Coinciding with its fourth season premiere, Syfy has already announced a renewal for its fantasy series The Magicians for a fifth season.

The Magicians is based on the best-selling series by Lev Grossman which follows a group of 20-something friends from Brakebills University as they discover their magical abilities and ward off evil creatures who threaten to destroy the magical world they’ve come to know. It was created by John McNamara and Sara Gamble, who will be joined in showrunning the new season by Henry Alonso Myers (Ugly Betty). Myers has been an executive producer on the series since its first season.

Season 4 will pick up with our newly mind-wiped magicians at the mercy of The Monster, who is seeking them out for unknown reasons. The series 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 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, Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

“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 McNamara and Gamble.

“Having been a fan of Lev’s books since before meeting with John and Sera, the opportunity to bring his world to life has been like a dream come true. It’s rare in this business to find a combination of great material, great creative partners, and a phenomenal production team like ours. 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.”

For fans of the book series July will see the release of The Magicians: Alice’s Story, an original graphic novel from Boom! Studios written by Lilah Sturges (Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass) with art by Pius Bak.

via Flickering Myth