65-Episode Syfy Series Has One Of Fantasy's Most Inventive Magic Systems

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Published Nov 12, 2026, 1:02 AM EST

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While some fantasy shows can get away with leaving the inner workings of their magic systems intentionally vague, one classic SyFy series was a hit precisely because the show had one of the cleverest magic systems in the genre’s history. From Terry Pratchett’s Discworld adaptation The Color of Magic to director Kenneth Branagh’s ill-fated movie adaptation of author Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl novels, there have been plenty of attempts to bring complicated fictional magic systems to life onscreen.

Some authors leave certain elements of their in-universe magic systems deliberately ambiguous, while others insist on breaking down the unique particulars of their intricately designed magic system before ever even getting into the story proper. Fortunately, after the success of Disney+’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians, the streaming service is now set to take another shot at adapting Colfer’s acclaimed Artemis Fowl books, this time as an animated show.

When it comes to depicting magic systems on screen, the upcoming series could do worse than to take its cues from SyFy’s The Magicians. Based on the book trilogy of the same name by author Lev Grossman, The Magicians is set in Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy and centers on the exploits of its grad student hero Quentin Coldwater, his childhood friend Julia Wicker, his alcoholic roommate, Eliot Waugh, Eliot’s girlfriend, Margo, and Alice Quinn.

The Magicians Featured One Of Fantasy's Most Inventive & Unique Magic Systems

As the name of the show's institution implies, The Magicians stands out from magic school shows like Netflix’s Wednesday, The Vampire Diaries spinoff Legacies, or HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter spinoff for numerous reasons. Most notably, the show is set in a university rather than a high school, meaning its characters are older and face very different life struggles as a result of their new life stage.

Quentin is already a grad student by the time The Magicians begins, making the show’s characters substantially more mature than many YA fantasy heroes. Furthermore, the well-etched magic system of The Magicians makes the show stand out as a uniquely inventive entry into a busy, competitive TV genre. In The Magicians, spells are cast using precise hand movements that students need to study endlessly, repeatedly revisiting hyper-specific nuances like any academic would.

Magic is powered through strong emotions like grief and trauma, and it is depicted as a finite resource that must be pulled from external sources. Compared to many fantasy franchises like Harry Potter, The Magicians gives its in-universe magic clear limits and drawbacks, with spells often exacerbating problems and access to magic being treated like access to any other finite, highly prized resource.

The Magicians Is Still Criminally Overlooked As An All-Time Great Fantasy Series

By turning magic into something tangible that the show’s heroes can believably ration, study, and fight over access to, The Magicians ensures that its conflicts have clear shape and grounded contours. The struggles of the show’s protagonists feel real to anyone who has ever had difficulty accessing resources, as even supernatural beings that produce their own magic like gods and faeries are depicted as erratic and unreliable.

Only time will tell whether Michael B. Jordan’s Prime Video romantasy show Fourth Wing can do justice to the complicated lore of the source novels, or whether HBO’s take on Harry Potter will iron out any of the many well-documented plot holes and inconsistencies of its source material. However, SyFy’s classic adaptation proves there is already an underrated fantasy series with a genuinely compelling magic system.

For some viewers, a magic system that aligns with observable reality could be vital to their enjoyment of a fantasy story, whereas others might find it less important. However, no matter which camp the reader falls into, The Magicians has something for everyone in the show’s smart, subversive fantasy saga.

Release Date 2015 - 2020-00-00

Showrunner Sera Gamble

Directors Chris Fisher, James L. Conway, Joshua Butler, John Scott, Carol Banker, Scott Smith, Guy Norman Bee, Rebecca Johnson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Meera Menon, Amanda Tapping, Bill Eagles, Jan Eliasberg, Kate Woods, Shannon Kohli

Writers John McNamara, Henry Alonso Myers, David Reed, Noga Landau, Christina Strain, Leah Fong, Alex Raiman, Elle Lipson, David Reed