The Nacelle Company, the studio responsible for the popular Netflix series The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us has announced a partnership with Cavegirl Productions and X-Ray Films which will see them produce a documentary about Magic: The Gathering.
“We’re honored to be producing this documentary, which is sure to introduce the iconic game to a new audience while at the same time preserving its rich history,” said Brian Volk-Weiss, CEO of The Nacelle Company via a press release.
The documentary, titled Igniting the Spark, The Story of Magic: The Gathering, will cover the “game’s history, explosive growth, and enduring popularity.” It will be co-directed by Brian Stillman (Plastic Galaxy: The Story of The Star Wars Toys) and Kelley Slagle (Of Dice and Men) who expressed their own enthusiasm regarding this opportunity.
“Magic: The Gathering is a classic success story, a homegrown game that came from nowhere and achieved worldwide success. It’s brought joy to millions of people and along the way completely transformed the game industry. We can’t wait to tell this story,” says the co-directors.
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Additional specifics are not provided regarding what, exactly, the documentary will cover, but we imagine that a sizeable chunk of its runtime will be devoted to telling the story of how a mathematician named Richard Garfield essentially created the collectible card game genre as we know it. That genre not only resulted in beloved physical variations such as the phenomenally popular Pokémon Trading Card Game, but recent years have seen video games produce significant CCGs such as Blizzard’s Hearthstone. Magic: The Gathering even recently got a PC game of its own that is considerably more ambitious than previous digital adaptations of the title.
The overwhelming success of Magic: The Gathering has not only resulted in numerous expansions for the game and a still lively competitive scene but has birthed a unique fandom who have passionately followed the game for years. The unbelievable popularity of the series has also inspired Netflix and the Russo brothers to produce an upcoming animated series based on the title’s considerable mythology.
As for Igniting the Spark, The Story of Magic: The Gathering, it will likely also debut on Netflix on a currently unknown release date. We’ll update you as we learn more about this project.
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.