I have no idea how long it takes to make an animated TV show for a streaming platform but I think it’s fair to say that its been a while since Netflix and Wizards of the Coast first announced the animated Magic series that has since been revealed to be named Planeswalker and yesterday, at MagicCon Atlanta, had its first “sneak peak” revealed at the Nauctis: the Sunken Realm preview panel.
The animated show, which will debut in 2027 from showrunner Terry Matalas (known for writing on Star Trek: Picard and VisionQuest) has been in the works at Netflix for more than seven years and was originally announced with Joe and Anthony Russo of Avengers: Endgame fame as executive producers. Within a year it was attached to executive producers Jeff Kline and Steve Melching with Brandon Routh tapped to voice Gideon Jura with a tentative 2022 release window.
Obviously none of that happened and by the end of 2022 when Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks was reviewing content plans for 2023 during the Q4 investor call, the Magic and Netflix collaboration was suspiciously absent. But hope was not lost. During the 2023 Q3 call, the partnership returned to Hasbro’s list of TV and film endeavors. Although there were no details given at that time, it meant the project had not been completely abandoned by Netflix.
At MagicCon Las Vegas in 2024 we learned that Terry Matalas had been working on the show, and that it would feature Chandra and Ajani. The show’s next stop was Netflix’s 2025 showcase of their upcoming animation work, which featured the still unnamed show alongside other properties like Minecraft, Clash of Clans, and Ghostbusters.
Which brings us to 2026 and MagicCon Atlanta where the Magic community got their first taste of Planeswalker in the form of a sneak peak video combining behind-the-scenes talks with the show’s creators and Wizards of the Coast staff as well as unfinished animations of Chandra and Ajani as well as what looked like some more closer-to-finished sequences as well.
And of course the crowd was awed. Who wouldn’t be? After more than 30 years of slinging cardboard and following the stories of the multiverse and now after more than half a decade of waiting for Netflix and Wizards to breathe life into our little Vorthos hearts it’s finally here.
Rich Stein (He/Him) has been covering Magic the Gathering since 2012, began attending Magic conventions (then known as Grand Prix) in 2005, and picked up his first starter deck in 1995. More than three decades later he’s still excited to be following and writing about the greatest card game on the planet.