The epic fantasy shows that will dominate the next decade of TV

The Lord of the Rings prequel series (2022)

With over 150 million copies sold, The Lord of the Rings is the biggest fantasy story of the past 100 years. Amazon’s prequel series won’t actually adapt the books, but rather take place during the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Bilbo Baggins was born. We’re like to see new locations such as Númenor as well as old favorites like Mordor and the Misty Mountains.

Amazon is getting a lot of attention for how staggeringly expensive the series is, with the first season alone reported to cost $465 million to make, and they’re already committed to going ahead on a second. For comparison’s sake, Peter Jackson’s original movie trilogy cost $281 million in total. To quote Amazon executive Jennifer Salke, this series will need a “giant, global audience” if it’s going to be worth the company’s while.

Expect The Lord of the Rings series to premiere on Amazon Prime Video sometime in 2022.

House of the Dragon (2022)

Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon will tell the story of the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal Targaryen civil war that tore Westeros apart over 100 years before the original series. Starring the likes of Matt Smith, Graham McTavish and many others, the show promises to be a splashy, special effects-heavy drama with lots of stuff that Game of Thrones fans have come to expect, including a huge cast of morally murky characters, political backroom gamesmanship, and of course, plenty of dragons.

House of the Dragon has officially entered production, with HBO aiming to premiere the series in 2022. Martin will work on the series along showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, director of fan-favorite and action-packed Game of Thrones episodes like “Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter.” It’s gotten to the point where HBO is releasing official photos from the series. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

The Wheel of Time (2021)

Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time is a massive fantasy epic that spans 15 books, starting with The Eye of the World in 1990 and ending with A Memory of Light in 2013. Fans have wanted a proper adaptation of this story for a long time, and they’re finally going to get it courtesy of Amazon Prime Video. Between this and The Lord of the Rings, the multinational giant is going all in on the fantasy genre.

The Wheel of Time follows five villagers thrust into a vibrant world of magic, warring kingdoms, and strange cultures outside their small rural community. After several pandemic-related dealys, filming on the first season is finally completed and a second season is already in the works. The signs point toward Amazon premiering the show late this year. With a tall stack of source material, the series may run throughout the entire decade.

And those are three of the big series on the way. However, there are other series just starting up that we don’t have many details on yet, but which could be big players in this space down the line.