The set Return to Lorwyn looks to be a lot closer to ready than originally thought.
Following the announcement in October that the Return to Lorwyn has been delayed from 2025 to early 2026, a lot of speculation went around about if the delay was only for a few months, if it was outright cancelled, or if the delay extended further down the line. After all, a return to Arcavios had been planned for Q1 2026, as well as many likely special IP ones (AKA Universes Beyond) if the 2025 schedule was any clue.
For months, no one knew where the Return to Lorwyn was, especially with art for it still not being in. But all of that changed this week when Mark Rosewater did his usually question answering and revealed where Wrestling (AKA Return to Lorwyn) was.
As it turns out, it is not only still on the way for a Q1 2026 release, but it is late in the process of development. In fact, they're just reviewing the mythic rares at this point through the infamous "Mythic Wall".
"We have a thing we call the “Mythic Wall” where we can look at the mythic rares from the upcoming set and make notes about them to help make them the best they can be," said Rosewater in his Blogatog. "This happens late in the process, but not so late that we can’t make changes. Wrestling is currently doing its Mythic Wall."
It's also known that it will the second to last set in the Metronome storyline, meaning that it will wrap up by mid-2026. The first perks up of it will also probably start to come in by mid to late 2025, so either at the Las Vegas or Atlanta MagicCon. Considering that the mythic rares are finishing up, art might just come in by then. Or at least some sort of preview - previous Cons had them after all.
But the recent news does finally confirm that Wizards never gave up on it and that the rumors of it never happening just aren't true.
All that really happened?
A Universes Beyond had to move up to 2025. That's it.
Sometimes contracts can mess up the timeline of some things.
And in this case, it just meant one of Magic's longest gaps between returning to a plane was just a little longer. In this case, about 18 years or so. But it is happening for sure now at least.
