The Biggest High Fantasy Series Of The Decade Officially Returns In 1 Week After Key Change

Published Nov 5, 2026, 7:32 PM EST

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

A major high fantasy series is returning next week, and it just so happens to be the genre's biggest release of the decade, which is coming back with a new set of episodes that are unlike its previous seasons due to a couple of important factors. There have been many successful fantasy TV shows in recent years, with Game of Thrones' popularity boosting the genre.

After all, the HBO fantasy series grew to become one of the most popular TV shows of all time, with multiple Game of Thrones spin-offs having since been released. Elsewhere, the fantasy genre has remained strong with shows like Netflix's The Witcher in live-action and Arcane in animation, Prime Video's The Wheel of Time in live-action and both The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein in animation, and more.

Those last two animated series might be the perfect examples in recent years of how to do right by high fantasy in TV format. The Prime Video fantasy shows are set in Critical Role's world of Exandria, coming with immersive worldbuilding, deep and intricate lore, fantastical creatures, magic systems, and more. That said, a live-action Prime Video series is the biggest high fantasy show of the decade.

The project in question is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The Prime Video high fantasy series is part of one of the most popular franchises of all time, as Tolkien's books and the Peter Jackson movie franchise have turned this universe into perhaps the go-to when the topic turns to high fantasy. The show will return next week, but changed in a way it has never been.

Why The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Is The Biggest High Fantasy Series Of The Decade

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is the biggest high fantasy series of the decade for a few reasons, with one of them being its scale. This is a show that is not afraid to spend to get the most immersive visuals or dynamic battle sequences. In fact, Prime Video's The Rings of Power is the most expensive TV show of all time, cashing out around $1 billion for the streamer's five-season plan for the high fantasy series. No other genre show has had that kind of financial backing behind it, and The Rings of Power puts it all onscreen.

Through a mix of cutting-edge VFX and practical effects, the high fantasy series fully immerses the viewer into Middle-earth, with The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power not only being a visually stunning show with grand sets, but also boasting some of the most intricate, large-scale, and impactful battle sequences ever put to the screen. Honestly, this is a show whose scope easily competes with that of high-budget movies, and it has managed to do so through 16 successful episodes thus far. The Rings Of Power holds a high 84% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of its return.

How Season 3 Changes The Prime Video Fantasy Series From The Start

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 will debut on Prime Video on November 11 with a massive four-episode premiere. This time around, the high fantasy series has changed its release schedule. Not only is the initial binge drop longer, but The Rings of Power season 3 will then release two episodes weekly every Wednesday through November 25.

That is not the only major change for the fantasy series, which will be quite different from what fans have been used to. One of the biggest differences when it comes to season 3 is that it will pick back up with characters like Elrond, Galadriel, and Sauron after a five-year time jump. Season 3 will also be darker and with a heightened sense of urgency, given that Sauron is no longer hiding behind a persona, like he did in season 1 as Halbrand, and season 2 as Annatar, trying to forge the One Ring. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power gets bigger than ever.