Netflix’s Magic: The Gathering Animated Series Is Planeswalker
Netflix has named its Magic: The Gathering animated series Planeswalker, with a 2027 premiere, a synopsis built around the pyromancer Chandra and co-showrunners Terry Matalas and Cindy Appel. The details came in a video released during MagicCon Atlanta.
Netflix’s Magic: The Gathering animated series is called Planeswalker and will premiere in 2027, the streamer revealed in a video released during MagicCon Atlanta. The reveal also brought a synopsis, early art and the names of the showrunners.
It is the first real look at a project Netflix announced in 2024 on its Netflix Geeked account on X. One reply to that post read, "I'll believe it when I see it." Netflix put that line into its new video, at the nine-second mark.
What the series is about
The story centers on a young Chandra, a pyromancer familiar to players of red aggro decks. Netflix’s synopsis says Planeswalker "chronicles the fierce clash between formidable mages known as Planeswalkers."
It describes Chandra as "a volatile pyromancer hunted for her gifts and haunted by her past." Confronted by what Netflix calls an insidious force, she and some of the most legendary Planeswalkers must work to prevent a cataclysmic war.
Netflix has not named the other Planeswalkers joining her. The video does make clear that one of them is Ajani Goldmane, the hulking leonin, a cat-person character.
Who is making it
Terry Matalas and Cindy Appel, both of the recently concluded VisionQuest, will serve as co-showrunners. Matalas gets the line in Netflix’s video that sums up the pitch.
"Each of these cards is this window into this incredible world. It's not just world-building. It's worlds-building," he says.
A long wait for the screen
Magic: The Gathering is one of the most successful games ever made, with decades of built-in lore. Yet it has had a tough time moving from card stock into other visual media.
Its stewards at Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have produced some promotional animation. The game has not yet broken into scripted television or film the way Dungeons & Dragons, a cousin from the same company family, has.
A live-action film is also moving forward. Director Matt Johnson’s Magic: The Gathering movie has announced the casting of Maya Hawke.
Netflix has given only the 2027 window for Planeswalker, not an exact date. The title also nods to the game itself: "planeswalker" is a card type, and every player is a planeswalker in the game’s canon.
