50 Fun Facts About The Magicians

In The Magicians, Brakebills first-years who pass the trials are turned into which birds?

Geese is the form each first-year takes on passing the trials, which the third-years devise. The whole flock then flies off to a remote second campus.

In The Magicians, the Beast's face is usually hidden behind a magical swarm of which insects?

Moths swarm around the Beast's head, hiding who he is until the first season's finale. He is also marked out by having six fingers on a hand.

In season four of The Magicians, which legendary figure does Alice talk to inside the Library's prison?

Santa Claus shares the Library prison with Alice and later slips away through a chimney. He returns in the final season, lending his sled for a getaway.

In season five of The Magicians, what do two rival spells accidentally split in half?

The moon breaks apart when Eliot and a rival caster pull it in opposite directions. Its fragments then threaten to rain down and destroy the Earth within 12 hours.

In The Magicians, Quentin suspects author Christopher Plover, but who is really the Beast?

Martin Chatwin, a child hero of the Fillory books who became its High King, turns out to be the Beast. The prisoners he kept reveal his identity in the first season's finale.

Which rock anthem do the mind-linked friends of The Magicians sing to break a demon's illusion?

Under Pressure, the Queen and David Bowie duet, is the song that shatters the endless party. An enchanted artefact had linked all eight friends' minds, so they could sing together across worlds.

Which former Time magazine book critic wrote the novels behind the TV series The Magicians?

Lev Grossman published the first novel in 2009 and finished the trilogy in 2014. He has said the plot began as a dream about a beast invading a magical classroom.

In The Magicians, what are self-taught magic users like Julia, who learn outside Brakebills, called?

Hedge witches are largely self-taught and swap what spells they can find in hidden safe houses. Julia is drawn in by a recruiter named Pete.

In The Magicians, where is Brakebills South, the bleak campus run by the exiled Professor Mayakovsky?

Antarctica hosts Brakebills South, where Mayakovsky was banished after an affair with a student. He drills the first-years through a run of harsh challenges.

Charles Shaughnessy, Fillory author Christopher Plover in The Magicians, played Maxwell Sheffield in which sitcom?

The Nanny ran on CBS from 1993 to 1999, with Shaughnessy opposite Fran Drescher. In The Magicians he plays a reclusive author who was a childhood hero of Quentin's.

Which actor played Quentin Coldwater in the first four seasons of The Magicians?

Jason Ralph came to the role from the stage, having appeared on Broadway in Peter and the Starcatcher. He starred as Quentin from 2015 to 2019.

In The Magicians, Penny is wrongly placed in the psychic discipline before discovering he is really what?

A Traveler can teleport anywhere, even between worlds, which makes Penny the friends' way into other realms. The gift also lets the Beast torment him with voices.

In season three of The Magicians, the Great Cock sends the friends on a quest for seven golden what?

Keys, seven of them, each carry a different power: one reveals hidden truths and another links its holders' minds. The quest begins with a book of tales that Quentin finds.

What happens across every world in The Magicians after Quentin kills the god Ember in the season two finale?

Magic is shut off by the Old Gods in answer to the killing. Julia alone is mysteriously left with a faint spark of power.

How does Quentin Coldwater's story end in the season four finale of the Syfy series The Magicians?

He sacrifices himself in the Mirror World to save his friends and stop Everett, a Library leader hoarding power. A grieving Alice later builds a golem from a grain of his soul.

In season one of The Magicians, which first-year secretly steals from Brakebills to settle a debt tied to her mother?

Kady owes the debt to a ruthless magician outside the school, and admits the thefts to Penny during the first-year trials. She had been using him to steal from Brakebills.

In The Magicians, Fillory's twin gods Ember and Umber have the heads of which animal?

Rams' heads mark out both gods, with Ember personifying chaos and Umber order. Ember spends the early story hiding from the Beast, while his brother is presumed dead.

Esmé Bianco, the mysterious Eliza in The Magicians, played Ros in which HBO fantasy series?

Game of Thrones cast Bianco as Ros from its very first episode. In The Magicians her Eliza has a secret identity, and a hand in starting Quentin's journey into real magic.

The Fillory books in The Magicians, about English siblings in a magical realm, echo which real series?

The Chronicles of Narnia is the clear model, and the author wanted a closer link still. A Narnia setting he meant to borrow outright was vetoed by his publisher's lawyers.

Sera Gamble, co-creator of The Magicians, earlier succeeded Eric Kripke as showrunner of which CW series?

Supernatural had Gamble on its writing team for its first seven seasons, the last two as showrunner. She later co-created You, adapted from Caroline Kepnes's novel.

In The Magicians, what does a magician consumed by their own magic become, as Alice's brother did?

A niffin is what Charlie became five years before the story starts, and he attacks Alice when she finds him. She leaves Brakebills for a time in grief.

In The Magicians, what must Eliot agree to do in Fillory to collect the weapon forged to kill the Beast?

Marry its maker's daughter is the price, so Eliot weds a Fillorian named Fen. He is revealed to be Fillory's High King in the same episode.

In The Magicians, Julia is left reckless and emotionally detached after an exorcism strips away her what?

Shade is the story's word for something like the soul, and losing it leaves Julia amoral. The Shades of the lost turn out to dwell in the Underworld.

In The Magicians, which Fillory landmark does the Beast drain to feed his own power?

The Wellspring matters beyond Fillory: once it is polluted, magic begins to fail on Earth too. The friends first go there to ambush the Beast.

Olivia Taylor Dudley replaced which actress, who played Alice in the pilot of The Magicians?

Sosie Bacon played Alice when the pilot was shot in New Orleans in late 2014. The recasting was announced as full production began the following August.

The Magicians pilot was filmed in New Orleans, but which Canadian city hosted the series itself?

Vancouver became the home of The Magicians when series production began there in August 2015. The pilot had wrapped in Louisiana the previous December.

In The Magicians, the goddess Julia's circle calls Our Lady Underground is better known as whom?

Persephone answers to Our Lady Underground in The Magicians, where Garcelle Beauvais plays her. Her husband Hades is later found on Earth, grieving her loss.

In The Magicians, which trickster god answers when Julia's circle tries to summon a kinder goddess?

Reynard the Fox had seized the body of the circle's own leader, Richard, who died attempting the summoning. Mackenzie Astin played both parts.

In season four of The Magicians, the Monster hunts down four gods to recover the scattered parts of whom?

His sister had been sliced into four parts by librarians, who used the pieces to make themselves gods. The same four had locked the Monster away in Castle Blackspire.

In The Magicians, which creatures, known as the Ancient Ones, act as gateways to the Underworld?

Dragons are the Ancient Ones, and Julia is the one who works it out. Another later bargains with Quentin and Julia over a treasure in her hoard.

In The Magicians episode Plan B, what kind of magically protected building do the friends rob?

A bank is the target because Fillory is bankrupt and Julia needs a million dollars. The job goes wrong when Penny is trapped inside the vault.

Which Oscar-winning actress plays Harriet Schiff, who runs the clickbait site Fuzzbeat in The Magicians?

Marlee Matlin was the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award, for Children of a Lesser God. Her Harriet proves to be the child of head librarian Zelda Schiff.

Jewel Staite, the librarian Phyllis in The Magicians, played Kaylee Frye in which short-lived space series?

Firefly ran only from 2002 to 2003, though Staite returned as Kaylee in the 2005 film Serenity. Her Phyllis in The Magicians rises to the Library's Governing Council.

Which creator and star of the web series The Guild plays researcher Poppy Kline in The Magicians?

Felicia Day built The Guild around her own years as a gamer. Quentin first meets her Poppy, a former Brakebills student, while sailing into the Abyss in season three.

In The Magicians, which dangerous style of spellcasting do the friends cram before facing the Beast?

Battle magic is risky enough that mastering it leaves Quentin, Eliot and Margo emotionally high and disoriented. Probability spells had shown that fighting was their only chance of surviving.

In The Magicians, which gift from a god lets Eliza restart events over and over to beat the Beast?

A watch given to her by Ember creates the time loop, and she runs it 39 times with Quentin dying in every one. The main story is her fortieth try.

Margo in The Magicians has which name in the novels, changed for TV to avoid too many J names?

Janet is what the novels call her. The series renamed her to avoid confusion with other names beginning with J, such as Julia and Josh.

Which episode of The Magicians sees Quentin and Eliot grow old together solving a puzzle in Fillory's past?

A Life in the Day shows the pair raising a family together while they work at the puzzle. That version of events is later erased, yet the taste of fruit brings its memories back to both men.

In season three of The Magicians, whose write-in votes make Margo the High King of Fillory?

The talking animals made her ruler as a write-in candidate. Once in charge she quickly gives Fillory's fairies a place to live.

What does Margo lose to the Fairy Queen as the price of being sent back to Fillory in The Magicians?

An eye is the price, and the false one Margo wears afterwards lets the Fairy Queen spy on the court. Margo later destroys it in defiance.

The New York Times said the novel The Magicians could crudely be labelled which famous series for adults?

Harry Potter for grown-ups was the reviewer's shorthand for a fantasy that takes on mature themes. The novel went on to win an Alex Award, given to adult books that appeal to young adults.

In The Magicians episode All That Josh, which Brakebills group's cottage hosts the never-ending party?

The Physical Kids take their name from the physical magic discipline. In the novels Eliot and Josh belong to it, and Quentin and Alice are sorted into it too.

In The Magicians, which creatures does Dean Fogg implant in four students as living weapons against the Beast?

Cacodemons go into Quentin, Alice, Penny and Margo before their fight with the Beast. Quentin ends up loosing his on someone he loves instead.

In The Magicians novels, Quentin's discipline goes unknown for years; what does it finally prove to be?

Repair of small objects, or minor mendings, is revealed only in the third novel, when Quentin returns to Brakebills to teach. A first-season episode title nods to it.

In The Magicians, what does Eliza change before her fortieth attempt on the Beast, hoping for a new outcome?

Julia is rejected by Brakebills by design this time, so that she will learn magic on her own. Dean Fogg reveals the scheme to Quentin late in the first season.

In The Magicians, what is the Muntjac, which carries Eliot and his family to After Island?

A sentient boat with a will of its own, the Muntjac is later courted by a pirate vessel that wants to mate with it. Margo earns respect by asking whether it is willing.

In the final episode of The Magicians, what is the name of Julia and Penny's baby?

Hope brings her father an unexpected gift: Penny regains his powers whenever he holds her. He uses them at once to rescue Margo.

In The Magicians, which wish-granting creature of the Flying Forest restores Penny's amputated hands?

The White Lady grants wishes to those who hunt her down, but she tells Quentin that even she cannot raise the dead. He asks only to be sent home.

After Penny dies in the main story of The Magicians, a second Penny crosses over from which numbered world?

Timeline 23 is a world where the Beast is still at large, and its Penny follows Julia back in season three. He then takes the lost Penny's place among the friends.

In The Magicians, which realm between worlds traps Penny for weeks and is home to a great Library?

The Neitherlands runs on its own clock: six hours there cost Penny six weeks on Earth. Its librarians keep books recording people's lives.