The 10 Greatest Dark Fantasy Series Made for Adults

Updated  Nov 10, 2026, 4:58 AM EST

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The fantasy genre has a reputation for being whimsical and ending in happily ever afters. There’s no denying that fantasy stories have plenty to offer to younger audiences, but they can also take the same themes and push them into much darker territories for older readers.

The fantastical elements give these stories scale, but the best dark fantasy is still grounded in painfully human things like grief, obsession, power, and revenge. Instead of using magic as an escape from reality, these shows use it to make reality feel even uglier. This is a list of six dark fantasy TV shows made for adults who can appreciate the genre at its most twisted and bleak.

10 'Ergo Proxy' (2006)

Image via Crunchyroll

For those unfamiliar with anime, they might not understand how dark it can get, but if they need proof, then they can just watch Ergo Proxy. Set in a dome city during the post-apocalypse, an inspector is investigating a series of murders, which leads her to a virus that gives sentience to robots. This pulls her into a darker conspiracy that will shape the future.

Ergo Proxy is an incredibly dense and atmospheric anime that is dark in tone and style, creating a fascinating cyberpunk vibe where the world is barely hanging on. However, the philosophical and psychological themes elevate it to another level of intrigue. The darkness comes from the suffocating sense of dread that seeps into the viewer through its nihilistic themes and bleak ending. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

9 'The Witcher' (2019–Present)

Image via Netflix

Netflix’s The Witcher has been through its ups and downs, but the behind-the-scenes drama can’t overshadow the power of this brilliant story. The series follows Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill through the first three seasons and Liam Hemsworth beginning with Season 4, a mutated monster hunter who travels the Continent, taking on contracts. Geralt wants to remain neutral and collect his coin, but morality in his world is never that convenient. Along the way, Geralt becomes bound by destiny to Princess Ciri (Freya Allan), whose Elder Blood makes her enormously important to competing kingdoms and supernatural forces.

Soon enough, sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) enters the picture, and these three characters gradually become one very unconventional family. Now, monster hunting is actually one of the least complicated parts of Geralt’s life. He repeatedly finds himself caught between warring kingdoms, powerful sorcerers, and people who want to use Ciri for their own political ambitions. The protagonist might spend much of the series insisting that he wants nothing to do with any of it, but protecting Ciri makes it impossible for him to remain neutral. This transforms The Witcher from a simple monster-hunting show into a far more complex story about prejudice. The show can get tangled in its own mythology, but when it focuses on its characters, The Witcher has a way of making even the biggest fantasy conflicts feel personal.

8 'Creature Commandos' (2025–Present)

Image via HBO Max

James Gunn's DCU is already off to a hot start, and while many thought that Superman was the start of the universe, it was actually Creature Commandos. When missions get too dangerous, they send the titular squadron full of tragic monster-like villains, and their next detail is rescuing a princess from a politically charged takeover.

Gunn's signature style is abundant in Creature Commandos, and while it naturally features plenty of quirky moments and comedic value, that doesn't undercut the inherent darkness. Each villain has a tragic past and potentially an even worse fate; this series depicts that with emotional resonance to blend the two aspects perfectly, creating one of the best DC TV shows. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

7 'Made in Abyss' (2017–Present)

Image via Crunchyroll

Never judge a book by its cover, and that is especially true for Made in Abyss, which looks cutesy and wholesome on the outside, but it is a completely different story on the inside. When a robot boy appears from the titular abyss, he travels back down with a young girl to regain his memories and find her mother, whom they think created him.

Made in Abyss has plenty of uncomfortable moments that can and can't be considered dark. Besides that polarizing aspect, it features a haunting atmosphere that gets weirder and darker the further the duo descends. From sadistic scientists experimenting on living children to plenty of body horror, Made in Abyss is a perfect anime series that doesn't hold back. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

6 'Penny Dreadful' (2014–2016)

Image via Showtime

Penny Dreadful is classic gothic horror come to life. The series, set in 19th-century London, follows Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), a deeply troubled woman with supernatural abilities who becomes involved with explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) in the search for his missing daughter. On their journey, they cross paths with American gunslinger Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) and brilliant surgeon Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), while familiar literary figures like Dorian Gray, Frankenstein’s Creature, and Dracula gradually become part of the same story.

The series never treats these iconic characters like gimmicks, though. Instead, Penny Dreadful gives genuine emotional weight to their familiar stories. The fantasy elements of the show never feel childish because it ultimately explores themes of grief, desire, and identity. The violence and gore make perfect sense within this context. The series takes iconic horror mythology and makes it feel as real as it gets. It gives the audience enough humanity to sympathize with all these monsters before reminding everyone exactly why they should still be afraid. It’s like a bedtime story for adults who know that real fear comes from the things people carry within themselves.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Fantasy World Do You Belong To? Middle-earth · Grand Line · The Continent · Camp Half-Blood

Pick your magic, your crew, where you want to wake up and who you would rather be fighting, and we will tell you which world you actually belong in. Four are open to you: an ancient kingdom living through its last good age, an endless sea full of pirates, a continent that pays people to kill monsters, and a summer camp where the Greek gods are extremely real and mostly a nuisance.

💍Middle-earth(Rings of Power)

👒Grand Line(One Piece)

🐺The Continent(The Witcher)

🔱Camp Half-Blood(Percy Jackson)

FIND YOUR WORLD →

01

What kind of power do you want? Every one of these worlds runs on a completely different sort of magic.

ASomething ancient and half forgotten that came down through my family. BSomething completely ridiculous that works in a fight and gets a laugh. CNo magic at all, just training, potions and a very sharp sword. DSomething I inherited from a parent I have barely met.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Who is travelling with you? Nobody gets through any of these stories entirely on their own.

AA fellowship drawn from every corner of the world who barely trust each other. BA crew I picked up one at a time, all of whom would die for me. CTwo or three people I would never describe out loud as friends. DTwo mates from school who are exactly as out of their depth as I am.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

Where do you want to wake up tomorrow? The best fantasy is usually just somewhere you would genuinely like to live.

AA high city of white stone with the sea somewhere far below. BA ship under sail, with an island ahead that nobody has mapped. CA rented room over a tavern, in a town I am leaving in the morning. DA cabin at a summer camp with everybody else already awake outside.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

How are you making a living out there? Even in fantasy somebody has to pay for the horse.

AI am not, because somebody far older than me decided this was my duty. BTreasure, and I am not always careful about whose it used to be. CI take contracts, since people will pay well for what they will not touch. DI am fifteen and this is all technically a school trip.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

There is something in the woods. What do you do about it? All four of these worlds keep something unpleasant out there in the dark.

ASend word to somebody who has seen this before, then hold the line. BWalk straight in, because it is interesting and possibly edible. CAsk what it has been eating and what the village is willing to pay. DWork out which myth it escaped from, then improvise very badly.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Who is the villain of your story? The enemy tells you far more about a world than the hero ever does.

AAn ancient evil that has been patient for several thousand years. BA government that has spent a long time calling itself the good guys. CA man who turns out to be far worse than anything I hunt for money. DA god, or possibly my own family, and quite likely both at once.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What do you actually believe in out there? Every world hands its heroes one rule and asks them to hold onto it.

ASome things are worth defending even when the odds are hopeless. BNobody gets to tell me where I can go or what I am allowed to want. CPick the lesser evil, and never pretend afterwards that it was not evil. DMy friends come before anything a prophecy has to say about it.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

A thousand years from now, how are you remembered? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your world.

AIn a song, in a language hardly anybody still speaks. BAs the one who got there first and proved the whole thing was possible. CBarely, and mostly wrongly, in ballads I would absolutely hate. DOn a plaque at a camp, read by kids about to do the same thing.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

The Map Is Drawn Your World Is…

Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in return.

Middle-earth

You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.

• This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat, fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends.
• You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost everything you touch is older than your entire family line.
• The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight.
• You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.

The Grand Line

You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is finding out what is over there.

• One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together.
• You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea.
• The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land harder because of that rather than in spite of it.
• You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of it.

The Continent

You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the people are where it all gets complicated.

• Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept.
• You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer.
• The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people.
• You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story got told wrong.

Camp Half-Blood

You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as everybody kept telling you.

• Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners, which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse.
• You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for something nobody thought to test for.
• The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud every time a prophecy tries to get in the way.
• Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

5 'Aeon Flux' (1991–1995)

Image via MTV

MTV used to be a leading network for animated series, providing plenty of classics, including a handful of dark shows, like Aeon Flux. The titular assassin and secret agent infiltrates a state ruled by her lover, searching for secrets or targets to help end the long-lasting war between the two countries.

Set in a unique sci-fi world with plenty of grotesque monsters and robots, Aeon Flux abandons a typical narrative in favor of an avant-garde style with experimental storytelling that occasionally brutally kills the main character, only for her to return the next episode. The amount of body horror, fetishistic imagery, and psychological themes all work in favor of creating a hard-to-watch animated series. —Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck

4 'Game of Thrones' (2011–2019)

Image via HBO

Game of Thrones redefined prestige fantasy TV forever. The HBO series adapts George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and is set in the sprawling fictional Kingdom of Westeros. The story begins with King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) asking his old friend Ned Stark (Sean Bean) to leave Winterfell and become Hand of the King. Ned reluctantly agrees and quickly realizes that things in King’s Landing aren’t as peaceful as they might seem. That’s not all, though, because the show also follows Ned’s children, each pulled into conflicts of their own. At the same time, across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) is married off to Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) as part of her brother’s plan to reclaim the Iron Throne.

There’s no denying that Game of Thrones has its fair share of violence, but that’s not what makes it a dark fantasy. The most interesting thing about the series is that it has no clear heroes or villains because everyone here is acting out of fear, loyalty, ambition, or pure survival. The character arcs are complex, and the audience is constantly torn between which side to pick. The fantastical and supernatural elements of the story are set up alongside this massive power struggle and feel like a natural extension of this world. Dragons, White Walkers, blood magic, and ancient prophecies are all important to the narrative, but ultimately, Game of Thrones is about the political maneuvering between people who believe they deserve the throne. Plenty of dark fantasy shows have followed the show’s blueprint, but very few have matched its scale and ambition.

3 'The Sandman' (2022–2025)

Image via Netflix

The Sandman is the stuff of nightmares — literally. The show is based on the acclaimed DC comic series and follows Morpheus, or Dream (Tom Sturridge), an immortal being known as the Endless. He spends his years cut off from his realm after being imprisoned by occultist Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance). When Dream finally escapes, he discovers that his symbols of power have been stolen and scattered across the waking world. He is then forced to rebuild both himself and the place where humanity’s dreams and nightmares come from. The premise sounds enormous, but The Sandman balances its stakes with its engaging structure.

The show is interesting, particularly because Dream doesn’t need to dominate every story. Some episodes push him almost completely into the background and focus on other people whose lives briefly intersect with dreams, death, or the supernatural. It makes the series feel less like a traditional fantasy adventure and more like a collection of dark myths that slowly build one much larger world. That unpredictability is a huge part of what makes the show so compelling. It’s a shame that the show had to end after just two seasons, because The Sandman had the potential to become a fantasy epic for the ages.

2 'American Gods' (2017–2021)

Image via Starz

American Gods takes one of fantasy’s oldest ideas and places it in modern America. The series takes place in a world where Gods only survive as long as people still believe in them. American Gods follows ex-con Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is released from prison early after learning that his wife has died. He accepts a job working for the mysterious con man Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), who eventually turns out to be Odin, the Norse god who has survived into modern America under a new identity. From there, the story expands into a huge conflict between the Old Gods, brought to America through generations of immigrants, and the New Gods created by modern obsessions with technology, media, fame, and consumption.

That clever premise immediately gives American Gods a unique identity. The show turns smartphones and celebrity culture into forms of faith, which makes its fantasy feel a lot more accessible instead of being purely rooted in ancient folklore. Episodes regularly break away from Shadow and Wednesday to tell smaller stories about how different gods arrived in America or what became of them once their believers disappeared. This ensures that the show never gets boring, but every little detour is gradually building toward the larger conflict the story revolves around.

1 ‘Lovecraft Country’ (2020)

Image via HBO

Lovecraft Country deserved so much more than one season, and any true fantasy enthusiast will agree. The HBO series follows Korean War veteran Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors), who travels across 1950s Jim Crow America with his childhood friend Letitia Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) and uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) in search of his missing father. Things take a turn when Atticus discovers that his family is connected to a secret society obsessed with magic and immortality. He then finds himself dealing with ancient rituals, monsters, curses, ghosts, and supernatural abilities, all while navigating a country where simply entering the wrong town can put their lives in danger.

The show ties its supernatural horror directly to the Black experience in America. The story brilliantly uses supernatural horror to amplify the very real history its characters are living through. That idea reaches its emotional peak when the show travels back to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and turns a real historical tragedy into one of the most devastating parts of the entire season. The show can be messy because it is trying to do an absurd amount in only 10 episodes, but very few dark fantasy series have ever swung this hard or had this much to say while doing it. This combination of the real and the fantastical makes Lovecraft Country one of the most ambitious TV shows of all time. That’s why its cancellation still stings.

Lovecraft Country