Netflix's Magic: The Gathering series will visit many worlds, where Game of Thrones stayed on one continent

A 24-year Hollywood detour

The Magic: The Gathering franchise has been circling Hollywood since 2001, and the Russo Brothers were attached at one point, but earlier projects eventually evaporated ^[1]. If you follow TV fantasy, the news is that Netflix is now developing and producing a television adaptation of the card game ^[1].

The game has plenty to adapt. It launched in 1993 and is the world's first trading card game ^[1]. Over three decades it has piled up more than 27,000 unique playable cards ^[1].

Where the project stands

Netflix restarted the project from scratch in September 2024 with new showrunner Terry Matalas ^[1]. Oscar winner Patrick Osborne and DIGIC Pictures are handling the animation ^[1].

As of May 2025, Matalas confirmed that all scripts for the first season were complete ^[1]. Production had moved into the casting and animation phase ^[1].

Why animation matters

The series is animated, which removes most of the live-action hurdles that fantasy shows face ^[1]. For scale, The Rings of Power reportedly cost over a billion dollars across its first two seasons ^[1].

The show will visit planes such as Kamigawa, Innistrad, and Ravnica ^[1]. Each of them can be rendered without live-action restrictions ^[1].

The Game of Thrones comparison

Game of Thrones was structured around a single world, Westeros, which is one continent ^[1]. Magic's multiple planes give the Netflix series a different shape ^[1].

The HBO show also faced book comparisons, because it made changes to the books and went past them ^[2]. HBO currently has House of the Dragon running, plus a fantasy-lite show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which proved to be a worldwide hit ^[1].

The cast of characters

The series is centered on the Planeswalker Chandra Nalaar, a pyromancer ^[1]. Beloved Magic characters Ajani and Jace will also appear ^[1].

A crowded fantasy field

Netflix has more than one tabletop property in the works. It is developing a live-action Dungeons & Dragons series titled Ravenloft, which will bring the tabletop RPG's gothic horror setting to television ^[2]. The series will tell the origin story of Darklord Strahd von Zarovich ^[2].

Ravenloft has more lore and material to draw on than Game of Thrones, because the D&D world is larger and more complex than George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire universe ^[2]. Elsewhere, Apple TV is tackling Sanderson's Cosmere, and Prime Video is juggling multiple high-profile fantasy projects ^[2].

How long fantasy runs

Game of Thrones offered fans just under 80 hours of storylines ^[3]. Critical Role, a show in which well-known voice actors gather each week to play Dungeons & Dragons, has episodes that usually run four hours or more ^[3].

Its campaigns usually run for 100+ episodes, so the current Campaign 4 is not yet halfway through ^[3]. Campaign 4 is set in the world of Aramán and led by Dimension 20's Brennan Lee Mulligan ^[3].

In that world, people are rebuilding after the Shapers' War, an event that led mortals to slay the oppressive Gods that ruled over them ^[3]. The Sundered Houses are five magical noble houses that belonged to the Obridimian Empire before it fell alongside the Shapers ^[3].

Campaign 4's revolutionaries, a 13-player main cast, plot to bring the Sundered Houses down in the name of freedom ^[3]. The campaign has already lost one player character ^[3]. Mulligan's homebrewed death-and-dying rules include no resurrection magic, which raises the stakes above an average D&D campaign ^[3].