Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, creators of the Dragonlance fantasy mythos, are suing Wizards of the Coast after the company ditched a licensing deal for the latest books in the long-running series.
Filed in district court in Seattle, the lawsuit [Scribd, PDF] was first reported by Cecilia D'Anastasio. The lawsuit claims that WoTC breached their contract without explanation and in "stunning and brazen bad faith", despite having been intimately involved in the development of the new work, approving a trilogy's worth of characters, storylines and scenes and signing with a publisher, Penguin Random House.
The lawsuit claims $10m in damages.
Weis and Hickman created Dragonlance, set within the broad ambit of WoTC's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing franchise, in the 1980s. Its lively mix of colorful heroes and epic drama was a hit with gamers and readers, growing into a sprawling shared universe fleshed out by many authors, artists and designers. According to the lawsuit, Weis and Hickman agreed with Wizards of the Coast to produce the new novels in 2017, capping off the series and giving fans a final sendoff.
But the company pulled the plug in August 2020—and Weis and Hickman blame controversies at WoTC itself.
…at nearly the exact point in time of the termination, Defendant was embroiled in a series of embarrassing public disputes whereby its non-Dragonlance publications were excoriated for racism and sexism. Moreover, the company itself was vilified by well-publicized allegations of misogyny and racist hiring and employment practices by and with respect to artists and employees unrelated to Dragonlance. Plaintiff-Creators are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that a decision was made jointly by Defendant and its parent company, Hasbro, Inc., to deflect any possible criticism or further public outcry regarding Defendant's other properties by effectively killing the Dragonlance deal
The lawsuit specifies "a drumbeat of negative publicity" ranging from offensive "Magic: The Gathering" trading cards to a widely-reported claim of workplace hostility.
It isn't made clear why this would lead to WoTC abandoning the new Dragonlance deal, but the lawsuit asserts that the allegations of racism and sexism faced by the company are "unrelated to the Dragonlance trilogy."
