Star Wars is coming to D&D, and perhaps to Magic: The Gathering too

Dungeons & Dragons announced a crossover with Star Wars, and Magic is likely following suit

Dungeons & Dragons is getting ready to swap swords and sorcery for lightsabers and the Force next year. As announced at the end of the D&D Vision Keynote presentation at Gen Con 2026 on Thursday, a crossover with Star Wars is coming to the world's most famous tabletop role-playing game in 2027.

The announcement that Magic: The Gathering's controversial but lucrative Universes Beyond strategy is coming to D&D left fans wondering what properties would make their way into the fantasy RPG. The first crossover, World of Warcraft, feels like a natural fit, as the aesthetic and lore of the MMORPG are a great match for D&D. However, right at the end of the panel, Darth Vader snuck on stage to tell everyone that 2027's Season of Rebellion will be a crossover with Star Wars.

This isn't D&D's first foray into sci-fi or science fantasy territory. Nostalgic old-timers like myself will surely remember Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, the 1980 adventure module for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons written by Gary Gygax, which let players explore a fallen spaceship filled with robots, aliens, and laser guns. The Spelljammer setting, first published in 1989, was D&D's biggest attempt to make adventures in space a stable element of the game's canon. In fact, this won't even be the first time that Star Wars has appeared in a Wizards of the Coast product. The company published the Star Wars Roleplaying Game in the early '2000s, but let that license expire in 2010.

No details have been revealed about the Star Wars Universes Beyond D&D crossover. Judging from the preview we saw of the World of Warcraft book, we can safely assume that we're going to get everything players and Dungeon Masters need to set their stories in the universe created by George Lucas. I'm looking forward to how the designers will adapt the Force to the rules of D&D 5.5e, perhaps with a spin on the psionics rules that will make a big return in the Dark Sun campaign setting.

Another interesting takeaway is that a Star Wars Magic: The Gathering setting might not be far off. Magic and D&D are both published by Wizards of the Coast, owned by Hasbro, and the RPG is adopting the Universes Beyond strategy that proved to be so successful for the trading card game. Considering that Hasbro/Wizards landed a deal for Star Wars to appear in D&D, it's possible that includes Magic too. However, Star Wars is currently pushing its own TCG, Star Wars Unlimited, so perhaps the deal with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast is only for D&D products.

Still, a few months ago, Magic players reported misprinted cards showing an X-Wing set symbol. Not all hope is lost for an all-out Commander battle between Trekkies and Star Wars fans.

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