Magic: the Gathering will release two new crossover products with Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40k in the coming years, Wizards of the Coast CEO Chris Cocks revealed today during Hasbro’s 2021 Investor Event.
The products will be a part of a new class of product that Wizards is calling Universes Beyond, which “takes fan-favorite brands and brings them into the Magic play systems or exciting new collectible and social play opportunities,” Cocks said.
Cocks revealed that the next two Universes Beyond products will feature crossovers from Warhammer 40k, a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, and Lord of the Rings. The Warhammer 40k crossover is expected to release in 2022 and Wizards confirmed that it will include Warhammer 40k-themed Commander decks, though it is unclear if there will be additional products. The release date for the Lord of the Rings product in unknown, but Cocks did say that Wizards will “include characters from the beloved Lord of the Rings universe in future Magic sets” and the Wall Street Journal reported that there would be a “‘The Lord of the Rings’-themed expansion.”
The cards will be Magic cards “through and through,” Wizards said in their own article introducing the product, “but the frame will be distinct and cards will have a holofoil stamp that denotes them as being from Universes Beyond.”
The Universes Beyond line builds on the two initial crossover products that Wizards released in 2020: the Godzilla Monster Series in the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths expansion, which included alternate versions of cards in the normal set featuring Godzilla characters, and The Walking Dead Secret Lair drop that was made up five mechanically-unique cards (meaning they don’t exist outside of their The Walking Dead versions) of five characters from the show. The Universes Beyond cards will utilize “both” the approaches to cards, “but often we’ll default to letting these cards stand on their own,” Wizards said. “We may find charming opportunities to do the reskinned versions of existing cards and will continue to balance between the two as we move forward.”
Additionally, “Universes Beyond cards will not be Standard legal,” Wizards revealed. “We strive to make Magic cards that are widely useful, but Universes Beyond will be above and, well, beyond our normal Standard releases. So nothing much is changing with our normal cadence of releases for Standard. This is purely a cool thing we’re doing in addition to all the other cool things we’re already doing.”
As such, Magic’s Summer 2021 set, Dungeons and Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, which was teased last year, is not a part of Universes Beyond and will be Standard legal as expected. However, the Secret Lair x The Walking Dead Secret Lair drop has been grandfathered into the product line.
Wizards said that Universes Beyond products will “generally be sold in all Magic channels” and won’t be limited to Secret Lair drops. “The Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, for example, will be available everywhere we currently sell Commander decks, as will The Lord of the Rings product,” Wizards confirmed. “We may occasionally do associated Secret Lair products related to the main release, like the Secret Lair Godzilla lands when Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths came out. There will also be the occasional standalone product like The Walking Dead, but the intention is to typically make Universes Beyond as available as any other Magic product.”