Fantasy is currently experiencing a major boom in the television format. Just a few years after the phenomenon that was HBO's Game of Thrones ended after nearly a decade of airing, many new streaming services started developing their own fantasy epics for television, all fighting to hopefully capture the momentum of that series for their own. To have their own Game of Thrones. What we have learned so far is that there was no use fighting, there is room for all these shows. Fantasy is an incredibly broad genre, there is a piece of it for all viewers.
The long-awaited House of the Dragon and the return to The Lord of the Rings with The Rings of Power premiered just days apart from each other, but these are far from the first fantasy epics in the wake of Game of Thrones, and they are hardly the last. The Witcher, Shadow and Bone, and The Sandman are just some fantasy shows Netflix has made in the past few years. Amazon has The Wheel of Time (previously its biggest opening viewership) and the gargantuan The Rings of Power (which has now become their biggest opening). Other shows are out as well, such as His Dark Materials also by HBO, and A Discovery of Witches by Sky. This is not only a good time to be a fantasy fan because of so much being made right now, but also because of the diversity in the shows being created right now.
Fantasy Is Accessible for Viewers of All Ages
One of the difficulties with Game of Thrones is that it has a very limited audience. Kids couldn't watch it, and there was nothing else to offer to them on television at the time. During its reign there was very little competition on the fantasy front, BBC's Merlin being the closest family-friendly high fantasy series, but with a budget to that pales in comparison. In the current fantasy boom, there are finally enough shows that service audiences across the age spectrum for everyone to enjoy something. Viewers of all ages can enjoy The Rings of Power and His Dark Materials, teens and adults can enjoy Shadow and Bone and The Wheel of Time, while adults get to watch The Sandman, A Discovery of Witches, and House of the Dragon.
While there would also be some overlap here for some people, this is a good mix of age ratings for the genre that we have not seen before. It is incredibly important, kids deserve to enjoy fantasy shows that are created with them in mind. There is the new live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender coming from Netflix. Disney+ is also entering the high fantasy front this November with Willow, a sequel series to the 1988 classic of the same name (with Warwick Davis returning) that is sure to provide another great fantasy show for the whole family to enjoy. Beyond that, Disney+ will also be helming the new adaptation of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, expected in 2024, that will hopefully kick off more fantasy aimed at a younger audience.
Fantasy Shows Are Incorporating More Diversity and That's a Good Thing
The fantasy boom hasn't just broadened their audience demographics, but it also opened up to more diversity within the cast and characters in these shows. Fantasy has long undergone scrutiny for being incredibly White, and rightly so. From Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and of course the unfortunate whitewashing of The Last Airbender among many others, the perception for a long time was that fantasy was dominated by white faces. Finally diversifying the genre is a step in the right direction when adapting stories from source material.
The Sandman has one of the most diverse casts you can experience throughout these shows. It has worked out amazingly for the show. Now is the perfect time to highlight Kirby Howell-Baptiste's captivating performance as Death within the show, without the casting decisions, we wouldn't have had this wonderful performance. His Dark Materials followed the same idea for casting their show's leads when casting Amir Wilson as Will Parry. The Wheel of Time is another recent show that has prioritized the centering of actors of color. Out of our seven main characters, four are actors of color. The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon also have pretty diverse casts, but most of them are not central characters, though it may be too early to make a decision on them yet.
The unfortunate downside is that all of these shows have had to defend their choices in casting, whether it was a deliberate change from the source material or not, there is a very loud minority of people boycotting these shows because of the simple casting of actors of color. It is good to see these shows, and showrunners stand up for their casts.
These Shows Are Incorporating More Queer Characters in Their Stories
Stemming more from the same topic, something else that has been developing is more queer characters are in these shows. Just like people of color, queerness has largely been left absent from being portrayed in the fantasy genre. Game of Thrones had Loras Tyrell, among a few others, though most did not have any semblance of a happy ending, a common negative trope used in fiction. Thankfully, this is finally changing. The Sandman again takes the lead with not only many of the characters featured being openly queer, but also casting queer and nonbinary actors, like Mason Alexander Park who plays Desire, in critical roles for the series. The Wheel of Time is another, which had taken a subtle storyline from the books and really expanded on the relationship between the two women on screen. Overall, this is a large and welcome step for more inclusivity and representation in television in general, but especially for fantasy.
With the new plethora of fantasy television with a healthy budget, we get to see these shows create worlds previously thought to be unfilmable. Game of Thrones truly paved the way and set the standard for what could be achieved on television, in regard to both storytelling and special effects. The Wheel of Time was long thought to be unadaptable because of the heavy visual effects it requires in addition to the expansive source material, which clocks in at a total of 15 books. Even by the time The Wheel of Time book series had finished, when Game of Thrones was nearing the beginning of its third season, many fans still thought it would never happen. By 2021, we finally got the first season, and the next two are already in the works. With the success of these recent shows, there will surely be more stories to come and there's a wealth of material out there waiting to be adopted.
Fantasy is not going anywhere, in fact, it seems to just be getting started. Fantasy television has changed much over just one decade, setting the standard high for new shows. It has also given us much more to watch, and opened up the genre to a lot more than just an adult audience. Not everything will be for everyone, but that's a good thing, that means there is enough out there to be different, and there will continue to be. Because this is just the beginning of the fantasy boom. Brandon Sanderson even opened up earlier this year about adapting his popular novels, those--among others--are just some adaptations fans can look forward to. More fantasy is always on the way.