Netflix’s Magic: The Gathering series is called PLANESWALKER and arrives in 2027

Netflix’s long-promised Magic: The Gathering adaptation now has an official title. The animated series is called PLANESWALKER, and Netflix has confirmed that it will debut in 2027.

The announcement answers several of the biggest questions around the project, including its lead character and current creative team. It does not, however, provide a precise premiere date, voice cast, episode count or a conventional full trailer.

What Netflix has confirmed about PLANESWALKER

Netflix’s official first-look announcement says PLANESWALKER is being made with Hasbro Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. The story takes place across Magic’s multiverse, where different worlds are in conflict over power and survival.

At its centre is Chandra, the fire-wielding Planeswalker familiar to Magic players. Wizards of the Coast’s synopsis describes her as “a volatile pyromancer hunted for her gifts, and haunted by her past”. It also says Chandra’s journey will involve other legendary Planeswalkers, though no other characters have been named.

The confirmed leadership team is:

• Terry Matalas as showrunner and executive producer
• Cindy Appel as co-showrunner and executive producer
• Patrick Osborne as supervising director and executive producer
• DIGIC Pictures as the animation studio

Matalas told Netflix that the team can bring Magic’s characters to life “in ways that the audience hasn’t seen before”. That is a broad ambition rather than a confirmation of particular characters, planes or storylines from the card game.

The footage is a development diary, not a full trailer

Netflix has released moving footage alongside the announcement, but it is best understood as an early behind-the-scenes look. The streamer labels the video a “Behind-the-Scenes Sneak Peek”, while its accompanying coverage calls it a development diary.

That distinction matters. The footage features the creative team discussing the challenge of adapting Magic’s enormous range of settings, alongside material from the production process. It is not a conventional trailer setting out a finished plot, cast or final presentation of the series.

Osborne says the team is considering different filmmaking approaches depending on the plane being visited. That suggests the show may use visual variation to distinguish Magic’s worlds, but Netflix has not confirmed the final animation format or how extensively those approaches will differ on screen.

How this relates to the earlier Magic announcements

This is not the first time Netflix has announced a Magic animated series. In 2019, Netflix named Joe and Anthony Russo as executive producers on an adaptation with Wizards of the Coast.

By September 2024, Netflix said the series was in production with new creative direction from Matalas. The newly announced credits place Matalas, Appel and Osborne among the executive-producing leadership, rather than the Russo brothers named in 2019.

That establishes a changed public creative leadership structure over the project’s development. Netflix and Wizards have not described PLANESWALKER as a reboot, nor have the official announcements detailed the status of every earlier incarnation, so it is too soon to draw firmer conclusions about continuity between the announcements.

What remains unknown

For now, the useful date to circle is simply 2027. Netflix has not announced a month or day, and it has not revealed the voice cast, number of episodes, runtimes, rating, season plan or the specific planes and Magic story era that the series will explore.

Still, a title, a protagonist, a named animation partner and a release window make this the clearest update yet on Netflix’s current Magic project. It also adds another major game-world adaptation to Netflix’s growing game-adaptation slate, even if much of PLANESWALKER remains under wraps.