Netflix is developing a live-action series based on the world and characters of Magic: The Gathering, and today’s during Magic Showcase 2021 stream announced that Brandon Routh has been cast in the lead role. We don’t know the details of the story they will tell, but Routh will voice the character of planeswalker Gideon Jura.
Gideon died at the end of the War of the Spark storyline in 2019, but Gideon spent many years fighting for justice and protecting the weak as an indestructible warrior wielding a sural, a four-bladed whip—and later, the legendary sword Blackblade Reforged. That provides plenty of material to develop exciting stories around Gideon.
The Magic Showcase 2021 stream also announced a new novel by Django Wexler, which will be a prequel to the Netflix series. The novel, to be published by Del Rey Books, features Gideon teaming with fellow planeswalker Jace Beleren to right the wrongs of the Multiverse. Both the book and Netflix series are slated to release in 2022.
Routh is best known for playing Superman in the 2006 movie Superman Returns, and he also portrays Ray Palmer a.k.a. The Atom on the CW Network show Arrow, part of the DC Comics universe. The Magic: The Gathering Netflix series was originally being helmed by the Russo Brothers of Avengers: Infinity War fame, but they have since left the project, which is now being helmed by Jeff Kline.
