‘The Magicians’ Renewed for Season 5 at Syfy, Adds New Co-Showrunner

By Danielle Turchiano

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Syfy has renewed “The Magicians” for a fifth season just ahead of the fourth season premiere. The show has also promoted Henry Alonso Myers to co-showrunner for the fifth season.

“‘’ raised the bar at Syfy and has gained momentum season after season, attracting a new audience to the channel. We are proud of this series as it continues to break the boundaries of storytelling,” said Bill McGoldrick, president of scripted content at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

Based on Lev Grossman’s bestselling novels of the same name, “The Magicians” centers on a group of 20-somethings from Brakebills University as they discover their magical abilities and ward off evil creatures. Currently, the characters have forgotten who they are, having had their minds wiped by “The Monster,” who has sought them out for still unknown reasons.

“We couldn’t be happier or more excited to conjure another year of magic and all it entails — love, hate, loyalty, betrayal, sex, foul language, drugs, battling gods, monsters and the most dangerous enemies of all: other human beings. We have the best writers, producers, directors, cast and crew in the charted multiverse. Here’s how strongly we believe this: anyone who tries to poach a single one of them will be cursed. And we have the voodoo dolls to do it,” said executive producers and co-showrunners Sera Gamble and John McNamara.

On the subject of Myers, who has served as executive producer since the start of the show, the duo added that “his talent, professionalism and love of all things magical has been instrumental to our success. We couldn’t be happier to see him become co-showrunner. Also, he bakes the greatest bread this side of the Hudson River.”

Myers himself called “the opportunity to bring [Lev’s] world to life has been like a dream come true” and added that “it’s rare in this business to find a combination of great material, great creative partners, and a phenomenal production team like ours.” On the subject of his new co-showrunner role, he said, “I’m not sure which particular dark magic landed me here, but I’ll be sure to keep doing all of it in secret, just in case.”

Produced by Universal Cable Productions, “The Magicians” is also executive produced by Chris Fisher, Laurie Lieser, David Reed and Groundswell Prods.’ Michael London and Janice Williams. The show stars Jason Ralph, Stella Maeve, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hale Appleman, Arjun Gupta, Summer Bishil, Rick Worthy, Jade Tailor, Brittany Curran and Trevor Einhorn.

“The Magicians” Season 4 premieres Jan. 23 at 9 p.m. on Syfy.