News / Published 2026-11-05

Maya Hawke Will Star in the Magic: The Gathering Movie

Neither outlet discloses her role, and the only story material in either piece is Variety's description of the card game as a multiverse contested by wizards called Planeswalkers. The Hollywood Reporter supplies the game's 1993 history, its crossovers and the studio slate the film joins, while Variety supplies Johnson's fandom and the only quotation in either piece.

(See the reader poll and source context below).

Maya Hawke has boarded Legendary and Hasbro's live-action Magic: The Gathering film, directed by Matt Johnson, with her role undisclosed and the cast still to be filled.

A flat vector illustration of six blank vertical film frames in a row on a dark ground with a flat burnt-orange reel disc at the lower right, with the words "A card game becomes a movie" in the lower-left corner.
Conceptual editorial illustration; not a photograph of the people or event described.

What do the sources establish?

Recorded source context. No verified social reaction quotes or aggregate vote results are supplied.
Platform / SourceCore Stance / QuoteEngagement MetricTimestamp
The Hollywood Reporter report on Maya Hawke boarding the live-action Magic: The Gathering filmReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded
Variety report on Maya Hawke starring in the Magic: The Gathering movieReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Maya Hawke has boarded Magic: The Gathering, the live-action film Matt Johnson is directing for Legendary Entertainment and Hasbro Entertainment, with Variety crediting Deadline for the story and The Hollywood Reporter crediting no outlet.
  • Neither outlet discloses her role, and the only story material in either piece is Variety's description of the card game as a multiverse contested by wizards called Planeswalkers.
  • The Hollywood Reporter supplies the game's 1993 history, its crossovers and the studio slate the film joins, while Variety supplies Johnson's fandom and the only quotation in either piece.

Hawke Boards the Card Game Film

Maya Hawke has boarded Magic: The Gathering, the live-action feature that Matt Johnson will direct for Legendary Entertainment, The Hollywood Reporter reports. The item places the film with Legendary and Hasbro Entertainment, says it is based on Hasbro's trading card game and calls that game iconic in its first sentence. It gives no start date, no budget, no release window and no indication of how far the production has gone.

Variety has the same hire, saying Hawke will star in Magic: The Gathering, a movie version of the trading card game. It adds a sourcing note the other item does not carry: Hawke is expected to anchor a yet-to-be-cast ensemble of actors, according to Deadline, which first reported the news. The Hollywood Reporter credits no outlet at all. The two pieces agree on the hire and split on where it came from, which is the first of several small differences between them.

No Role, No Plot, Two Versions

Neither piece discloses the part. The Hollywood Reporter says there is no word on the role the Stranger Things and Little Women star will have, and sets the film inside a planned film and TV universe that reimagines the Hasbro brand. Variety says her role has not been disclosed and that plot details remain under wraps. Two outlets, two sentences, and the same absence in both: no character, no billing, no indication of screen time.

Variety is the only one of the two that describes the game. It says the tabletop game is set across a multiverse of fantasy worlds and involves players who are engaged in a battle, acting as wizards known as Planeswalkers. The Hollywood Reporter carries nothing about Planeswalkers, the multiverse or the game's fiction. The only story material in either item is Variety's description of the card game rather than of the film, and neither outlet says what the movie's plot will be or which world it starts in.

Johnson Directs and Shares the Script

Johnson is directing and writing. The Hollywood Reporter, which names him as director in its opening sentence, says he is also attached to write the adaptation alongside Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. Variety gives the same three writers with credits attached, Gardner for Super 8 and Fitzgerald for Calls, and adds two of Johnson's own, Blackberry and Nirvanna the Band the Show. The writing team is the one credit the two pieces state identically, down to the names and their order.

Variety also reports that Johnson is a longtime Magic: The Gathering fan, and prints a first-person anecdote from him about a Grand Prix Detroit tournament that ended his plan to leave film school and play the game professionally. It is the only quotation in either piece and the only aside in either. The Hollywood Reporter has no interview material and no statement from Johnson, from Legendary or from Hasbro.

A 1993 Game and Its Crossovers

The Hollywood Reporter gives the game's commercial record. It says the trading card game was launched in 1993 and now includes streaming, digital games, publishing, consumer products, live events and IP crossovers, and that its mythology has produced crossover collaborations with Final Fantasy, Marvel, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons and The Lord of the Rings. Variety has none of that. One outlet describes a business, the other describes a fiction, and the two descriptions never meet.

Only The Hollywood Reporter sets the film inside a larger plan, describing Legendary and Hasbro Entertainment's upcoming film and TV universe that reimagines the brand. Variety mentions no universe, no slate and no second title. How many features the plan covers, which characters would carry them and when any of them would arrive are all absent from both items, which leave the project at the casting stage and say nothing about a finished script, a scheduled shoot or a budget.

Legendary's Record and Hasbro's Slate

The Hollywood Reporter spends its back half on the companies' records. It cites Legendary's A Minecraft Movie, based on the video game and starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, and the Dune franchise adapted from Frank Herbert's novel, then lists Dune: Part 3, an adaptation of the Street Fighter game and the live action-animation hybrid comedy Animal Friends with Ryan Reynolds, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy as upcoming.

On the Hasbro side the same item names a Clue reimagining across film and TV with Sony's TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Television, and a deal with LuckyChap and Lionsgate for a film based on Monopoly. Variety carries none of that, and its piece never mentions another Hasbro property. The two reports therefore approach the same movie from opposite directions: one from the card game and its lore, the other from the studio slate it is joining and the toy-company pipeline behind it.

Hawke's Credits and What Follows

On Hawke the credits overlap without matching. The Hollywood Reporter lists Inside Out 2, Asteroid City, Do Revenge, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Mainstream and Maestro. Variety lists Stranger Things, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Asteroid City, Do Revenge, Maestro and Inside Out 2, where it says she voiced Anxiety. Only Variety names Stranger Things first, only The Hollywood Reporter names Mainstream, and only Variety uses the phrase best known for, which sets one series above the rest of her record.

Their accounts of what comes next differ too. The Hollywood Reporter names Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, Graham Parkes' romantic comedy Wishful Thinking and Netflix's God Of The Woods, and notes that she is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment. Variety names only The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Related coverage on this site includes the 3D and Meta release set for the next Hunger Games film, Dune merchandise reaching cinema chains and another fantasy property moving from page to screen.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. The Hollywood Reporter report on Maya Hawke boarding the live-action Magic: The Gathering film
  2. Variety report on Maya Hawke starring in the Magic: The Gathering movie
Keep the thread.

Follow Film to find related stories on your next visit.

THE WEEKLY EDIT

The week, made clear.

Stories worth understanding, brought together in one weekly edition.

Share this page

Instagram, TikTok & other apps

Copy the page link, then paste it where your chosen app supports links. You choose whether to send or publish.