Despite its disappointing final season, Game of Thrones’ impact on the television industry is undeniable. In the final years of the show, major producers started to anticipate a future gap in pop culture and plans for several more fantasy series began to take shape. We have seen the results these last few years, including shows like The Wheel of Time, The Witcher, His Dark Materials, House of the Dragon, and Rings of Power, with several more to come. High fantasy appears to be the reigning monarch of contemporary television—is this only because of the success of GOT? What else in our time could be causing audiences to crave swords and sorcery?
From a business perspective, this phenomenon is not difficult to understand. HBO proved that it was not only feasible to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a TV production but extremely profitable. With the coinciding rise of streaming services, companies like Netflix and Amazon have been eager to try their hand at epic fantasy. But how successful has the industry been in replacing GOT? Have any of these shows been worth watching? Producers are always on the hunt for easily adaptable properties (highlighting the inherent commercialism), and different sub-groups within these source materials have produced different audience reactions.
For example, in the case of adapting video games, Netflix’s The Witcher has been relatively popular. This is likely why HBO is now developing another series based on a video game—the zombie-apocalypse adventure The Last of Us, with veteran Game of Thrones actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay in the main roles. Another successful category is the reboot—several fantasy series saw failed film adaptations in the early 2000s, but now have a second chance. HBO successfully revived The Golden Compass, whilst Disney+ is filming Percy Jackson and developing a new Eragon series. Fans appear to enjoy these new adaptations of their favourite books, in a format that enables more complex storytelling.
However, the last group of shows (and probably the most controversial one) is made up of those which are clearly trying to capitalise on the success of other series, through remakes, prequels, and spin-offs. Does anyone want to see the live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender? Despite an excellent, non-whitewashed cast, the general answer seems to be no. Everyone still vividly remembers the disastrous 2010 film iteration, and most prefer the characters in their original, animated medium. Also falling into this last category are the two most recent and possibly the most serious contenders to replace GOT (if you believe that it can or should be replaced). House of the Dragon and Rings of Power, with their high fantasy medievalist aesthetics and complex world-building, repeat the same formulas that made GOT so successful.
House of the Dragon returns to Westeros 172 years before the events of GOT, focusing on the Targaryen dynasty at the height of their power, depicting a crisis of succession which leads up to the civil war known as “the dance of dragons.” The show stars, among others, Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, and Rhys Ifans. Rings Of Power, on the other hand, tells a story that takes place thousands of years before Lord of the Rings, focusing on a young Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark. The cast also includes Robert Aramayo, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Nazanin Boniadi, and Markella Kavenagh. Both shows have casts with noticeably more diversity than their predecessors, delving into unexplored lore and mythology whilst adhering more closely to contemporary casting sensibilities.
The 21st-century TV market is becoming oversaturated with fantasy TV. Is it possible that the trend is not rooted in commercialism but in an increased desire for escapism? Constant stress from politics, climate change, and the pandemic might make escaping to another world an attractive option. However, if the rise of fantasy is indebted to the political and social conditions of the modern world, I would argue that it started much earlier. Tolkien and Lewis wrote their sagas midway through the 20th century (and their fantasy worlds are filled with symbolism about maintaining hope in the face of two world wars), while Star Wars dominated pop culture in the 80s (which was influenced by the Vietnam War). What has changed is that the technology to create fire-breathing dragons is now more accessible, therefore we see many more fantasy films and series.
Is the quest to be the next Game of Thrones futile? Probably not. It’s inevitable that the next milestone in pop culture will come around eventually. However, the best fantasy series don’t try to copy something for profit’s sake but put all their efforts into an original idea. Adaptations that try to exactly copy a previous success are noticeably poorer in quality—think of the DC Extended Universe films or the many YA dystopia series that came out following The Hunger Games (including The Maze Runner and Divergent). Will there ever be another show that will take the world by storm the way Game of Thrones did? Possibly, but not by replicating, but innovating.