Prime Video Has The #1 And #2 Fantasy Shows On TV Right Now

Published Nov 7, 2026, 7:01 PM EST

Craig began contributing to Screen Rant in 2016 and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room. After previously writing for various outlets, Craig's focus turned to TV and film, where a steady upbringing of science fiction and comic books finally became useful. Craig has previously been published by sites such as Den of Geek.

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It's a good time to be a fantasy fan with a streaming subscription. On Disney+, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is about to launch into its third season after banishing the memory of its big screen predecessor. Over at Netflix, the red brand is still working its way through The Witcher. Prime Video boasts the big-budget adaptation of Middle-earth's Second Age that is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And for those who prefer a little more grit in their sandals, HBO's Westeros spinoffs are rapidly proving that Game of Thrones' poorly-received final season was just an unfortunate blip.

There is, then, a lot of fantasy TV around these days, with different flavors of the genre on offer to suit everyone's personal taste. And with all the major streamers getting in on the act, it would be almost ridiculous for the best two fantasy shows on TV right now to hail from the same platform. As it happens, the two best fantasy shows on TV right now not only hail from the same platform, they hail from the same franchise.

Even before forging its way onto streaming, the Critical Role franchise enjoyed significant success, popularizing the now-undisputed notion that viewers aplenty will watch a tabletop Dungeons and Dragons campaign broken up into online episodes. As well as spearheading a whole new format of fantasy storytelling, Critical Role became a brand unto itself by successfully introducing new campaigns. That ability to swap characters and storylines without losing momentum proved the group itself, and their endless creativity, was the real attraction.

From an early stage, anyone following Critical Role's journey could see the immense potential for a TV adaptation, and once Amazon joined the party as a partner, it became highly unlikely that The Legend of Vox Machina would roll streaming's equivalent of a natural one. But even the most passionate supporters of Critical Role's early endeavors couldn't have predicted just how deftly the franchise would transition to TV.

With its razor-sharp humor, handcrafted world-building, and tried-and-tested characters, The Legend of Vox Machina delivered that rarest of things: an adaptation to please existing fans while also enticing those who wouldn't recognize Matt Mercer if he was standing behind them in a convention toilet queue. Vox Machina's animated adventures are the pinnacle of fantasy television, beating every rival series by a comfortable distance.

Indeed, the only fantasy series coming close to The Legend of Vox Machina is its own Prime Video sibling series, The Mighty Nein, which offers an ingeniously magical twist on the same formula. Between them, the two shows are Dungeons and Dragons' equivalent of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul in the sense that it's almost impossible to decide which is better. We only know they're both brilliant.

That dual success grants Prime Video the #1 and #2 spots on any list of the best fantasy shows around right now.

Critical Role Faces A Wave Of Competition, But It Shouldn't Be Worried

The prevalence of successful fantasy shows on TV can only mean one thing: we're getting more of them. From Harry Potter to Artemis Fowl, Brandon Sanderson to Stephen King, Fourth Wing to Ravenloft, streaming stands on the precipice of a massive fantasy explosion.

And yet none of them are obvious candidates to knock The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein off the top spots.

The likes of Artemis Fowl and The Dark Tower are notoriously tricky to adapt, while expectations from book fans could hamper shows based on Fourth Wing, Stormlight Archive, and other highly popular works. Ravenloft's Dungeons and Dragons roots immediately set lofty expectations thanks to Amazon's Critical Role shows, and HBO's Harry Potter faces a near-impossible challenge to win over its many critics.

That's not to say that one of streaming's upcoming fantasy projects can't blossom into brilliance and overtake both The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein. But, on paper at least, there isn't a project in the pipeline that'll have Scanlan waking up at night nervously grabbing his lute.