The 4 Best Franchise TV Shows of the Past Year Show What the Future Needs To Look Like (but There’s a Catch)

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Shows like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad really elevated television, making it feel as cinematic as a movie experience. The writing, acting, and overall production quality were significantly better than typical TV shows. Now, years later, we’re seeing popular franchises expand their stories through television. While some shows stay true to the original source material, the most successful ones take bold, creative risks and explore entirely new directions.

We’re living in an era dominated by streaming services, and also one heavily influenced by nostalgia. This often means studios focus on familiar stories to appeal to audiences. Luckily, shows like Alien: Earth, Wonder Man, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and Star Wars: Andor provided some of the best television in 2025 and early 2026. Now, the key question is: how did viewers actually react to these shows?

How Many People Watched These Shows?

While House of the Dragon has a different feel than Game of Thrones, and centers primarily on the Targaryen family, it still covers more ground than A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is even more focused, telling the story almost entirely through the eyes of one character, Ser Duncan the Tall. It’s not surprising that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms hasn’t generated as much discussion, as House of the Dragon was the first spin-off series from the hugely popular Thrones.

The show’s initial viewership reached 6.7 million across HBO and HBO Max in its first three days, suggesting continued interest. However, this is a significant decrease from the 9.99 million viewers who tuned in for the first day of House of the Dragon. It remains to be seen whether this new show will maintain its audience, or if numbers will fall as they did for House of the Dragon after the first couple of episodes.

Similar to Netflix, Disney+ doesn’t often share how many people watch its shows, making direct comparisons difficult. While shows like Loki and WandaVision generated a lot of online buzz, Wonder Man hasn’t reached the same level of conversation. This is a shame, as Wonder Man is one of the strongest Marvel series Disney+ has produced. However, it’s worth noting that viewership for Disney+ shows, both Star Wars and Marvel, has generally been declining over the past six years, except for occasional hits like Season 3 of The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan.

Honestly, Andor is the show that really changed things for Star Wars on Disney+. While The Mandalorian definitely had a bigger initial splash, Andor proved that amazing word-of-mouth can totally turn things around. It didn’t have as much pre-release buzz, but everything I heard about it was incredibly positive – and it lived up to the hype!

While Season 2 of the show saw increasing viewership and even became the most-watched debut of final episodes for any streaming service, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it still didn’t reach the overall numbers of other Disney+ Star Wars series. Despite being arguably Disney+’s best show, Andor was less popular than all three seasons of The Mandalorian, the lackluster Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. This demonstrates that high quality doesn’t always equal high viewership.

Finally, let’s talk about Alien: Earth. It’s tough to compare this show to others because it was the first of its kind – there hadn’t been a TV series about Xenomorphs or Yautja before. While it didn’t attract as many viewers as hits like Andor or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it wasn’t a flop either. It started with 0.589 million viewers and ended its first season with 0.469 million – enough to earn a second season.

As a critic, I’ve been thinking about the trajectory of Noah Hawley’s adaptations, and the recent Earth season really highlights a pattern. Looking back at Fargo, it’s striking – not a single episode in its first four seasons ever dipped as low in viewership as Earth did. I think the core issue with this latest season is that Fargo Seasons 3 and 4, while good, stretched their stories too thin. They didn’t consistently offer enough compelling content to justify the length, and ultimately, I believe that led to audience fatigue. People simply stopped watching, and that hurt the fifth season’s performance.

The first episode of Alien immediately signaled a bold new direction for the franchise, and it definitely delivered on that promise. However, even with a second season on the way, it’s unlikely to have the longevity of Fargo. While the show is well-made and intellectually stimulating, its unconventional and ambitious storytelling tends to lose audiences over time rather than attract new ones.

Similar to how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Wonder Man, and Andor all found success by focusing on character and avoiding typical superhero tropes, Alien: Earth deserves praise for revitalizing a familiar story. In an era of reboots and sequels that try to be both, these fresh takes are exactly what audiences want – and they need more viewers to support them.

Which of these four shows do you like best? Share your thoughts in the comments and discuss it with other fans on the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-02-09 00:13