The official Magic: The Gathering twitter account has announced that they will be teaming up with Netflix as well as Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame) to produce an animated series based on lore from the popular card game. The storyline will center around the magic-wielders in the game, called Planeswalkers, and the show will be expanding on the stories the game has already told. Netflix has yet to announce the exact scope of the animation, but according to Hollywood Reporter, there are sources that claim that Netflix and Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast are aiming to expand this into a much bigger franchise.
Magic: The Gathering has been around since 1993, and is currently the world’s most popular trading card game, with cards printed in multiple languages and played in over 70 countries. The Russo brothers, who will act as executive producers for the animated series, have been playing since the game was first released and are reportedly excited to bring the it to life. They will be joined by lead writers Jose Molina (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Henry Gilroy (The Tick, Agent Carter). Canadian studio Bardel Entertainment (Rick and Morty, The Dragon Prince) will be handling the animation.
This isn’t the first time someone has tried to bring Magic: The Gathering to the screen; 20th Century Fox bought the screen rights from Hasbro back in 2014, with ambitions to create a franchise on the same level as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. While that endeavor never got off the ground, we are looking forward to seeing how this project pans out!