8 Best Sci-Fi Shows Released Since 2020, Ranked

Published Sep 13, 2026, 6:01 AM EDT

Remus is a writer, editor, journalist, and author with an eye for detail and an extremely active imagination. He is an enthusiast of everything to do with the graphic medium, whether it's Western comics and their adaptations or manga and anime. Remus is also the author of the sci-fantasy novel Once Upon a Time in Hyperspace and several works of short fiction in the mystery, comedy, and horror genres.

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Since 2020, sci-fi television has seen a major turnaround, reflecting life-changing global events and massive leaps in technology, science, and everything in between, ushering in a completely new way to look at the universe. Furthered by the explosive expansion of streaming, small-screen science fiction has been exploring dimensions that we didn’t even know could have existed in the medium before. Led by platforms like Apple TV, the increased dedication and investment in the genre have led to some of the most prestigious shows of our times.

Sci-fi storytelling of the 2020s has gone above and beyond exploring impossible ideas and hard scientific theories or eyeing the future through myopic lenses; it is more about human lives in the context of the impossible. But even among all the innumerable multi-season sci-fi shows and limited series released in the past six years, there are a handful of titles that stand out as the best of the best. Here’s our ranked selection of the best sci-fi shows released since 2020, including both popular hits and hidden gems.

8 ‘Loki’ (2021–2023)

Image via Disney+

The third MCU television series created by Michael Waldron, Loki is the first-ever Marvel production to feature the titular comic book character in the lead. After a variant of Loki creates a new timeline at the end of Avengers: Endgame, he is tracked down by a mysterious organization called the TVA (Time Variance Authority), which gives him the choice between getting erased forever or fixing the timeline by stopping a larger threat. Tom Hiddleston reprises his role as Loki from the film series, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, and Jonathan Majors as other main characters.

Fun, fantastic, and fantastical, Loki leans much deeper into the mechanics and structural foundation of the multiverse than any other MCU series has done so far. The series is a refreshing shift from the studio’s conventional storytelling and is as thrilling and awe-inspiring as it is intriguing at various turns. Powered by Hiddleston’s electrifying performance as the titular demigod, with Wilson’s charming Mobius a close second, Loki ranked high among the top sci-fi shows of the year when it premiered in 2021.

7 ‘Severance’ (2022–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller’s Severance is a high-concept sci-fi thriller that centers on a group of employees at an elite biotech company who undergo the titular procedure to separate personal and professional identities. When a new severed employee named Mark (Adam Scott) is contacted by his former coworker with mysterious information, he begins to question the real purpose of the company. The show features a stacked cast, with Patricia Arquette, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman, Britt Lower, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, and more in supporting roles.

Shortly after its premiere, Severance quickly became Apple TV’s most successful sci-fi show and one of the most popular of this decade. Uniquely absurdist, it puts a black comedy psychological thriller spin on the “evil corporation” trope. With a highly stylized dystopian aesthetic and intelligent writing, Severance delights in every season. The show has enjoyed phenomenal ratings and swept prestigious awards, and it’s easily one of the best sci-fi shows of the 2020s.

6 ‘Foundation’ (2021–Present)

Image via Apple TV+

Apple TV’s flagship sci-fi series and an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s novels, created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman, Foundation is a multigalactic, multigenerational saga of humans spread across various planets, who are controlled by a genetic dynasty of clone emperors. The narrative focuses on Dr. Hari Seldon, who leads a group of scientists in an attempt to preserve the civilization and its legacy after receiving irrefutable scientific proof that it’s all going to fall apart. It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris as Seldon, with Lee Pace, Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, and more in key roles.

Deep and often convoluted, Foundation is complex but in a very different way than Asimov’s original trilogy. Through a brilliant visual experience and impressive performances, the series explores interplanetary human life, socio-technological evolution, and the stagnation of the human race over generations. Even though Apple TV’s adaptation is not 100% faithful to Asimov’s monumental work of sci-fi, it has garnered sweeping accolades for its epic scale, rich production, and glorious cinematography, which are a sight to behold.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides

🖖Capt. Kirk

✊Princess Leia

🔦Ellen Ripley

🔥Max Rockatansky

FIND YOUR HERO →

01

How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.

AI absorb everything — every variable, every pattern — and move only when I know the path forward. BI read the room, make the call, and own the consequences. Hesitation costs more than mistakes. CI rally people. A cause needs a voice, and I refuse to let fear be louder than conviction. DI assess the threat, establish what needs doing, and get it done without waiting for permission. EI don't lead. I act. Others can follow or not — I'm already moving.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.

APrescience — the ability to see further ahead than anyone else and plan accordingly. BImprovisation — I'm at my best when the plan falls apart and I have to invent a new one. CConviction — I know what I'm fighting for, and that certainty doesn't waver under fire. DComposure — I stay functional when everyone around me is falling apart. Panic is a luxury. EEndurance — I outlast things. I take the hit and keep moving long after others have stopped.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.

AThe survival and dignity of my people — even if I have to become something frightening to ensure it. BThe safety of my crew — every single one of them. No one gets left behind. CFreedom — for my people, for every world still crushed under the weight of an empire. DThe truth — what actually happened, what's actually out there, whether anyone believes me or not. EThe one person — or the one memory — that still makes any of this worth surviving for.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.

AWith intensity and distance — I care deeply, but the weight I carry makes closeness complicated. BWith warmth and irreverence — I take the mission seriously, not myself. CWith directness and trust — I say what I mean, and I expect the people I work with to rise to it. DWith professional care but clear limits — I'll protect you, but I won't pretend we're family. EWith wariness that slowly becomes loyalty — I don't trust easily, but when I do, it holds.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything.

APrepare in silence. If they won't listen, I'll be ready when they finally have to. BKeep pushing until someone listens — and if no one does, handle it myself. CBuild the case, find the allies, and make the threat impossible to ignore. DDocument everything. The truth matters even if no one believes it yet. EStop trying to convince anyone. Survive it. That's the only argument that counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again.

AMy innocence — I've seen what I'm capable of, and I can't unsee it. BPeople I loved — the command chair has a view, but it's a lonely one. CA normal life — I gave up everything ordinary the moment I chose the cause. DMy sense of safety — I know exactly what's out there now, and I can't pretend otherwise. EAlmost everything — and I'm still not sure what I'm carrying it all for. But I keep going.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours?

AI understand them deeply — and I know exactly which ones must be broken, and why. BI respect the spirit of them and bend the letter when the situation demands it. CThe system is the problem. I'm not here to work within it — I'm here to dismantle it. DI follow protocol until protocol stops being useful. Then I make the call myself. EThe rules collapsed a long time ago. What's left is instinct, and mine are reliable.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.

ADestiny — or something that feels so much like it that the difference no longer matters. BThe people on my ship — their faces, their trust, the fact that they're counting on me. CThe belief that what we're fighting for is worth every sacrifice, including this one. DSheer refusal to let it win — whatever it is. I don't stop. That's just who I am. EI'm not sure anymore. But the road is still there, and I'm still on it.

REVEAL MY HERO →

Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

Paul Atreides

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

• You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
• You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape.
• Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
• That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you.

Captain Kirk

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

• You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
• Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it.
• Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
• That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.

Princess Leia

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of.

• You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
• You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back.
• Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
• That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.

Ellen Ripley

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

• You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
• Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
• You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there.
• When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.

Max Rockatansky

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

• You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
• Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
• Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
• That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

5 ‘Devs’ (2020)

Image via FX

In his first TV project, Alex Garland brings his cinematic mastery to Devs, a hard sci-fi series about a cutting-edge quantum computing company called Amaya, where a new employee is mysteriously killed. His girlfriend, also an employee at the company, starts looking for answers and comes across a secretive project helmed by the CEO that could completely change life as we know it. The miniseries stars Nick Offerman, Sonoya Mizuno, Allison Pill, Zach Grenier, and Carl Glusman in main roles.

Devs is a beautifully haunting sci-fi show that goes beyond hard scientific theories and ultimately becomes a meditation on ethics, morality, and humanism. Garland’s high-concept take on the themes of existential philosophy and alternate realities not only feels deeply enigmatic and hypnotic but also raises important questions about the human condition. Mentally and visually captivating, Devs will leave you with several questions and an unforgettable experience, and it is easily one of the most underrated hard sci-fi shows of 2020.

4 ‘Scavengers Reign’ (2023)

Image via HBO Max

Created by Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner from their 2016 short film, Scavengers Reign is an adult-animated series revolving around a group of people who survive an interstellar shipwreck and get stranded on an alien planet. The planet, brimming with rich flora and fauna, also hides unusual dangers and a complex ecosystem under its seemingly lush landscape that the survivors must navigate to survive and find their way back to civilization. The series stars the voices of Sunita Mani, Wunmi Mosaku, Alia Shawkat, Bob Stephenson, and Ted Travelstead in main roles.

Beautiful and brutal in the same measure, Scavengers Reign is unlike most shows in the genre, and its fans consider it to be the greatest and most original sci-fi show of the last decade. The series relies heavily on the show-don’t-tell style and uses its vivid visuals and atmospheric musical score for storytelling. Though it was canceled after only one season, Scavengers Reign was widely praised during its run, winning an Emmy for its design, and remains a modern icon of the genre.

3 ‘Pluto’ (2023)

Image via Netflix

An anime series adaptation of the Astro Boy spin-off manga Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki, Pluto is set in a future where humans live peacefully alongside robots — for the most part. When several famous robots and humans are found mysteriously murdered, Europol robot detective Gesicht starts investigating and is drawn into a long-drawn, sinister conspiracy that threatens the delicate balance of coexistence between humans and machines. The main characters are voiced by Shinshū Fuji, Hiroki Yasumoto, Koichi Yamadera, Yoko Hikasa, and Minori Suzuki.

Written by Heisuke Yamashita and Tatsurou Inamoto, Pluto is a thrilling combination of murder mystery, sci-fi fantasy, and heartfelt themes of humanism. As much as the eight-episode anime dazzles with its brilliant animation style and character design, it also tugs at the heartstrings with its emotional narrative about war, humanity, and artificial intelligence. A remarkably thoughtful sci-fi show that raises important questions about the human condition, Pluto is not only a groundbreaking series but also one of Netflix’s top-tier anime hits.

2 ‘Pluribus’ (2025–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Following the phenomenal success of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Vince Gilligan created this Apple TV black comedy sci-fi drama starring Better Call Saul alum Rhea Seehorn as the protagonist, marking Gilligan’s first time returning to the genre since The X-Files. Pluribus centers on Seehorn’s Carol Sturka, an author who survives a sudden outbreak of an unknown virus that transforms most of humanity into an overtly optimistic hive mind, which Carol relentlessly tries to resist, looking for other immune survivors to ally herself with. The ensemble cast also features Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga, and Miriam Shor in notable roles.

High-concept and very timely, Pluribus uses common sci-fi tropes to explore and address the endless conflict between collective consciousness and individualism and questions whether forced utopia is actually tyranny. Unlike most alien-themed sci-fi shows, the series is not action-driven and is rather meditative and silently thrilling. On its premiere, Pluribus garnered sweeping accolades for Seehorn’s terrific performance and has been critically acclaimed for its writing, direction, tone, and style, making it one of the top sci-fi shows of the 2020s.

1 ‘Pantheon’ (2022–2023)

Image via AMC+

Developed by Craig Silverstein from six short stories by Ken Liu, Pantheon is an adult-animated sci-fi series set in a near-future where experimental mind-uploading is a possibility, following a bullied teenager named Maddie Kim, who is grieving her father’s recent death. When Maddie is mysteriously contacted online by her deceased father, their interactions lead her to the heart of a global conspiracy that causes major societal consequences and existential crises. Daniel Dae Kim, Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Rosemarie DeWitt, Aaron Eckhart, and Raza Jaffrey voice the main characters.

Pantheon makes you feel simultaneously hopeful and hopeless with its discourse on consciousness, mortality, and morality. The series captures the current technological zeitgeist more accurately than almost any other modern sci-fi series and does so by staying rooted in its emotional core and never losing the human narrative of it all. A mind-bending sci-fi masterpiece, Pantheon has been a critical darling, praised by reviewers and fans alike for its visually mesmerizing and deeply thought-provoking concepts.