Netflix has released the first footage from Planeswalker, its animated series based on Magic: The Gathering, which will debut in 2027. Oscar winner Patrick Osborne, the director of the Disney short Feast, is the supervising director, and DIGIC Pictures is animating the series for showrunner Terry Matalas. Netflix released the footage earlier today at 12:00 PM MST, followed 5 minutes later by a post introducing the show's lead, the pyromancer Chandra. Check out the official post down below:
The series is made in partnership with Hasbro Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. Wizards showed more of it during its MagicCon Atlanta preview panel today, including early development footage, concept art and storyboard animation of Chandra and the lion-like Planeswalker Ajani Goldmane.
A Different Look For Every Plane
Magic: The Gathering is set across a multiverse of separate worlds called planes, and Planeswalker will change its animation approach as the story moves between them. In Netflix's behind-the-scenes sneak peek, the team explains that every plane exists in "their own pocket universe that comes with culture, design language, architecture," and that it is "making the filmmaking style different, depending on where it is." The team also says it has to build every prop and environment for each of those worlds.
Co-showrunner Cindy Appel told Netflix, "It is such a vast world. What we have to go off of are thousands of cards." Matalas said each card "is a window into this incredible world" and called the work "worlds-building." He added, "We have the ability to bring these characters to life in ways that the audience hasn't seen before. It's really exciting." Netflix's sneak peek is below:
The Animation Team
Osborne won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Feast, his 2014 directorial debut about a Boston Terrier who loves junk food, which Walt Disney Animation Studios released in front of Big Hero 6. He had worked as an animator on Bolt and Wreck-It Ralph, and he earned a 2nd Oscar nomination for Pearl, a short made for Google Spotlight Stories.
DIGIC Pictures is a Budapest studio founded in 2001 that built its name on CG game cinematics, including trailers for Assassin's Creed, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, League of Legends and Destiny.
Producer Daisy May West previously worked on The Twits and Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. As a Magic: The Gathering fan, West said it has been "really fun to bring something incredibly special to life." Matalas and Appel both come from Star Trek: Picard and VisionQuest, and Gabriel Marano executive produces, with Lauren Chavez-Myers as co-executive producer for Hasbro Entertainment.
What The Series Is About
The official synopsis describes "an epic fantasy saga" that "chronicles the fierce clash between formidable mages known as Planeswalkers," with Chandra at the center as "a volatile pyromancer hunted for her gifts, and haunted by her past." She and other well-known Planeswalkers face "an insidious force," dangerous alliances and their own inner demons as they try to stop a war, and the synopsis closes with, "a single spark determines the fate of thousands of worlds."
In the card game, Chandra is a fire mage from the plane of Kaladesh, later renamed Avishkar, and she was one of the 5 original planeswalker cards printed in the Lorwyn set in 2007, along with Ajani.
From The Russo Brothers To Annecy
Netflix first announced a Magic: The Gathering animated series in June 2019 with Joe and Anthony Russo attached, and in 2021 the team cast Brandon Routh as the voice of Gideon Jura. The Russos later left, and Netflix restarted the show in September 2024 with Matalas in charge. It was previewed at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2025, as covered in MAGIC: THE GATHERING Animated Series Could Still Be Alive And In The Works. Netflix's earlier Annecy slate, which included West's The Twits, is in Netflix Unveils First Footage From TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, TERMINATOR: ZERO, THE TWITS, And Much More.
Would you rather see Planeswalker use one consistent animation style, or switch styles for each plane the way Netflix describes?
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