HBO's Upcoming Fantasy Show Will Be The Anti Game Of Thrones

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Published Jun 26, 2026, 3:02 PM EDT

Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones.

You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep."

Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant.

HBO's Game of Thrones changed television forever, sparking a new age of high-budget prestige fantasy dramas with a long run. While a harsh reality of rewatching Game of Thrones is that some of the show's flaws were overlooked as there was nothing else like the series on TV at the time, it cannot be ignored that Game of Thrones raised the bar for every other fantasy show, while proving that there is a market for a genre TV series aimed at an adult audience.

Fantasy has often been considered a genre for children, but Game of Thrones was brutal, gory, and explicit despite the presence of dragons. Its success highlighted the fact that many high fantasy novels desperately need television adaptations, but its polarizing finale also shows that a great series of any genre also needs a proper ending. Fantasy TV shows are regularly unfairly canceled, especially if they are not based on books with an existing fanbase, but HBO's upcoming fantasy TV show is unlikely to face this problem, coming with a fanbase and an ending, while being the anti Game of Thrones.

Combining elements of the world we know with a hidden magical world, Harry Potter is often considered urban fantasy, and despite attracting a fanbase of all ages when the original book series was first released and growing darker over time, it is also, at its roots, a children's series. Game of Thrones was still being written at the time the series aired, prompting the showrunners to leave the source material behind, but the core Harry Potter books have a happy ending typically seen in fantasy as a blueprint for the upcoming show, which is certain to have a very different tone to Game of Thrones.

It is almost inevitable that Harry Potter is set to be HBO's new flagship series, despite being as far from Game of Thrones as it is possible to be within the fantasy genre. Many details of the upcoming Harry Potter TV series have been kept under wraps, but even if the series does not immediately achieve the success of the movies, many fans are still likely to watch for the extra details from the Harry Potter books that HBO's series is sure to include. Still, the next two years will be huge for the fantasy genre, and Harry Potter has some serious competition.

The Fantasy Streaming War Begins With HBO's Harry Potter

Team Gryffindor in season 1 of the Harry Potter TV show

Harry Potter will air on December 25th 2026, sparking the upcoming streaming war between some of the biggest fantasy franchises of all time. The Lord of the Rings already has a head start, with multiple projects, including The Rings of Power series that got off to a shaky beginning but is now finding its footing. Unlike Harry Potter, The Hunt for Gollum movie includes several of the previous Lord of the Rings movies' cast as well as direction from Andy Serkis, whose performance in the original trilogy was revolutionary for the special effects industry.

With The Lord of the Rings also being hailed as a fantasy franchise better than Harry Potter, a lot rides on the success of The Hunt for Gollum movie, which is set to premiere in 2027 and could revitalize the Lord of the Rings franchise. That said, an even bigger contender for the fantasy crown is The Chronicles of Narnia franchise, with Greta Gerwig's upcoming movie series treading new ground by adapting The Magician's Nephew, a Narnia book that has not been adapted for the screen before.

Harry Potter's legacy has been tarnished by its author in recent years, but it is likely to be a major winner for HBO nonetheless. The Hunt for Gollum shares a key thing with Harry Potter, as they will both inevitably be compared to the original movies, despite The Hunt for Gollum covering new ground. The wild card is Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, through which Netflix reboots one of the biggest fantasy franchises of all time. Whether Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, or Narnia win the streaming wars, this is going to be an exciting time for fantasy.