Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings collaboration was one of the biggest sets in its entire 30-year franchise. Thanks to the creation of a one-of-one The One Ring card, MTG broke into mainstream pop culture news. This happens from time to time, but nothing quite matches turning on the local news and seeing Magic: The Gathering and The One Ring pop up in conversation. Considering that the card was a literal two-million-dollar golden ticket, it’s no wonder the card’s reach went so far.
As popular as The Lord of the Rings was, its release has come and gone. It’s been over two years since The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth came to Magic. That said, it looks like this franchise might be about to make a return. A recent MTG Reel has community members excited for a potential upcoming Hobbit set. This may not seem like much, but it’s rare for Wizards of the Coast to put something out like this for no reason.
Lord of the Rings Returns to Magic?
A short Reel released on Magic: The Gathering’s official Instagram channel has set speculation ablaze across the community. The Reel is rather simple, showing Bilbo Baggins’ door to his house in The Shire, adorned with Gandalf’s invisible mark, which indicates Bilbo as his burglar candidate. This is how The Hobbit starts, and fans are incredibly excited by the implications.
Jumping to conclusions, the first and most exciting thought on most MTG players’ minds is that this teases a Hobbit MTG set. While this is far from confirmed, there’s definitely enough room for Wizards of the Coast to explore here. The Hobbit wasn’t touched in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, and the book certainly has its fair share of iconic characters. As some MTG players suggest, such a set could even have a bonus sheet to reprint past Tales of Middle-earth cards.
While getting such a set is far from guaranteed, Wizards of the Coast doesn’t typically celebrate things like this without reason. Sure, there’s the occasional meme on social media, but this doesn’t feel like an off-the-cuff random birthday post. The closest we’ve come to that in the past is getting Final Fantasy spoilers on a character’s birthday, so this definitely feels out of character.
All this makes it seem like something, even if not a full set, is on the horizon. MTG players are incredibly excited about the idea that The Hobbit could be an upcoming MTG Universes Beyond crossover. Whether we’re getting a whole set, some Commander decks, or even just a Secret Lair drop, players are already hyped. Thankfully, it seems MTG players won’t have to wait long for more information, too.
Later this week, on September 26th, Wizards of the Coast will host a preview panel at MagicCon: Atlanta. During this event, Wizards is expected to reveal most of the 2026 MTG release calendar. While we’re not getting everything at this event, it seems like the perfect place to capitalize on this Hobbit hype. That said, the timing could be a coincidence here if Wizards really is just celebrating a character’s birthday.
Happy Birthday, Bilbo!
Despite fans being incredibly excited about the potential for an MTG Hobbit crossover, there are some reasons to remain skeptical. Even if Wizards doesn’t celebrate the birthdays of fictional characters much, it is Bilbo’s birthday, and by extension Hobbit day, today. There’s a non-zero chance that this post was simply designed to drum up engagement for MTG without any promise of what’s to come.
That said, the chances of this being a totally random post do feel exceptionally unlikely. Even then, unless we see more Hobbit-themed posts from Wizards this week, we’d recommend against boarding the hype train just yet. Once Friday rolls around and more information is revealed, that will be the time to get properly excited. Until then, we’ll just have to wait patiently and see what else gets revealed.
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