Maya Hawke Draws the Lead Role in Live-Action ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Movie

Lifelong player Matt Johnson is directing and co-writing the film for Legendary and Hasbro.

Summary

Maya Hawke has been cast in 'Magic: The Gathering,' a live-action film adaptation of the trading card game

Her role and the plot remain undisclosed, though Hawke is expected to lead an ensemble cast that has yet to be announced

Director Matt Johnson, a longtime 'Magic' fan, is writing the script with Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald

Maya Hawke is set to star in Magic: The Gathering, Legendary Entertainment and Hasbro Entertainment’s live-action take on the long-running trading card game. Deadline first reported the casting, which puts the Stranger Things actor at the center of one of Hasbro’s biggest properties as it moves to the big screen.

Details beyond Hawke’s casting are still limited. Her character has not been revealed, and neither has the storyline, though Deadline reports she is expected to anchor an ensemble that has not yet been cast. That leaves the game’s own lore as the clearest guide to what the film might look like.

That lore gives the production a lot to work with. Magic: The Gathering takes place across a multiverse of fantasy worlds, with players battling one another as powerful wizards known as Planeswalkers. Translating that into live action means building several distinct settings instead of a single fantasy realm, which may explain why the cast is being built around a lead before the rest of the ensemble.

The team behind the camera brings indie credentials to the franchise. Matt Johnson, the director of Blackberry and creator of Nirvanna the Band the Show, is directing and co-writing the screenplay with Noah Gardner of Super 8 and Aidan Fitzgerald of Calls. Legendary and Hasbro are producing the film together.

Johnson’s connection to the game goes well beyond the job. He recalled sitting near the top of the standings going into day two of a Magic Grand Prix in Detroit and seriously considering leaving film school to play professionally, only to lose his composure, make a costly misplay and drive home to Toronto convinced his competitive career was over. “To all the dreamers reading this: in every pool, there is a day 2 deck,” Johnson said.

Hawke arrives with a broad résumé across genres. Best known for Netflix’s Stranger Things, she has also appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s Do Revenge and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, and she voiced Anxiety in Pixar’s Inside Out 2. Her next project is Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.