Maya Hawke will join Legendary Entertainment and Hasbro Entertainment’s live-action Magic: The Gathering feature, Deadline reported first on 4 November 2026, with Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap confirming. Her character has not been disclosed. Matt Johnson (BlackBerry) is attached to direct and to write with Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald, the trades say.
Key facts
- Casting: Maya Hawke joins the live-action Magic: The Gathering film (role undisclosed)
- Studios: Legendary Entertainment and Hasbro Entertainment; film-and-TV universe based on the Hasbro card game
- Director / writers: Matt Johnson; screenplay with Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald
- Reporting: Deadline exclusive on sources; Variety, THR and TheWrap confirm the same day
- Ensemble: Deadline says the cast is expected to feel ensemble-led, with Hawke a priority first offer for a key part
For buyers tracking Hasbro’s screen push and Legendary’s game adaptations, the booking is the first named star on a title the companies have framed as the start of a wider Magic film and television universe. Deadline cites more than 50 million fans across the game’s ecosystem; that figure is the companies’ claim as carried by the trade, not an audited census.
What is known about the adaptation
Plot and character details remain under wraps. Variety notes the tabletop game’s multiverse setting and Planeswalker wizards as the lore backdrop. Johnson, a longtime player, issued a statement dense with tournament jargon about a Grand Prix Detroit day-two run that ended badly, closing: “To all the dreamers reading this: in every pool, there is a day 2 deck,” Variety and TheWrap quote. No start date, budget, distributor or release window was published with the casting.
THR places the film beside Legendary’s other adaptations and upcoming slate (Dune: Part Three, Street Fighter, Animal Friends) and notes Hasbro Entertainment’s parallel board-game screen work, including Clue with Sony’s TriStar and Sony Pictures Television and a Monopoly film with LuckyChap and Lionsgate. Deadline lists Hawke’s near-term credits as Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Graham Parkes’s Wishful Thinking and Netflix’s God of the Woods.
What is not confirmed
No studio press note with Hawke’s character name, billing or option terms accompanied the trade exclusive. Cosmic Book News and other secondary outlets repeated casting-grid chatter that FilmBunch does not treat as confirmed. Until Legendary or Hasbro name the part, the story is the attachment itself: Hawke in, Johnson directing, writers attached, role still closed.
Related FilmBunch coverage includes Lionsgate and Meta’s Sunrise on the Reaping 3D and VR push, Lee Sung Jin’s Lila Pictures launch at Netflix and Imposters AFM sales. More under Deals.
Our reading
For Legendary–Hasbro, landing Hawke before a wider ensemble audition grid signals a lead-led launch for a brand that has spent years in development without a camera date. The next evidence that would firm the commercial picture is a named character, a distributor or a production start, and whether the “film and television universe” language produces a series order alongside the feature. Until then, treat the story as a confirmed attachment with an open role card.
Sources
- Deadline exclusive, Maya Hawke Boards Magic: The Gathering Movie From Legendary And Hasbro (4 November 2026; sources; role undisclosed; ensemble; Johnson/Gardner/Fitzgerald; 50 million fans claim)
- Variety, Maya Hawke to Star in Magic: The Gathering Movie (4 November 2026; Johnson quote; writers; Planeswalkers lore note)
- The Hollywood Reporter, Maya Hawke Joins Magic: The Gathering Movie Adaptation (4 November 2026; Deadline first; Hasbro/Legendary slate context)
- TheWrap, Maya Hawke to Star in Live-Action Magic: The Gathering Movie at Legendary and Hasbro (4 November 2026; Deadline first; Johnson statement)