Some TV shows like to take their time before pulling you in, while others just grab you right away in the very first few minutes. The opening scene really can shape everything—it sets the tone, tells you what kind of world you’re being introduced to, and sometimes even shows you something that’ll stay in your head long after the credits roll.
In fantasy and sci-fi especially, where worlds are often magical and strange, and the rules are different, the very first scene can matter more than ever. It can make you feel awe, or fear, and in the best cases, both at once.
A great opening doesn’t always mean the whole season is going to keep that high level of wonder, but it does help you remember why you started watching in the first place. Here are eight of the best opening scenes in fantasy and sci-fi TV.
Severance
Severance wastes no time telling you that it’s going to be something unusual. The first scene is stark and just a little confusing—a woman waking up on a conference table, being asked questions she doesn’t fully understand. Right away, you know this show isn’t about to play by normal rules and will have a certain weird vibe going on.
The tone is clinical and unsettling, almost too quiet, but that’s the point of it. That opener planted the idea that identity, memory, and work-life balance were going to get twisted into something strange. And it delivered, both in season 1 and season 2.
Andor
Andor didn’t waste any time letting people know it was going to be different from “normal” Star Wars shows. The first scene has Cassian killing two security officers after getting into a confrontation with them at a brothel.
There’s no big heroic fanfare, no usual Disney era Star Wars polish. It’s messy and a little uncomfortable. That moment lets you know that this wasn’t the same, relatively safe content you thought you were getting. Instead, it was going to be about desperation, survival, and people stuck in systems bigger than them.
By the end of the second season, the show fully delivered on that promise in a way that pretty much no other Star Wars project has.
The Rings of Power
The Rings of Power might have always looked stunning no matter what, but the opening of season one is just breathtaking. It drops you straight into J.R.R. Tolkien’s world with sweeping landscapes, some of the most gorgeous cinematography in a TV show, and that kind of mythical touch only high fantasy can pull off. The visuals are almost too perfect, with such detail in every little shot that it feels like a painting come alive.
Even if the rest of the show didn’t always match that same energy, those first moments are magical. They do the job of transporting you to the world of The Lord of the Rings, making you believe in this world and its history that stretches way beyond what you’re seeing.
Lost
The show might not be as popular right now with the renaissance of prestige TV in the 2010s, but when Lost first aired in 2004, that opening was legendary, and the show was some of the best the TV medium had to offer at that time.
A plane crashes on a mysterious island, there’s chaos everywhere, and the camera never lets you look away. It was terrifying and cinematic in a way TV hadn’t really done before. You felt like you were right there. Lost is tricky to label since it’s not pure sci-fi, but that mix of mystery and weirdness started right there in the cold open and kept building up for the rest of the show.
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The Last of Us
The Last of Us is one of the best gaming adaptations ever. The opening sequence with Sarah, Joel’s daughter, is short but devastating. Just like the game, you spend only a little time with her, but the show still managed to make it just as compelling and heartbreaking as the game. The first 34 minutes, before the time jump, serve as an incredible opener to the series.
The opening hits hard, even if you already knew it was coming. But if you didn’t, it’s all the more stark and lets you know what kind of a show this one’s going to be. It might even feel heavier because of how real it looked.
Alien: Earth
Alien: Earth is newer than everything else on this list, but its opening nailed the tone right away. The first scene feels like Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien stepped straight into modern TV. The makeup, the costumes and hairstyling, the set design—even the look and feel of those scenes with a certain color grading—all of it feels very nostalgic.
You don’t even fully know what happened to the crew and how exactly those events played out until episode five, but that tease works so well in setting the backdrop and giving fans a bit of what they really want from an Alien show. It’s very respectful of the original movie’s DNA.
And while the rest of the season goes in some unexpected directions with brand new lore that is different from past Alien projects, that opener made sure fans knew this show understood where it came from. It’s fan service, yes, but it’s the good kind.
Westworld
Westworld’s first 15 minutes do a perfect job of building intrigue. Dolores, with her endless optimism and simple ranch life, seems like she’s part of a classic Western, along with her interactions with Teddy. Then you meet the Man in Black, and suddenly the cracks in this world start showing.
Even if the sci-fi aspect wasn’t there, that opener would still work as a fascinating Western TV show. But because of the sci-fi addition of robots and hidden control in a futuristic theme park, it becomes something way more unique, and that first season of Westworld remains the best.
Game of Thrones
You can argue for days about how Game of Thrones ended, but you can’t argue about how it began. The very first scene with Waymar Royce and the White Walker out in the icy wilderness, away from Castle Black, felt a lot more horror-like than anything else in the rest of the show. It was scary and creepy in a way that fantasy doesn’t always do right.
The rest of season one is mostly political plotting, family drama, and gritty, grounded stuff. But because of that opener, you never forget that this world has something way bigger and darker lurking north of the wall. The Walkers don’t even appear for the rest of the season, but it makes their presence feel like a ghost hanging over everything. You can’t shake it off, and every storyline feels more fragile because of that backdrop.