Netflix announced in 2019 a new animated series featuring the stories of planeswalkers from the popular tabletop trading card game Magic: The Gathering. The show was originally headed by Joe and Anthony Russo, but they left on good terms early in the process. Now Netflix has tapped veteran executive producer Jeff Kline (Transformers: Prime) to head the project. The Russo brothers helped transition and met with Kline.
Kline’s new team brings Co-Executive Producer and Story Editor Steve Melching (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Supervising Director Audu Paden, Art Director Izzy Medrano, and Writers Nicole Dubuc, Russell Sommer & Dan Frey, and Taneka Stotts. The animation will be by Snowball Studios, replacing the originally-announced Bardel Studio.
“I’m grateful to the Russos for bringing me into the world of Magic: The Gathering,” Kline said. “Magic is one of those rare intellectual properties with such a wellspring of mythology that ‘picking and choosing’ is half the battle. Every single person working on the series understands how beloved this universe is—and feels both the exhilaration and tremendous pressure that comes with translating Magic across mediums.”
Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop trading card game designed and sold by Wizards of the Coast, a business division within Hasbro. The independent studio Entertainment One, which is also owned by Hasbro, will represent Hasbro in the show’s production.