degree, sure. I picked the Majeres as hispanic for that reason, Raistlin has a color of his own anyway, and Caramon is the tan outdoorsy type.

Goldmoon is a native, she can look the part more than she does in Elmore’s paintings.

None of them can be black and still resemble the paintings though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

to a degree, sure. I picked the Majeres as hispanic for that reason, Raistlin has a color of his own anyway, and Caramon is the tan outdoorsy type.

Goldmoon is a native, she can look the part more than she does in Elmore’s paintings.

None of them can be black and still resemble the paintings though.

Thing about “native” is there aren’t many native Americans in London - I wouldn’t recognise one if I saw one. But as I understand it they are multiple ethnic groups, not just one. To be representative of my world, you need to have black people, who I gather you are excluding because somehow they are more different to you than other skin tones.

 

[Parmandur]

Then it doesn’t matter if they have a different skin tone.

I think there are very few good actors full stop. Casting by appearance narrows the pool to not a chance.

Poor acting was one of the things that sank WoT, especially in comparison to Rosamund Pike who acted the rest of the cast off the screen. GoT succeeded because of the quality of the cast. And they weren’t selected to match the book descriptions, never mind 3rd party illustrations.

Well, I mean, as to the latter point, the Wheel of Time show did specifically pursue a colorblind casting approach. Thwt is an example of diverse casting at work.

Notably, they got Brandon Sanderson on side for selling yhe diverse casting, so yhst helped dampen the controversy on that front.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, I mean, as to the latter point, the Wheel of Time show did specifically pursue a colorblind casting approach. Thwt is an example of diverse casting at work.

Notably, they got Brandon Sanderson on side for selling yhe diverse casting, so yhst helped dampen the controversy on that front.

WoT isn't cursed with the Elmore illustrations.

 

[Parmandur]

WoT isn't cursed with the Elmore illustrations.

That is fair, but it did go against the painted book covers thst were in people's minds thst were of the same general style of 80s Fantasy art. I'm juat saying, for the argument that "diverse casting = a better pool of actors"...Wheel of Time is that diverse casting approach at work. Of the main cast, 2 characters who presented as White in the novels were cast with actors of African descent, 1 was recast with an Australian Aboriginal actress, and 1 blue-eyed character was cast with an Asian actor. And that's just in the primary 8 characters.

So just saying, WoT did exactly that diverse casting approach, and honestly after the first season the discourse on that died down hard.

 

[TwoSix]

to a degree, sure. I picked the Majeres as hispanic for that reason, Raistlin has a color of his own anyway, and Caramon is the tan outdoorsy type.

Goldmoon is a native, she can look the part more than she does in Elmore’s paintings.

None of them can be black and still resemble the paintings though.

I think a point of contention is that for a lot of us, adhering to the Elmore art simply isn’t that important.

The character descriptions are only loosely sketched out within the book text itself, and that’s really the only standard a live-action adaptation should make a good faith effort to fit. And if it isn’t perfect, that’s OK.

 

[mamba]

To be representative of my world

yeah, maybe that is not the point though. The story is not set in modern day London.

I think having every village be 25% black, 15% asian, 40% white, and whatever the rest is made up of (or whatever the mix is) in order to represent London to be much too restrictive and the opposite of inclusion and tolerance. Why can a story in Africa not have 90% black people, one in Japan 90% Japanese, etc. Represent the region it is set in rather than turning every Viking fishing village into a London population mix.

I know that DL is obviously fantasy, but it too has established characters / ethnicities and I see no reason why it cannot use that range, somewhat pushing on the boundaries, instead of having every location be without identity so it can resemble London.

 

[mamba]

I think a point of contention is that for a lot of us, adhering to the Elmore art simply isn’t that important.

I mean, that is fairly obvious

It isn’t even that important to me, I am not gonna condemn the show for not sticking to it. I am just not a fan of robbing every place of its identity in order to have the ‘London mix of ethnicities’

 

[Paul Farquhar]

yeah, maybe that is not the point though. The story is not set in modern day London

No, it’s set in a fantasy world which can be exactly as diverse as the show runners want it to be. If they choose to make it entirely white it tells me everything I need to know about the show runners and turn off.

 

[TwoSix]

I mean, that is fairly obvious

It isn’t even that important to me, I am not gonna condemn the show for not sticking to it. I am just not a fan of robbing every place of its identity in order to have the ‘London mix of ethnicities’

I don't think Ansalon has any sort of ethnic identity.

It's a fantasy world; ultimately I don't see a reason not to pursue an idealized "colorblind" cosmopolitanism for all the races in the setting unless something like real-world ethnic tension is a theme within the setting.

DL has the human vs elves tension as embodied by Tanis, of course, but I don't think that needs to be portrayed by casting elves as real-world race A and humans as real-world race B.