The Walking Dead is Coming to Magic: The Gathering

Today, Magic: The Gathering revealed its full release schedule for 2021 and a new look a the upcoming Zendikar Rising set. Along with those announcements, Magic: The Gathering also revealed a collaboration with the AMC's popular horror drama series The Walking Dead. An upcoming installment of Magic's Secret Lair Drop Series will feature The Walking Dead as a theme. Wizards of the Coast did not reveal any details about the drop but did reveal a new Zombie token, the kind produced by the now-banned Field of the Dead and the Liliana, Dreadhorde General Planeswalker card that features the walker called "Bicycle Girl" from The Walking Dead.

This kind of cross-property collaboration is becoming more and more common for Magic: The Gathering. Godzilla monsters appeared in the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set earlier this year and Magic will release an official Dungeons & Dragons set in 2021.

Magic: The Gathering's Secret Lair Drop Series releases are special, limited print run release of Magic: The Gathering cards featuring exclusive artwork, themes, and designs from outside of what fans usually expect in a typical Magic: The Gathering set. This has included releases focusing on cats, collaborations with street artists, and now cross-brand collaborations.

Magic: The Gathering also revealed its full 2021 release lineup. Kaldheim is a brand new world inspired by Viking culture. Strixhaven is also a new addition to the Magic multiverse, a school for wizards across the planes.

Though Wizards of the coast released Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks for Magic: The Gathering planes in the past, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms represents the first time the Dungeons & Dragons appears in Magic: The Gathering. The set focuses on the most popular Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, the home of popular characters such as Drizzt Do' Urden, Elminster, and Minsc.

Innistrad is a returning setting inspired by Gothic horror that is home to humans, spirits, zombies, vampires, and werewolves, with those last two getting the spotlight this time around. Magic: The Gathering introduced the plane in the original Innistrad block of sets from 2011-2012, which included Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Avacyn Restored. Magic: The Gathering returned to the world in the Shadows over Innistrad block from 2016, made up of the sets Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon.

Magic: The Gathering will reveal more information about The Waling Dead drop in the near future via its Secret Lair social channels. What do you think of the collaboration? Let us know in the comments.