Netflix has announced that PLANESWALKER (working title), an animated series based on the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, will stream in 2027, KAI-YOU reports. A sneak peek video showing the series' lead, the fire mage Chandra, was also released.
The video, "PLANESWALKER | Sneak Peek", shows Chandra lighting a flame in her hand. It also includes character and background designs, animation still in progress, and interviews with the production staff.
The fantasy series is about clashes between planeswalkers, the powerful mages of the Magic: The Gathering universe. Chandra wields fire magic. She is hunted for her abilities and tormented by her past. In the story, she joins other legendary planeswalkers to try to stop a catastrophic war that will decide the fate of thousands of worlds. Chandra was one of five planeswalkers introduced in a 2007 card set and has been a major figure in the game's story ever since.
In the video, co-showrunner Cindy Appel says the game's thousands of cards give the team clues for building the story. Fellow showrunner Terry Matalas describes each card as a window into a vast world. He says the job is not building one world but building many. The staff also explain that each plane, or world, in the series has its own culture, architecture, and design, so they plan to change the visual approach depending on which plane is on screen.
Netflix first announced a Magic: The Gathering animated series in June 2019, with the Russo brothers originally attached as executive producers. The project was relaunched with a new team in September 2024, when Matalas (Star Trek: Picard) became showrunner and executive producer. Patrick Osborne is the supervising director, and DIGIC Pictures is handling the animation. According to KAI-YOU, a specific release date and the voice cast have not been announced.