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When Magic: The Gathering Invaded The First Spider-Man Movie


Did you know that Magic: The Gathering briefly invaded the first Spider-Man movie? The producers of Sony's live-action Spider-Man movie produced by Columbia Pictures decided to feature a more realistic Peter Parker (played by Tobey Maguire), so they wanted to show that's he's interested into geeky things like Magic.

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Credit: Sony Entertainment

At October 2000, Wizards of the Coast released the Invasion set, and seeing that Magic fits Parker, they included a poster of Invasion in Parker's bedroom, and thought that maybe they could generate some post-set buzz for it.

As Magic Untapped pointed out, Magic Marketing Director Scott Rouse revealed back in 2002:

"Seriously though, movie production designers will often place props into a scene to create a more realistic environment. The producers of the Spider-Man movie thought Peter Parker would be the type of person who would play Magic. In December 2000 the Spider-Man movie production team contacted us looking for Magic and D&D items to place in Peter Parker's bedroom. I jumped at the chance to get Magic products in a sure-to-be blockbuster movie about one of the best superheroes ever. That same day I sent a package of cards, novels, binders, and posters off to Columbia Pictures. We would have to wait over a year to find out if they used any of the items we sent. In the September 2001 issue of Wizard Magazine, a sneak peek look at Peter's movie set bedroom confirmed the use of a D&D poster but there was no mention of anything from Magic. When the movie was released we were very excited to see they had used an Invasion poster in Peter's bedroom. We did not pay a fee for the placement of the posters in the movie, although that is a very common practice in the entertainment industry."

The Invasion poster can be seen in a key scene when Peter Parker finds out he has powers.

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Credit: Sony Pictures/ Edit: Untapped Magic

For an unpaid product placement, that seems like a great deal, but how could a subtle movie product placement like this help increase brand visibility if barely anyone notices them? Those who are unfamiliar with the product would completely miss it, and people would have to notice and recognize the prop.

Related:MTG Cards Will Be Banned in Multiple Formats Next Week

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