Joe Manganiello (Credits: Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images)
Joe Manganiello is not done fighting for his Dungeons & Dragons Dragonlance TV series. The Hollywood star told IGN at Lucca Comics and Games 2026 that he “will never give up hope” of bringing the cancelled live-action project back to life.
Manganiello — one of the most famous D&D players in Hollywood — was hired as showrunner and screenwriter on the series years ago, promising a live-action adaptation of the beloved fantasy saga that introduced him to tabletop role-playing. After five years of work, the project was officially confirmed canned in 2024.
How Joe Manganiello’s Dragonlance TV Series Fell Apart
The actor explained that everything unraveled when the project lost its champions. He had been hired by Michael Lombardo, his former HBO boss, “to create the next Game of Thrones for him” — but Lombardo was gone, and so was Manganiello’s other producing partner. “When both of those got put on the shelf due to a change of leadership — due to shuffling going on within [Entertainment One] — those projects became nobody’s child,” he said.
“He’s my guy. He’s the guy who understood my pitch. He’s the one who believed in me. He’s the one who saw what it could be, and he’s gone,” Manganiello admitted, adding that he had “nobody helping to fight with” him to keep the in-development projects alive.
New Hope for Dragonlance and the D&D Documentary
Despite the setback — and the cancellation of his D&D documentary alongside it — Manganiello teased that the door is not closed: “I think there’s a lot of people that share that vision,” he said, hinting that both the Dragonlance show and the documentary could still find a future home.
Given the ongoing boom in fantasy television, a studio willing to bet on Dragonlance may yet emerge. For now, Manganiello’s message to fans is simple: hope is alive, and he is not walking away.
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Source: IGN — read the full story there.
