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Hasbro is teaming up with movie production company Legendary Entertainment to create a live-action film and TV “universe” based on Magic: The Gathering. The project will initially focus on a currently untitled feature film according to Hasbro’s press release, with television series and “other content” then expected to follow as the cinematic universe develops. Neither company has provided a release timeline for these projects.
Hasbro acquired Magic: The Gathering’s parent company, Wizards of the Coast, in 1999. The trading card game is estimated to have over 50 million players worldwide, according to Hasbro, and became the company’s first brand to cross $1 billion in annual revenue in 2022. That’s a sizable audience for Hasbro to find other avenues to extract cash from — in fact, M:TG is one of its only IPs to reliably see revenue growth in spite of Hasbro’s continued overall decline.
Hasbro is no stranger to adapting its brands for other entertainment avenues, as seen with the TV shows and movies based on My Little Pony, Transformers, and G.I Joe. The toy giant is also pushing hard on Dungeons & Dragons, another brand it obtained through its Wizards of the Coast acquisition. At least five D&D video games are currently in development following the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, but the latest attempt to adapt the franchise for live-action cinema failed to turn a profit. The in-development D&D TV series also has yet to secure a broadcasting buyer after being dropped by Paramount Plus.
“This is an exciting and complementary partnership, uniting one of the world’s most iconic brands with a powerful and proven steward. Magic: The Gathering has inspired decades of epic world-building and creative storytelling,” said Hasbro Entertainment’s Head of Film, Zev Foreman. “It is a perfect match for Legendary’s diversified approach to marquee IP, and we are excited to work together to build a whole new Magic: The Gathering universe.”
Legendary Entertainment does have some experience in this area, having produced feature films based on popular gaming franchises such as Warcraft and Pokémon Detective Pikachu. An animated TV series adaptation of M:TG is also already in development for Netflix, a move not dissimilar to the Arcane series that League of Legends developer Riot released on the streaming platform.
