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?

 

[Umbran]

at no point did I say anything about the population of Krynn being white, not sure where this is coming from at all. The books already tell us that not everyone is white, we do not need to extrapolate from a few known persons

See above - getting that admission and agreement all around about the world then can inform thoughts concerning the established characters.

 

[pukunui]

The books describe them a certain way, the art depicts them a certain way, the two match.

No, they don’t, as I have already pointed out on numerous occasions in this thread.

One obvious example: Laurana is described in the book as having “woodland brown” skin, but Elmore always painted her as pale white.

 

[mamba]

No, they don’t, as I have already pointed out on numerous occasions in this thread.

One obvious example: Laurana is described in the book as having “woodland brown” skin, but Elmore always painted her as pale white.

yeah, in one spot she is described as woodland brown, in all other places she is described as white (fair skin or even pale, depending on the reference). I'd go with the vast majority of cases over the one exception

"There is likewise a dispute over Laurana's skin tone. Dragons of Autumn Twilight describes Laurana's skin as woodland brown (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Autumn Twilight p. 348) and there is a reference in Dragons of Winter Night to her being tanned (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Winter Night p. 668) . However, every other description of Laurana describes her as being very pale or having very fair skin (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Autumn Twilight p. 433; Winter Night p. 655, 852, 880; Spring Dawning p. 982, 1046, 1069, 1234, 1260; Dragons of Dwarven Depths p. 61; Dragons of the Highlord Skies p. 262; Dragons of the Hourglass Mage p. 202,)."

Laurana Kanan

Lauralanthalasa Kanan (Laura-lantha-lasa KAN-nan) (July 7, 271 AC - 421 AC), commonly known as Laurana, was a princess of the Qualinesti Elves and a Hero of the Lance. One of the most beautiful women on all of Krynn, she was a brave fighter, a brilliant tactician, and an inspirational leader who...

dragonlance.fandom.com

 

[Dire Bare]

yeah, in one spot she is described as woodland brown, in all other places she is described as white (fair skin or even pale, depending on the reference). I'd go with the vast majority of cases over the one exception

"There is likewise a dispute over Laurana's skin tone. Dragons of Autumn Twilight describes Laurana's skin as woodland brown (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Autumn Twilight p. 348) and there is a reference in Dragons of Winter Night to her being tanned (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Winter Night p. 668) . However, every other description of Laurana describes her as being very pale or having very fair skin (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Autumn Twilight p. 433; Winter Night p. 655, 852, 880; Spring Dawning p. 982, 1046, 1069, 1234, 1260; Dragons of Dwarven Depths p. 61; Dragons of the Highlord Skies p. 262; Dragons of the Hourglass Mage p. 202,)."

Laurana Kanan

Lauralanthalasa Kanan (Laura-lantha-lasa KAN-nan) (July 7, 271 AC - 421 AC), commonly known as Laurana, was a princess of the Qualinesti Elves and a Hero of the Lance. One of the most beautiful women on all of Krynn, she was a brave fighter, a brilliant tactician, and an inspirational leader who...

dragonlance.fandom.com

Okay, if the text is inconsistent . . . why is it so important that Laurana is white rather than woodland brown?

Heck, even if Laurana was consistently described as white, I'd be fine with an actress of color being cast in the role.

 

[Umbran]

everyone can decide that for themselves. I prefer the adaptation to stick close to the original, but I am not going to lose sleep over it if it doesn’t.

Hey, you were the one who mentioned the paintings.

If it doesn't matter all that much to you, why make it a point of discussion?

 

[pukunui]

As critics, we need to ask why the writers chose to show only the gods creating white people.

They didn’t. As has been pointed out upthread, Ergothians (who had an empire to rival Solamnia and Istar before the Cataclysm) are described as being black. One such Ergothian is Theros Ironfeld. He isn’t a main character, but he has an important role to play as the one who gets the magic silver arm and forges new dragonlances.

There’s also Captain Maquesta Kar-Thon, who takes some of the companions into the Maelstrom. She is half-Ergothian, half-Silvanesti elf, so she’s a mixed race black person.

Then there’s the Plainsmen barbarians of Abanasinia, who are described as “dark-haired and dark-skinned”.

Do they? Have we established that the skin tone of all members of the Companions were canonically, explicitly white? Do we have passages mentioning all their skin tones? There is a very common tendency for authors to state hair and eye color, but skin tone is often assumed, not specifically mentioned in the work.

I’ve been recording all mentions of skin tone in Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I’m up to page 214.

• Tanis has tanned skin.
• Flint’s skin is brown and “cracked like old leather.”
• Goldmoon has tanned skin and silver-gold hair, which Tas notes as being “unusual” for a Plainsman.
• Riverwind is “dark-skinned”.
• Tika’s skin tone isn’t noted but it’s light enough that you can see the freckles “smattering her nose and cheeks”.
• Raistlin had “white skin” that has turned golden.
• Caramon’s skin tone isn’t mentioned but since he is Raistlin’s twin, he most likely has white skin too.
• Sturm’s skin tone hasn’t been mentioned yet.
• I don’t think Tas’ skin tone has been mentioned yet either.

Later, Laurana is introduced as having “woodland brown” skin.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It will be nice when the FR books are released tomorrow and we'll have some different conversations available...

 

[Parmandur]

guess we disagree on that

What, that the characters are fictional...?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If the producer is going to be Netflix.... you know, those jokes.....about the casting and if the producer will be Disney then jokes about possible crossovers.

I have got a theory and it is we could see subplots with different groups working like hidden spin-off. This could allow episodes with some independient story and maybe those characters don't survive, for example Tas' sister, or cousin, living her own adventures.

Maybe they tell new stories, for example one about the true Raistlin's daughter.

 

[Scribe]

yeah, in one spot she is described as woodland brown, in all other places she is described as white (fair skin or even pale, depending on the reference). I'd go with the vast majority of cases over the one exception

"There is likewise a dispute over Laurana's skin tone. Dragons of Autumn Twilight describes Laurana's skin as woodland brown (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Autumn Twilight p. 348) and there is a reference in Dragons of Winter Night to her being tanned (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Winter Night p. 668) . However, every other description of Laurana describes her as being very pale or having very fair skin (Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles, Autumn Twilight p. 433; Winter Night p. 655, 852, 880; Spring Dawning p. 982, 1046, 1069, 1234, 1260; Dragons of Dwarven Depths p. 61; Dragons of the Highlord Skies p. 262; Dragons of the Hourglass Mage p. 202,)."

Laurana Kanan

Lauralanthalasa Kanan (Laura-lantha-lasa KAN-nan) (July 7, 271 AC - 421 AC), commonly known as Laurana, was a princess of the Qualinesti Elves and a Hero of the Lance. One of the most beautiful women on all of Krynn, she was a brave fighter, a brilliant tactician, and an inspirational leader who...

dragonlance.fandom.com