Hasbro already brought one big Wizards of the Coast game to the big screen recently with the perpetually underappreciated Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—but there is, of course, another wildly popular game packed with lore to transform into sweeping transmedia adventures at WOTC. And now, it’s taking the leap too, once it gives its deck a shuffle.
This afternoon Hasbro announced that it was teaming up with Legendary Entertainment to develop a live-action Magic: The Gathering movie. “This is an exciting and complementary partnership, uniting one of the world’s most iconic brands with a powerful and proven steward,” Hasbro’s head of film, Zev Foreman, said in a press 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.”
According to the press release, plans for the partnership will begin with a movie, but have the potential to expand to live-action television series and “other content” should things go well. Little is known about just how Legendary will approach adapting Magic—whether we’re in for something meta about the act of playing the legendary TGC or we’re going to be following notable Magic characters like the dimension-hopping Planeswalkers as they sling spells and face grand threats remains to be seen.
The only certainty at the moment is that Hasbro and Legendary’s plans don’t change the deal the toy maker has already established with Netflix, where it is developing an animated Magic series for the streamer with Star Trek: Picard‘s Terry Matalas. Funnily enough, it’s not the first news item where Legendary has stepped into something Netflix had cooking recently, with the re-confirmation this week that the studio would develop the live-action Mobile Suit Gundam movie that had previously been stuck in development limbo at Netflix for several years.
We’ll bring you more on Hasbro and Legendary’s plans for Magic as and when we learn them.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.