Fans of Magic: The Gathering have gotten some disappointing news. The official Magic: The Gathering Netflix series, which was announced in 2019, has been quietly canceled. This news didn't come from an official press release but from one of the series' own voice actors.
The Magic: The Gathering Netflix Series Cancellation
The news of the Magic: The Gathering Netflix series cancelation came from an interview by Collider at this year's Toronto Independent Film Festival.
Collider's own Steve Weintraub was interviewing Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) for his upcoming horror comedy movie, Ick. Weintraub asked Routh about the status of the series since it was slated for a 2022 release. Routh's response was the following:
"I'm not sure. I did do a voice for it. As far as I understand, nobody's put out a press release about it, but apparently it's not happening. That's kind of old news. I'm not sure why it's surfacing again."
Routh was set to voice the planeswalker Gideon Jura in the Magic: The Gathering Netflix series. The series has gone through multiple producers, editors and creatives, including the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame), Jose Melina (Firefly) and Bryan Cogman (Game of Thrones).
Despite being fully written and having voices fully recorded, the Magic: The Gathering Netflix series was shelved alongside other animated Netflix projects. These included animated adaptations of the fantasy comic Bone and an animated Gorillaz movie directed by Jamie Hewlett.
In retrospect, Netflix's shelving of the Magic: The Gathering animated series is short-sighted. Recently, one of their original animated shows, the stylized historical action revenge series Blue Eye Samurai, won several Emmys for Outstanding Individual Achievement, Sound Editing and for Outstanding Animated Program.
Given the scope of Magic: The Gathering, it is a ripe setting for stories. Larger-than-life stories of heroes, monsters, ghosts, eldritch horrors, angels, demons, and interdimensional threats are all present and plentiful.
At time of writing, there has been no official statement from Netflix regarding the status of the Magic: The Gathering animated series.
