Despite years without firm updates, Netflix confirmed last week that an official Magic: The Gathering animated series is once again in production at the streaming service. Early art even appears to show beloved pyromancer Chandra Nalaar.
The latest update arrived unexpectedly via news release on Thursday, saying not only that the series was in production, but also that writer Terry Matalas had been tapped as showrunner, following his recent work on Star Trek: Picard and Syfy’s 12 Monkeys TV adaptation.
Also attached to the show is Patrick Osborne, an animator and writer whose credits include Big Hero 6, Wreck-It Ralph, and his Oscar-winning animated short, Feast.
Though no other details were included in the announcement, a new promotional image featuring two of Magic’s most popular characters, Chandra and Ajani Goldmane, accompanied the news.
Image: Netflix
Updates for the show were few and far between after it was first announced in 2019 with an expected 2022 premier, but rumors began to swirl earlier this month that the production had ceased following an interview with Brandon Routh, in which the actor told Collider, “I did do a voice for it. As far as I understand, nobody’s put out a press release about it, but apparently it’s not happening. That’s kind of old news.”
Routh, best known for his roles in Superman Returns and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, had originally been cast to play Gideon Jura, a heroic warrior and recurring character in the card game from his introduction in 2010 until the character’s death in the 2019 expansion, War of the Spark. But since narrative details about Netflix’s Magic show remain a mystery, it’s unclear whether Routh’s performance or Gideon the character will still appear in the eventual show.
The only remotely confirmed characters for now are Chandra and Ajani, with Chandra being the one consistent throughline in the show’s prolonged development after she was first name-dropped by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo when they were initially hired to adapt Magic for Netflix.
As one of Magic’s most depicted characters, Chandra has been a central figure to the card game’s sprawling, multidimensional storyline since her first card in 2007. Following her introduction in the Lorwyn expansion, the hotheaded pyromancer has appeared on countless cards throughout the game’s history and has played a critical role in driving the narrative in some of the game’s most defining events.
If the Netflix show adapts Chandra’s story as we know it today, fans might witness some of the game’s biggest wars come to life, including the fight to save the world of Zendikar from a swarm of gigantic, Lovecraftian monsters known as Eldrazi.
Image: Wizards of the Coast
The other character revealed in the newest promotional image is a biped lion warrior known as Ajani Goldmane. The character is usually depicted as a lion’s head atop the shredded body of a hairy professional wrestler.
Ajani was first introduced in 2007, in the same set as Chandra. Though their paths only occasionally crossed in subsequent years, he has been an equally consistent presence in the game’s underlying narrative. Just last year, Ajani played a key role in the war with the parasitic civilization of biomechanical creatures known as Phyrexians, who invade and consume entire realms in their cultist crusade for interdimensional perfection.
Perhaps the latest promotional image hints at the changing tone of the animated series, following the Russo brothers’ departure from the project. Following their success with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, there was speculation that they had been hired to bring their approach from comic book movies to the equally massive scale of Magic conflicts.
But the current creative team — namely, Matalas and Osborne — have a very different resume. Their stories tend to focus more on up-close character development, and might sway the Magic show more toward the personal toll that the game’s narrative conflicts have on its iconic characters and their loved ones.
Fortunately for fans of the game and fantasy storytelling in general, Magic brings with it more than 30 years of stories, characters, and worldbuilding that can be adapted into a striking animated series. Whether the series shines a new light on the stories behind the cards or places these characters into brand-new situations remains to be seen.
