Your first look at Magic’s Lord of the Rings cards inspired by the classic Bakshi cartoon
Peter Jackson’s interpretation of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy plays a major role in our cultural consciousness. For Magic: The Gathering‘s latest set, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Wizards of the Coast tells Polygon that it was hard to get past it. But there is one classic version of those stories that Wizards chose to embrace: Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 Under the spell of the Ring animated feature film. Titled More adventures in Middle-earththis special Secret hideout of unique alternative art cards becomes available today. Polygon has your exclusive first look – plus an interview with the creatives who helped bring it to life.
Image: Wizards of the Coast
“We were all excited that the Bakshi movie was within bounds for this project,” lead art director Tom Jenkot wrote in an email interview. “It’s such a beautiful film and it has some amazing technical aspects, like the rotoscoping of the characters from live actors and the beautiful colored backgrounds. For longtime fans, it was the first visualization of Lord of the Rings.”
Bakshi’s work also helped inspire Jackson’s interpretation of Tolkien’s work in his own live-action films. For many fans of a certain age, those flowery landscapes will always be their image of Middle-earth. But with Wizards, it all came down to image selection.
“For the specific scenes/shots on the cards, we worked with the Tolkien Estate and overlaid and aligned many key scenes and landscapes from the movie with great maps,” Jenkot wrote. “We balanced the selections between main characters and key locations to show off all the beauty of the film.”
Magic‘s Secret Lair program began in 2019 as a massive experiment with unique alternative art on existing cards – some of which are highly sought-after reprints of powerful cards. Each unique edition was only available for a limited period of time and then printed on-demand to meet the needs of anyone who wanted one. But senior business manager Emily Floyd notes that Secret Lair’s popularity needs some serious expansion.
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Image: Wizards of the Coast
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Image: Wizards of the Coast
“Secret Lair has experienced phenomenal growth in our four years,” Floyd wrote via email. “We have recently made many improvements to the customer experience. With more consistent and longer sales windows, the store is ‘always on’ – so there’s always something for Secret Lair fans when you visit our site. We’ve adjusted our production timelines to help customers get their drops faster; in many cases you will receive a shipping confirmation within a day or two of your order. Our team is always working to keep the Secret Lair customer experience fresh.”
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Image: Wizards of the Coast
Plus, Secret Lair tickets are no longer available online only. In 2023, special Secret Lair sets and promotional cards have been made available at MagicCon events, such as the one recently held in Minneapolis.
“Experimentation and Expression: These are the main pillars of Secret Lair,” wrote Floyd. “We consider these qualities in every Drop design, every business decision, every weird and unexpected piece of art or snippet of flavor text.
“When it comes to providing you with weird and wonderful ways to celebrate Magic: The Gatheringwe are just getting started.”
More adventure in Middle-earth, the latest Secret Lair Drop, goes on sale Monday for $29.99. A foil version costs $39.99.