The Magicians Season 6: Will It Ever Happen?

"The Magicians," a Syfy series based on author Lev Grossman's books of the same name, came to an end after five seasons in 2020. Across 65 episodes, the students of Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy grapple with magic and their preconceived notions regarding its use. The show was canceled in the middle of the fifth season, leaving fans to wonder if it would ever come back for a sixth on another network. Though the creative team tried to find a new home for the project, as of right now, Season 6 of "The Magicians" is unlikely to happen.

After Syfy confirmed the cancellation, the showrunners spoke with other networks, but none of them felt like the right one, and they wrote Season 5 in anticipation of the show ending. "None of them seemed in the end like a perfect financial or creative fit. And so we reluctantly just decided, 'Well at least we have this season finale that was crafted to also be a series finale,'" showrunner John McNamara told TV Insider. "It was kind of always going to pull double duty." 

The team behind "The Magicians" suspected Season 5 would be their last, with showrunner Sera Gamble telling TV Insider that they "had the sense going into this season that Syfy, in particular as our first platform, was kind of hitting the point of 'The cup is full and there's no more room.'" But that didn't stop them from deciding the way forward, should they get picked up for a sixth season. Though it was planned, they haven't shared the details. 

"We have a document that may someday be available on eBay that is the arc of Season 6. I mean, you have to be just optimistic enough to be ready in case someone writes you a big check to produce a season on television," John McNamara told Entertainment Weekly. "I know Henry, Sera, [executive producer] David Reed, and I were really starting to get excited as we mapped out the broad strokes of what a Season 6 should be."

While fans of "The Magicians" have yet to see it, McNamara's statement reinforces there's always a chance their plan for another season pops up somewhere in the future, even if a Season 6 likely won't make it to our screens anytime soon. In the meantime, why not check out Looper's list of fantasy shows that everyone should be watching.