Maya Hawke has joined Legendary Entertainment and Hasbro Entertainment’s upcoming live-action Magic: The Gathering movie.
Hasbro’s newsroom release dated Nov. 6 says the film will be directed by Matt Johnson, the filmmaker behind BlackBerry and Nirvanna the Band the Show, who is also attached to write alongside Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. Hasbro has not announced a release date, distributor, plot synopsis, production start, full cast, or Hawke’s character.
Hawke arrives with genre recognition from Stranger Things, along with film credits including Do Revenge, Inside Out 2, Asteroid City, and Maestro. Hasbro’s release also lists upcoming appearances in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Wishful Thinking, and Netflix’s God of the Woods.
The franchise stakes behind the casting
The news is larger than one casting notice because the Magic film is not being framed as a standalone experiment. Hasbro says the movie is part of a broader Legendary and Hasbro Entertainment partnership to create a live-action film and television universe based on Magic, which Hasbro calls its first $1 billion brand.
For Hasbro, the project extends Magic further beyond physical cards and organized play into the same kind of cross-platform entertainment strategy already visible across its slate. In the same release, Hasbro pointed to projects tied to Clue, Monopoly, My Little Pony, The Game of Life, Baldur’s Gate, and an animated Magic series in production at Netflix.
A difficult game to adapt
Magic is not a game with one obvious plot. Hasbro describes it as the world’s first trading card game, launched in 1993, with more than 50 million fans worldwide and a mythology spread across card sets, novels, fantasy worlds, events, digital games, and brand crossovers.
That scale gives Legendary and Hasbro a large audience to court, but it also creates a creative problem. A movie cannot adapt the entire multiverse at once. It has to choose a clear entry point, whether that means established characters, a new story inside the setting, or a broader origin for the planned screen universe.
A director with actual Magic history
Johnson’s attachment gives the project one signal beyond the brand name. GamesRadar reported in March 2026 that Johnson called Magic “my Star Wars” during an appearance on The Big Picture podcast and described a past dream of becoming a professional Magic player before focusing on filmmaking.
That familiarity does not guarantee the movie will satisfy long-time players or casual moviegoers. It does make the creative package unusual: a franchise adaptation led by a director who has spoken publicly about a personal history with the source material.
What to watch next
The biggest unanswered question is still Hawke’s role. Hasbro has not said whether she will play an existing Magic character or a new character created for the film.
The announcement also leaves open how, or whether, the live-action film connects to the animated Magic: The Gathering series Hasbro says is in production at Netflix.
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