With over $1 billion in revenue generated annually, Magic: The Gathering is one of the most popular and successful collectible trading card games in the world. What began as the world's first trading card game has expanded into a global phenomenon that now includes competitive tournaments, professional circuits, and a secondary seller's market for rare cards.
But as popular as Magic: The Gathering has become, it's never really expanded beyond the tabletop and video games space. Until now.
Deadline reports that Hasbro Entertainment and Legendary Entertainment are teaming up to create a live-action movie and television universe based on Magic: The Gathering. The first project will reportedly be a movie, with a TV series and additional universe-expanding content to follow.
"This is an exciting and complementary partnership, uniting one of the world’s most iconic brands with a powerful and proven steward," said Zev Foreman, Hasbro Entertainment’s Head of Film, in a statement. "Magic: The Gathering has inspired decades of epic world-building and creative storytelling. It is a perfect match for Legendary’s diversified approach to marquee IP, and we are excited to work together to build a whole new Magic: The Gathering universe.”
"We pride ourselves on being thoughtful caretakers of singular, beloved IP, and no property better fits that description than Magic: The Gathering," added Mary Parent, Legendary's Chairman of Worldwide Production. "Alongside the fantastic Hasbro team, we look forward to creating a multimedia universe that thrills longstanding fans and creates a broad wave of new ones.”
Magic: The Gathering is set in a Multiverse with countless possible worlds, referred to as planes. The game's primary events take place on the planes of Dominaria, Ravnica, Zendikar, and Innistrad.
Players take on the role of Planeswalkers, powerful wizards capable of traversing the Multiverse. These Planeswalkers can draw on the magic and entities of these planes to duel with others.
Magic: The Gathering's story is primarily told through the cards' flavor text. The game has seen numerous expansions throughout the decades, with early ones introducing their own internal narrative to establish new concepts and mechanics. As the game has grown in popularity, other brands have often been introduced into the game through cross-promotional cards and events, including Hasbro's own brands, such as Transformers, Nerf, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Specific details pertaining to this film and TV universe were not revealed, but Legendary Entertainment has a successful track record for adaptations. The global media and film production company has put out numerous adaptations of popular franchises with some of the company's recent hits including Pokemon Detective Pikachu, Dune, and Jurassic World.
Legendary is also set to release a movie adaptation of one of the most successful video games of all time, Minecraft. The live-action adaptation, A Minecraft Movie, is due out on April 4, 2025, and stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, and Danielle Brooks.