Ross Hutchinson
We don’t know about you but when we read great comics, we generally end up spending quite a bit of time afterward thinking about if it would make a good movie or TV series and who we would want to see in the lead roles. We decided to put some of those thoughts on paper as part of what we hope will be an ongoing series of fan cast features…
With the news that Netflix has ordered the Magic Order to series with James Wan and Lindsey Beer attached as executive producers and the fact that I have recently finished reading Mark Millar’s The Magic Order again for the second time, it seems a good choice for this feature. Millar’s first (a sequel is in the works) volume about the unseen world of five magician families living side by side with normal humanity while protecting it from magical peril is a fantastic tale with cleverly thought out magical trickery, great plot twists and absolutely jaw-dropping art by Olivier Coipel gloriously colored by Dave Stewart. The story centers around the Moonstone family who find themselves facing off against the machinations of the villainous Madame Albany and her quest to destroy and supplant the current Magic Order with her own coterie of magic-wielding partners in a tale about magic, murder, broken families and the terrifying power of grief and loss.
Here are our picks for the main cast members:
Bill Pullman for Leonard Moonstone. Head of the Moonstone clan. Father of the three Moonstone children, Leonard maintains the family tradition of stage magician while fretting as to who will replace him some day and carry on the tradition as his children have no interest in doing so.
Felicity Jones as Cordelia Moonstone. An escape artist from birth and magician for kids parties by day, Cordelia is the black sheep of the family prone to pretty destructive life choices and the bad habit of using magic in front of normal people.
Richard Madden as Regan Moonstone. The dapper, hot-tempered magician who is a Boston club owner, wants to deal with Madame Albany quickly and directly despite the prescribed rules in the world of the order that does not allow for that.
Garret Hedlund as Gabriel Moonstone. Supremely talented magician and Moonstone sibling who has eschewed The Magic Order and that life because of a tragedy that cost the life of his young daughter. Gabriel along with his wife wants no part of his old life.
Sir Ian Mckellan as Uncle Edgar. Leonard’s brother and a permanent custodian of Castle Moonstone: the magical home of the Magic Order and repository of the orders magical knowledge and power. He is confined to the magically hidden castle for reasons that become apparent in the story later.
Olivia Wilde to play Madame Albany former member of the order now bent on destroying it and remaking it in her own image, She seeks a powerful magical book that the order keeps hidden as it’s too dangerous for one individual to wield. There is something gloriously menacing about the character who is masked the whole time and I would really like to see what Olivia could do with the role.
The complete volume one of The Magic Order is on sale now.
