Netflix's Magic: The Gathering TV show casts Brandon Routh as the lead, with the actor sharing a video announcing his role as Gideon Jura. Created by Richard Garfield and originally published by Wizards of the Coast, now a subsidiary of Hasbro, the tabletop game puts players in the role of a Planeswalker as they do battle against fellow Planeswalkers by utilizing a variety of cards with spells, artifacts and creature summons to defeat their enemy. Much like Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy game has seen numerous expansions over the years and has grown in significant popularity in recent times, with over 20 billion cards produced between 2008 and 2016.
Development on an adaptation of Magic: The Gathering has been in the works since as early 2009 when Universal and Hasbro began developing a film together before the former dropped the rights and 20th Century Fox subsequently acquired them. Following Disney's purchase of Fox in 2019, it became one of many properties to be cancelled by the House of Mouse with Hasbro electing to partner with Netflix for an animated series adaptation. The show was to be led by Joe and Anthony Russo and potentially lead to a live-action spin-off, though the Avengers duo recently departed the project due to creative differences with Transformers: Prime's Jeff Kline taking over as showrunner.
As part of this week's Wizard's Magic: The Gathering Showcase 2021, Netflix Geeked brought word that Routh had officially signed on to join the series in the lead role of Gideon Jura. Additionally, Routh shared a video announcing his casting in the role and expressing his excitement to join the animated series and his history as a fan of the tabletop game. Check out Routh's video announcement below:
Click here to see the watch the video
The news of Routh's casting in the Magic: The Gathering series comes at an interesting time for both the actor. Initially rising to stardom with Superman Returns as the titular Man of Steel, Routh found new life in the superhero genre with The CW's Arrowverse as Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, primarily in Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow while also reprising his role of Superman for the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event, but elected to depart after season 5 of the latter series. In addition to opening up his schedule, his departure has also allowed Routh to return to to Magic: The Gathering franchise after voicing Ral Zarek in the 2019 video game Magic: The Gathering Arena, but the series will give the actor an opportunity to better dive into the property as iconic Planeswalker Gideon.
Given the actor's love for Magic: The Gathering and his having played the game going all the way back to when he was 16, his casting is a positive step forward for the series. With fellow Netflix fantasy series The Witcher having cast Henry Cavill, a self-declared fan of the game trilogy, for the titular role it proved to work wonders as the fellow Superman performer received rave reviews for his performance as Geralt of Rivia. Only time will tell whether Routh can reach the same level of fan love as Gideo when Magic: The Gathering premieres on Netflix in 2022.
Source: Netflix Geeked