10 Most Powerful Characters In Fantasy TV History
Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.
Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).
The sky is the limit when it comes to fantasy television. Characters can be as powerful as the story allows, and, most of the time, that allowance is pretty darn extreme. It generally all comes down to the genre-required magic system of the individual series. While any fantasy must have such a system, the way it functions can differ drastically. The power scale in one world doesn't necessarily match that of another. Still, when looking at the fantasy landscape as a whole, there are some clear outliers.
Whether a fantasy TV show falls under the subgenres of high fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, or anything in between, there is generally a certain standard of power. Characters won't often be so powerful that they are entirely invulnerable, but it can get pretty close. The circumstances around these individuals typically have to be highly specific, since their very existence will often break the power scale. For the right character, however, it's entirely worth it.
Lucifer Morningstar - Lucifer
The DC fantasy television series Lucifer ran from 2016 to 2021 and centered on the titular character, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), as he abdicates his throne in Hell to live in Los Angeles. Lucifer isn't quite as powerful in the TV adaptation as he is in the original comic series, but he's still something pretty special.
Lucifer has superhuman strength, speed, and invulnerability, but even more jolting is his ability to make humans divulge their truest desires through eye contact alone. By the end of Lucifer, this character basically ascends to true god power. It doesn't get much bigger than that.
The Darkness - Supernatural
Because Supernatural is a monster-of-the-week TV series that managed to keep itself going for 15 excellent seasons, it should be no surprise that the power scale got completely out of control. Various characters and villains became unthinkably strong, but The Darkness, also known as Amara, really took the cake. She is the twin sister of God himself with near-infinite power and abilities. The Darkness can warp reality, snuff out other deities, and resist any spell or weapon.
Merlin - Merlin
There are few wizards as iconic as Merlin, and that's especially true in the British medieval fantasy-adventure drama that borrows the character's name. Merlin leaves behind the traditional image of an aged old man, instead diving into the story of a young, inexperienced Merlin of Camelot.
While Merlin doesn't quite have total control of his abilities in this version of the story, there is no question in Merlin that there is true, potentially terrible power here. His magic is raw, unfiltered, and rooted entirely in instinct. Merlin has elemental control and telekinesis, and can even sway the forces of life and death.
Eleven - Stranger Things
Netflix's Stranger Things is another TV series that took its power scale to a whole new level. This is most effectively represented by the character Eleven, who possesses god-level telekinesis that can achieve just about anything she desires. Eleven can throw heavy objects across the room or snap a man's neck with just her mind.
Additionally, Eleven can transfer her consciousness into a "void" that lets her eavesdrop on conversations around the world. Thankfully, Eleven is also full of empathy and shines in circumstances of great love. Otherwise, she would have been a horrifying force.
The Doctor - Doctor Who
The long-running British television series Doctor Who is set entirely around the character known as the Doctor, though he (or they, really) comes in many different forms. The Doctor is a humanoid alien who travels across time and space in his sentient time machine called the TARDIS. This naturally gives the Doctor great access to the universe, but it goes far beyond just that.
Regeneration is the name of the game, and the Doctor can take on a brand-new physical form when the previous one is no longer livable. Add in that unyielding intelligence and strategic skills, and there isn't much that could ever stop the Doctor for long.
Sauron - The Rings Of Power
Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power dives deeper into the story of the Dark Lord Sauron, so we get to see more of his immense power than ever before. In the grand scope, Sauron isn't even the most powerful character in Tolkien's lore. However, in an age when greater villains like Morgoth have been contained, this new Dark Lord was free to execute his own, terrible will.
Scratch & Peek
Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.
Sauron can shape-shift and is especially skilled at influence, seduction, and manipulation. Though his One Ring will ultimately prove to be his undoing, the addition of this evil tool makes Sauron, for a time, the most truly terrible power of several thousand years.
Bran Stark - Game Of Thrones
Game of Thrones gave us a lot of pretty powerful characters, and who could have thought that Bran Stark would end up above them all? The hit high-fantasy series spent a lot of time pushing the Starks to their limits, forcing them to grow in miraculous ways. Arya takes a second-place seat in some ways, thanks to her magical lethality. Still, no one quite compares to Bran, who can see anything and everything as it has and will be.
If that wasn't power enough, becoming King of the recently terrorized Seven Kingdoms sealed the deal. Love it or hate it, Bran became the most powerful character of Game of Thrones.
Rumpelstiltskin - Once Upon A Time
ABC's fantasy drama series brought many of Disney's greatest fairy tales to the real world, which meant the character Rumpelstiltskin got to stretch his legs. We wouldn't normally consider this classic character to be any more threatening than the Evil Queen or Maleficent. Once Upon a Time put quite a twist on things.
Rumpelstiltskin became a being known as The Dark One. The status granted him a seemingly unlimited reservoir of dark magic, allowing him to become a sort of puppetmaster of the wider world of fantasy. Rumpel was ultimately so overpowered that you never really knew in Once Upon a Time where he might turn up.
Ciri - The Witcher
The Witcher is another fantasy TV show that is absolutely packed with powerful displays. Geralt of Rivia is quite a force, and we saw Yennefer cause absolute devastation on the battlefield. Still, it's their progeny that takes the prize for being the most powerful. Princess Cirilla has what is called the Elder Blood gene in The Witcher, which basically means he has natural reality-altering power.
While she has to learn to control it, this isn't a form of magic that is learned in the way Yennefer learned her craft. Ciri is a source of power in her own right and can use it to manipulate space and time. Though it hasn't played out on screen yet, she ultimately comes to be known as the Lady of Space and Time.
Loki - Loki
Loki was never a weakling, but the fact that he was repeatedly defeated and ultimately killed in the Avengers movies demonstrates that he wasn't anything too spectacular compared to other forces. This is no longer true for the particular Loki variant that serves as the protagonist in Disney+'s Loki. As the two-season series progresses, this God of Mischief undergoes a dramatic evolution.
This allows Loki to eventually become the God of Stories, which puts him in charge of sustaining reality. This essentially places Loki at the very top of the power scale, though his being so burdened by this particular purpose makes things a bit more complicated.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.