The Magic: The Gathering Movie Is Getting One Thing Right Out The Gate

Magic: The Gathering is hitting the big screen soon, and it’s now scored its first cast member in Maya Hawke. Not only does this casting lend the upcoming MTG movie some nerd cred thanks to Hawke’s previous role as Robin Buckley in Stranger Things, but it also led to a tidbit of news that will make players of the popular trading card game very happy. The Deadline article reporting on Hawke’s casting also mentions that “the cast is expected to have an ensemble feel,” which would fit in perfectly with the world of MTG.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Magic: The Gathering universe, the major draw of the game’s lore is that it’s populated by beings known as “planeswalkers.” (In fact, the player themselves is considered to be a planeswalker). These powerful individuals have a special ability called the “spark” that allows them to travel through different dimensions, or “planes” of existence. Most of Magic: The Gathering’s popular cards are planeswalkers, including the memory manipulating wizard Jace Beleren and the massive lion-esque beast Ajani Goldmane (think a less homicidal version of Invincible’s Battle Beast.) 

That opens up a wealth of possibilities as to who Maya Hawke could be playing. Is she the fire-slinging Chandra Nalaar? Or the lovely yet lethal Liliana Vess? But there’s one story in particular involving planeswalkers that could be a slam dunk. In the “Battle for Zendikar” storyline, a group of planeswalker form the Gatewatch, and dedicate themselves to defending the Multiverse from threats no one else could handle. Already that sounds like the kind of approach that’s right for a MTG movie. You have a collection of popular characters, an epic arc that’s ripe for the big screen, and the potential to expand into a future franchise if things go well.

However, director Matt Johnson has previously hinted that his take on Magic: The Gathering might not be a world-spanning epic. When discussing his film Tony with IndieWire, Johnson confessed that he wasn’t a technician and that his MTG movie might be smaller than expected. “It’s not like now that I’ve made [Tony] I want to make a movie 10 times that size,” he said. So if a Magic movie isn’t about the planeswalkers, then what direction could Johnson take to make it interesting?

The answer, again, is simple: bring the planeswalkers to Earth and have them interact with players. It would be a meta-narrative that showcases what makes Magic special to so many people, and keep the multiversal element while also sticking to Johnson’s more scrappy indie roots. Magic fans also have another story that proves that focusing on the game itself can be compelling, as the manga Destroy All Humans: They Can’t Be Regenerated focuses on a budding romance/rivalry between two MTG players.

Magic: The Gathering is a game that works because it brings groups of people together. By giving the movie an ensemble cast, Matt Johnson, Legendary, and Hasbro are capturing that spirit.