Magnesium alloys as the emerging commercial metal structure material have excellent specific properties and stability, which is more and more important for researcher. The magnesium alloy of Mg-Al series, Mg-Zn series, Mg-RE series included Mg-Y series alloy, Mg-Gd-Y series alloy, Mg-RE-Zr series alloy, Mg-RE-Ag series alloy were summarized, the existing heat resistant magnesium alloy still exists insufficient heat resistance or poor comprehensive mechanical properties and processing property except heat-resistant magnesium alloys with Mg-RE. The development trends of heat resistant magnesium alloy were discussed and analyzed, Little multicomponent alloying is effective ways to improve the performance of heat resistant magnesium alloy, the alloy manufacturability was improved in order to industrialized production, and the melt purification, the casting and forming technology were researched in order to improve the comprehensive performance of heatresistant magnesium alloys. Keywordsreview; magnesium alloy; heat resistant; Mg-Zn; Mg-Al; Mg-RE