Streaming has become the main home for fantasy on TV, but it has also created a major problem: shows in the genre are now expected to prove themselves way too quickly. Expensive productions with the potential to be truly epic are being judged like everything else, meaning based on immediate viewership, retention, and impact within the first couple of seasons. The issue is that fantasy (especially the complex, large-scale kind) isn’t built in a year or two; it needs time to develop its world, its characters, and its own rules. And of course, there are still those shows that, even with just a few episodes, already show they never quite understood what fantasy is meant to be.
With that in mind, here are 5 series of the genre that had everything in place to become epic, but never quite got there. All of them carried a lot of ambition, whether just in theory or already in execution, but things got complicated along the way, and they couldn’t really follow through.
Imagine a book series with huge potential to become an amazing fantasy adaptation just because of its premise, and when that opportunity finally comes, the result is a disaster. On TV, there are a few examples of that, but when you think of The Shannara Chronicles, it feels pretty disappointing. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where an advanced civilization collapsed, and the world evolved into a fantasy realm where magic and demonic creatures threaten the balance. So a group of young characters ends up at the center of this conflict to try to save everything.
It has the hero’s journey, magical artifacts, and a global threat — basically a full checklist for classic epic fantasy. But the mistake was trying to adapt it in a slightly different way to appeal to a younger audience, possibly. The weight of this universe just isn’t really there, and most of it leans into melodramatic scenes. And the worst part is that the source material actually has way more story and mythology to explore, but the show seems to strip that away in favor of simplifying or speeding things up. In short, The Shannara Chronicles is a generic fantasy adaptation that only really stands out visually.
The central problem here was getting lost. Carnival Row is set in a world where magical creatures live as marginalized immigrants in a rapidly expanding industrial human city, and it follows a murder investigation that pulls in both the criminal underworld and larger political tensions. In other words, the show’s idea is pretty clear: mix fantasy with noir and add a layer of social commentary. On paper, that could have resulted in something really unique on TV, to the point where people would still be watching and recommending it today.
But the series never really manages to balance those three elements at the same time. The crime investigation works at the beginning, but it eventually gets interrupted by political subplots that don’t move at the same pace. Instead of integrating these pieces, the show ends up separating them, which breaks the narrative flow. The world of Carnival Row is interesting, but the story doesn’t use it properly. By Season 2, it really starts to fall apart, and that’s frustrating because a lot of people were initially drawn in. It had its own identity, but it often feels like you’re watching two different shows competing with each other.
Shadow and Bone had a strong launch, especially because the books it’s based on already had a built-in fandom that was eager to see it adapted. The story follows Alina Starkov, an ordinary young woman who discovers she’s a “Sun Summoner” in a world divided by war, magic, and political factions. At the same time, the show expands other stories within the same universe, trying to adapt not just one, but many narrative threads. As a TV series rather than a film, that’s actually a solid idea, but it requires careful balancing over time.
What happens with Shadow and Bone is that it simply starts too big, and the pacing never really keeps up. There’s huge potential here: strong characters, well-defined magic systems, and even room for a long-running franchise. But the adaptation feels stuck between pushing main plot events forward and giving space to parallel subplots, and that creates a feeling that nothing is flowing as cleanly as it should. Season 1 is still somewhat forgiving, but by Season 2, just as it seemed like things might be getting corrected, the show gets cancelled. In other words, too late — especially for a Netflix series (and we all know the platform’s reputation at this point).
Basically built to be the next Game of Thrones, this one feels like a case of love and hate, since it’s also an adaptation, and that’s exactly where the main issue comes in. But what does that actually mean? The Wheel of Time is a dense fantasy saga following young people from a rural village who discover they’re connected to a prophesied figure capable of saving or destroying the world. From that point on, you’re trying to condense a massive universe into a TV structure, which is already a huge challenge. That’s why some changes are expected, but the real problem was changing significant aspects of the books.
From the start, the potential was obvious: this is a long-form story, with a complex magic system and a mythology that could sustain several seasons. But the show starts to suffer from pacing and focus that shift from season to season, without a consistent sense of direction. At times, it actually gets the tone right, and just when it feels like it’s finally understanding its own world, the cancellation hits. For viewers who haven’t read the books, it’s not necessarily a bad show, but it carries more weight for readers, who made up a large part of the audience. Maybe The Wheel of Time just needed more time — or maybe not, considering its creative choices.
In 1982, one of the most beloved fantasy movies was released, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. Years later, a prequel series was developed to expand that universe. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance focuses on the conflict between the Gelflings and the Skeksis, showing how the oppression begins and how a resistance forms. This is not about reinventing the world; the show’s entire approach is to execute an already established universe, just with an insane level of detail, both visually and narratively. And honestly, it works extremely well.
So the potential here isn’t theoretical, it’s actually on screen: you have characters with full arcs, a consistent world, and a central conflict with scale and political weight inside the universe. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, and most people who watched it loved it. So why did The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance fail? Well, did you even hear about it, or is this the first time? The audience just wasn’t big enough to sustain the production, and that turned it into yet another canceled TV show. Out of this list, it’s arguably the most painful one, because it didn’t fail creatively, but because not enough people showed up for it.
What other fantasy series do you think deserve a place on this list? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
