‘Magic: The Gathering’ Looking To “Accelerate” ‘Universes Beyond’ Plans: “If You Can Conceive Of A Collaboration, We Probably Have Inked A Deal”
Despite opposition to the third-party crossover cards being at an all time high, Hasbro has not only confirmed that Magic: The Gathering‘s future will feature an ever-increasing focus on its Universes Beyond efforts, but that collaboration deals are currently in the works with practically every IP imaginable.
While the base concept of non-fantasy characters and items appearing in the MTG multiverse have long been a point of contention, the back-to-back reveals of The Office‘s Dwight Schrute getting his own Secret Lair drop and the 2026 release schedule being slanted 4-3 in favor of Universes Beyond have soured even those players who were open, and in some cases, outright fans of, the crossover concept.
Yet despite this recent explosion of negative sentiment, Hasbro leadership made it clear during their Q3 2025 earnings call, as held on October 23rd, that the company is only looking to expand their MTG partnership plans.
Following an earlier note from CEO Chris Cocks that MTG saw a “40% growth year-to-date” across 2025 thanks to Final Fantasy, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and various Secret Lair releases, the investor Q&A portion of the call saw Hasbro pressed as to their thoughts on just what was “driving this acceleration in retail positive for you and for the industry”.
In turn, Hasbro investor relations VP Fred Wrightman explained that while this momentum was in large part due to both their releasing more products than usual across the year and players’ continued interest in old sets, the true kicker to their recent success was the fact that “Universes Beyond is just working.”
“The whole theory of the business was it’s going to increase our distribution, it’s going to increase our number of active players, it’s going to bring in new fans that were adjacent to Magic, and that has just worked,” he detailed. “Basically every set we’ve done in Universes Beyond has set records in terms of new player engagement, in terms of search queries, in terms of number of people who are going into stores, in terms of sales in non-traditional outlets like mass and convenience for us.”
To this end, Wrightman then boasted, ” We don’t see that slowing down. If anything, I think there’s potential to accelerate it just with the quality of partners we have next year and the early reads we’re getting on those partners.”
Further teasing their future Universes Beyond plans, the VP further beamed, “We haven’t shared with you the content lineup that we have for 2027 and beyond, but we also feel pretty darn good about the partners we have lined up.”
“I mean, this is a great deal for Magic: The Gathering in terms of, hey, we get access to some of the premier IP in the world. It’s a great opportunity for the partners because really there’s never been an opportunity for them to access the trading card business, certainly at the scale Magic: The Gathering is delivering for them. We pretty much have had our pick of partners. I think if you can conceive of a collaboration that we could do with Magic: The Gathering, we probably have inked a deal or are in conversations on a deal on that.”
Closing out his thoughts on the subject, Wrightman ultimately asserted, “I think we’re still at the relatively early innings of what Universes Beyond can do. I think there’s upside in terms of what the sets can do in the future. I think that’s also just going to be buoyed by a very long and lucrative backlist as well, which we’ve been seeing play out in 2024 and definitely in 2025.”
“People aren’t just coming in and buying Final Fantasy. People are coming in and buying [the following set] Edge of Eternities. They’re buying other sets. We’ve also been setting records with what we’ve been doing with our own sets as well. There’s a nice halo here.”
