Abstract: Magnesium alloy, as a low-density metal structural material, has a great application prospect in lightweight, but the formability of magnesium alloy at room temperature is poor, so how to improve the formability of magnesium alloy at room temperature is an important problem at present. The current research progress on the effect of basal texture on the room temperature formability of magnesium alloy was mainly summarized, and the influence law of weakening the strong basal texture or changing the type of texture of magnesium alloy was deeply analyzed. Based on the fact that adjusting the basal texture to improve the formability of magnesium alloy at room temperature, the mechanism of adding alloy elements to change the texture orientation of magnesium alloy was expounded, and refining the grains to weaken the basal texture by controlling processing parameters was explored. Finally, the future development direction of magnesium alloy was prospected.