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?

 

[Scribe]

If we're going canonical, Ansalon is tiny, like half the size of Europe. If there is no to little diversity of looks and ethnicities in how you depict a mostly human location on the continent, you're ignoring the canonical events (migrations) and scope of the land. If adherence to established canon is important, you have to keep in mind the size of the place and how fast people can move.

Actually all you have to do is represent the characters actually as described and illustrated for decades. Thats all you really need to do, and of course tell the story as is without a bunch of retcons.

 

[Teemu]

Actually all you have to do is represent the characters actually as described and illustrated for decades. Thats all you really need to do, and of course tell the story as is without a bunch of retcons.

Do we include the white elves enslaving the darker skinned indigenous coded elves?

 

[Azzy]

Movies that portray real-world peoples have used white actors for characters that are non-white ethnicities (like in Prince of Persia, Ghost in the Shell, any movie based on Biblical texts, any movie based on ancient Egypt, etc.). The further back you go, the more this happens but it still happens. But when we cast fantasy shows and movies, we can't cast Black, Asian, etc. actors for entirely fictional characters that are not part of real-world ethnicities because reasons even though whatever ethnicity of the fantasy characters has no bearing on the setting or the story.

 

[Scribe]

Do we include the white elves enslaving the darker skinned indigenous coded elves?

I dont think it was slavery, but it was certainly an example of 'Elves are dicks' as I noted before.

Its not a world of sunshine and rainbows.

 

[Teemu]

I dont think it was slavery, but it was certainly an example of 'Elves are dicks' as I noted before.

Its not a world of sunshine and rainbows.

The white elves forced the brown elves into servitude and wanted to "civilize" them. It's at least enslavement coded if you're being generous.

 

[Scribe]

The white elves forced the brown elves into servitude and wanted to "civilize" them. It's at least enslavement coded if you're being generous.

The Elves in question, are absolutely shown to be up their own ass. They are not "good nice people". At least if I remember.

This isn't modern D&D. Bad things happened.

I mean are we suggesting this needs to be rated G?

That's not my Dragonlance.

 

[Teemu]

The Elves in question, are absolutely shown to be up their own ass. They are not "good nice people". At least if I remember.

This isn't modern D&D. Bad things happened.

I mean are we suggesting this needs to be rated G?

That's not my Dragonlance.

The point is that if you have a fantasy movie or a tv show where white people enslave brown people, you're going to cultivate a certain kind of audience that likes what they see. Is that the kind of audience Dragonlance deserves?

 

[Scribe]

The point is that if you have a fantasy movie or a tv show where white people enslave brown people, you're going to cultivate a certain kind of audience that likes what they see. Is that the kind of audience Dragonlance deserves?

So we cannot have the white elves doing bad things.

We cannot even have the isolationist, xenophobic white elves even be all white.

Because...bad people would see bad things, and like it?

Wrap it up folks, the modern viewer is too sensitive to figure it out.

It's a marvel we even got Game of Thrones, or any product aimed at adults I guess. Too much for people to handle.

 

[Scribe]

Going to be real funny when 40K hits Amazon...

 

[mamba]

They are made up, not real, so there is no inherent identity to them.

so if Spock and Kirk were different actors of different colors and genders in each episode, that would be perfectly fine because they are fictional and have no identity?

As I wrote earlier, we disagree on fictional characters not having an identity, to me it is established with their first appearance. It can vary somewhat from there, but not overly.

As I wrote a more native looking Goldmoon is fine, she is a native after all. The Majeres can be hispanic, Caramon is the tan, outdoorsy type anyway, and Raistlin does not have a natural skin tone anyway. Could Rastlin be a black female? I mean who knows what casting will do, but it would not be close to my preferred choice…