Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that it doesn't "currently" have plans to visit any magical schools besides its own Strixhaven in future sets, suggesting that a Harry Potter collaboration isn't in the cards for the moment.
This comes from a Reddit post from the official WOTC_CommunityTeam Reddit account in response to a thread on the Magic: The Gathering subreddit asking if WOTC might "touch the fire that is [Harry Potter]" in the future. The post was sparked by a slide from this morning's Hasbro earnings call, where the WOTC parent company talked about expanding its partnerships on IP such as Harry Potter, KPop Demon Hunters, Street Fighter, and Voltron.
In response, WOTC_CommunityTeam wrote, "The Magic Multiverse has its own school of Magic at Strixhaven with plenty of secrets still to explore. Our Universes Beyond roadmap currently doesn't have us visiting any others."
The reply does say "currently," meaning that a future Harry Potter collaboration may not be fully off the table for the future. The company has been printing more and more of its "Universes Beyond" collaborative sets in recent years (so many, it's now the subject of a lawsuit) as well as smaller "Secret Lair" sets for other collaborations. However, WOTC does plan these sets out pretty far in advance, often around three years or even as many as five in the case of Final Fantasy. That means we're unlikely to see Harry Potter make an appearance for at least a few years, if at all.
Widely popular as Harry Potter is, the post and subsequent community discussion on Reddit is overwhelmingly against Harry Potter being introduced into Magic due to author and creator J.K. Rowling's openly professed transphobic beliefs, as well as her large donations to anti-trans causes. In contrast, a fundraiser for Trans Lifeline run by popular Magic content channel Tolarian Community College just amassed over $600k in donations over three days. The game itself introduced its first canonically trans character, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, way back in 2015 in a short story, and has since turned her into a pretty solid Commander card.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
📰 Original Source:IGN
✍️ Author: Rebekah Valentine
