Another Streaming Service Can Finally Dethrone Apple TV As The King Of Sci-Fi
Casey Duby is an avid TV writer, watcher, and reviewer. She graduated from Emerson College in 2021 with a focus in Writing for Film and Television, where she wrote several pilots and watched countless more. She's been working in television ever since.
Casey loves thoughtful content that makes her ponder our world and the people in it, and she's learned that any genre can surprise her. With favorites in every genre from horror to politics, family to action, nothing is off limits.
Casey has experience working in TV development and writing scripted shows. Currently working as a Writer/Critic in Los Angeles, with an AMC A-List membership to boot, she is always hunting for the next good story and great theme song.
From its inception, Apple TV has presented itself as streaming TV's sci-fi home. For All Mankind, the alternate-history sci-fi series that was among the streamer's very first releases in 2019, remains one of the most popular shows in the genre as it heads into its final season.
Since then, Apple TV's sci-fi projects have only grown in quality, scale, and popularity. Even after losing steam from a three-year gap between seasons 1 and 2, Severance has continued to dominate conversations among viewers, critics, and awards. Meanwhile, the mysterious, apocalyptic, bunker-set Silo was simultaneously renewed for two final seasons, the last of which will premiere in 2027.
Of course, most recently, Pluribus broke Apple TV viewership records to become the streamer's most-watched series to date. All told, the projects have come together to establish Apple TV's sci-fi library as the cream of the crop.
Yet Apple TV isn't the only platform producing impressive sci-fi shows. Prime Video has a history of delivering some strong yet under-the-radar series, and with its new lineup of upcoming and ongoing shows, the streamer may finally give Apple TV a real run for its money.
Prime Video's Sci-Fi Library Is Surprisingly Strong
The streamer has, on many occasions, dipped its toe into the realm of complex, genuinely compelling sci-fi projects. In 2019, Prime Video took on the final three seasons of The Expanse in the wake of its season 3 cancellation on Syfy. The dense series wasn't afraid to be complex and layered, dealing simultaneously with global politics (and beyond) as well as space and alien technology.
The 2020 series Tales from the Loop was both visually stunning and emotionally resonant, all while dealing with the complicated topic of futuristic physics. In 2022, J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek were impressive in Night Sky, a series wherein their characters were transported to another planet. Unfortunately, both Tales from the Loop and Night Sky were cancelled after a single season.
Nonetheless, Prime Video carried The Expanse through to a true conclusion at the end of its sixth season, earning the respect of its viewers. Even so, none of these projects necessarily moved the needle on Prime Video's overarching sci-fi reputation, though they did signal an ongoing interest in the genre that the streamer is finally beginning to see a return on.
Prime Video's Sci-Fi Focuses On Growing Franchises
Even Tales from the Loop and The Expanse were based on pre-existing IP (an art book and a series of novels, respectively). More recently, Prime Video's sci-fi adaptations and IP expansions have begun to gain real traction with viewers and critics alike.
The Boys, an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name, quickly became one of the most popular titles in superhero television, even spawning the equally beloved spinoff, Gen V. The franchise played a significant role in positioning Prime Video as a serious player in the sci-fi space, while their current and upcoming shows may just take the streamer to the next level.
While Prime Video has leaned into franchises, Apple TV has shown a penchant for quirky, original series. Shows like Severance and Pluribus were creative risks that paid off due to pure quality. Meanwhile, Prime Video's reliance on a franchise's pre-existing audience is risky in its own way, as those audiences can quickly be lost if their expectations aren't met.
Yet Prime Video's recent, splashy shows and announcements have shown that it can handle major titles with as much care as Apple TV's prestige projects, and these endeavors just might give Prime Video the edge over Apple TV in the sci-fi space in the coming months and years.
Prime Video's Fallout has created a critically acclaimed TV narrative in the world of the massive post-apocalyptic video game franchise. The show's success likely contributed to the platform's upcoming adaptation of Life is Strange, another beloved set of sci-fi video games. Similarly, the popularity of The Boys no doubt led to the announcement of Vought Rising, a prequel series set to premiere in 2027.
Most notable, though, are the upcoming Blade Runner 2099 and RoboCop. Blade Runner 2099, scheduled to release on Prime Video on November 25, 2026, is a sequel series to the iconic Blade Runner films, themselves adaptations of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Still in development, RoboCop will expand the similarly famous cyberpunk franchise.
With adaptations of so many major pieces of IP in the works, the buzz surrounding Prime Video threatens to overtake that of Apple TV, and if the streamer can deliver a final product of the same quality as recent works like Fallout and The Boys, Prime Video just might become the new home of cutting-edge sci-fi.
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