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]

I just watched the Character Sheet video on this and it seems kind of like a... nothing burger? Nothing has been announced. There's just a vague sense of mending fences.

Yeah, basically. But being willing to out out that vibe is a nice sign of future potential.

 

[Parmandur]

How very double plus good.

No, it shouldn't be "changed". It should be acknowledged and improved upon. Shoving it under the rug does favors for nobody; it certainly doesn't make me as a brown-skinned fantasy fan suddenly feel more attached to Dragonlance.

Not really about you or your pwrsonal attachment: but you can bet money on whether WotC will choose some sort of "ackowledment" versus simple retconning.

 

[mamba]

No, it’s set in a fantasy world which can be exactly as diverse as the show runners want it to be.

yeah, it will be as diverse as they want it to be, no argument there

If they choose to make it entirely white it tells me everything I need to know about the show runners and turn off.

if they stick to casting people that kinda fit the established main characters it also tells me something about the show runners. Unlike you I won’t turn off regardless of whether they do or not however, I will have different criteria for that

 

[Scribe]

if they stick to casting people that kinda fit the established main characters it also tells me something about the show runners.

That they respect the source material? Why I never...

 

[mamba]

So, I am goijg to say this gently, but...Krynn isn't real. It has no actual identity.

you can say this however you want, it’s not like I am not aware of it. I also was not talking about all of Krynn, and have made that distinction more than once

I know that DL is obviously fantasy, but it too has established characters

 

[mamba]

But Krynn is a fantasy world. There is no reason to suppose UV radiation exists, nor genetics, nor evolution.

there is no reason to assume otherwise either, it’s not like we find a lot of blue and purple folks

 

[Parmandur]

you can say this however you want, it’s not like I am not aware of it. I also was not talking about all of Krynn, and have made that distinction more than once

Right, and all of the characters are also fictional and have no real identity. They could cast only Japanese actors and it would as much represent the characters "identity". They have none, and in a world with dragons who are also shapeshifting wizards...it would be a real weird statement to insist on some strict made-up evolutionary biology in a Young Krynn Creationist scenario.

 

[mamba]

The party in Dragonlance are from all over though. They aren't even from the same region, much less the same village. They are a motley crew of adventurers that have been gathered to Solace, but their origins are from all over.

that does not change what they all look like in the paintings though. It’s not like I am randomly insisting on them all being white (or even on them all being white in the first place…)

 

[Umbran]

Then we need to ask as critics why did the gods make only white people?

No, first we must establish, as critics, whether the evidence we have for that assertion is sound.

I know of nowhere we are given in the text that the gods only made white humans, or other canonical barrier to presenting Krynn humans with diversity.

If you have any canonical reference to that end, it would be good to present it now.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

No, first we must establish, as critics, whether the evidence we have for that assertion is sound.

I know of nowhere we are given in the text that the gods only made white humans, or other canonical barrier to presenting Krynn humans with diversity.

If you have any canonical reference to that end, it would be good to present it now.

Let me rephrase that;

As critics, we need to ask why the writers chose to show only the gods creating white people. Remember the Upton Sinclair quote, often misattributed to Orwell; "All art is propaganda."