Netflix's Long-Awaited Fantasy Adaptation Finally Unveils First Look After 7 Years

It’s not often that a streaming project spends years in development and actually makes it to the screen. Projects announced with splashy press releases tend to vanish quietly a few years later, and for a long stretch it looked like Netflix’s Magic: The Gathering series would join that pile.

The show was first announced back in June 2019 with Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo attached, then lost the Russos to creative differences in 2021, got handed to Transformers: Prime veteran Jeff Kline, and then went so silent that most fans reasonably assumed it was dead. A 2024 creative reset under Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas was the first real sign of life. Now, Netflix has revealed a first-look image and a two-minute development diary for the series, officially titled Planeswalker, and confirmed that it’s set to premiere in 2027.

The reveal landed alongside MagicCon: Atlanta, which feels deliberate given how much skepticism the project needed to overcome with the game’s own community. According to Variety, ​​​​​​the featurette shows concept art, 3D character models, and animation tests from Budapest-based studio DIGIC Pictures, the CG house best known for cinematics in games like Assassin’s Creed and Final Fantasy. Magic‘s visual identity lives in painterly card art, and a studio accustomed to high-end game cinematics is probably the right fit for translating it.

Story-wise, the series puts Chandra Nalaar front and center, who is a sensible anchor. She’s been one of the game’s most popular faces for nearly two decades, a pyromancer whose spark ignited at the moment of her near-execution, and her mix of raw power and bad impulse control gives an adaptation an easy emotional throughline. The official synopsis reads:

“PLANESWALKER, an epic fantasy saga from the world of Magic: The Gathering, chronicles the fierce clash between formidable mages known as Planeswalkers. At the center of this struggle for power and survival burns Chandra, a volatile pyromancer hunted for her gifts, and haunted by her past. Confronted by an insidious force, Chandra and some of the most legendary Planeswalkers must harness their extraordinary abilities, navigate treacherous alliances, and battle their own inner demons to prevent a cataclysmic war that threatens to consume their very existence. As the line between victory and annihilation grows thinner, a single spark determines the fate of thousands of worlds.”

The footage also puts Leonin warrior Ajani Goldmane in combat alongside her, and eagle-eyed fans have spotted hints that other core planeswalkers like Jace, Liliana, and Garruk may factor in as well. That ensemble framing is interesting because it mirrors what the Russos originally pitched at Comic-Con in 2019, when Chandra and Jace were floated as the leads.

Seven years and three creative teams later, the show seems to have circled back to something close to the obvious approach. Matalas sounds confident about the latitude the format gives them. “We have the ability to bring these characters to life in ways that the audience hasn’t seen before,” the showrunner tells Netflix. “It’s really exciting.” He’s joined by his Picard and VisionQuest collaborator Cindy Appel as co-showrunner and Oscar winner Patrick Osborne, who took home the animated short prize for Feast, as supervising director and executive producer.

That’s a notably more experienced bench than the project has had at any prior point, and the Hasbro Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast partnership suggests the game side has real input this time. Then again, a 2027 window is vague, and this franchise has burned fans on timelines before. But Netflix has a strong recent record adapting game properties into animation, with Arcane, Castlevania, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners proving the format can elevate source material rather than just service it. If Planeswalker lands anywhere near that tier, the seven-year wait might end as a footnote.

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Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering is a live-action adaptation of the popular trading card game. The film’s plot details remain undisclosed as it aims to explore the expansive fantasy world and lore, bringing iconic characters and elements from the game to the big screen.

Specifications

Director

Matt Johnson (Person)

Genres

Fantasy (Genre)

Writers

Aidan Fitzgerald (Person)