Syfy conjures second season of 'The Magicians'

NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Syfy announced Monday it has renewed its drama series The Magicians for a second season.

The 13 episodes are expected to air in 2017.

Based on the bestselling novels from Lev Grossman, the show stars Jason Ralph, Stella Maeve, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hale Appleman, Arjun Gupta and Summer Bishil.

It follows Quentin, "a brilliant grad student chosen to attend Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret, upstate New York university specializing in magic," press notes said. "He and his 20-something friends soon discover that the magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real when they unwittingly invite a malevolent entity from the other side into their world."

"Thanks to an extraordinarily gifted creative team of executive producers and our partners at Universal Cable Productions, The Magicians has become a buzzed-about hit, enchanting fans of the novels as well as attracting new and younger audiences to Syfy," Dave Howe, president of Syfy and Chiller, said in a statement.