Prime Video’s Upcoming Fantasy Series Will Officially Start a New Era

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Prime Video is about to herald a new age of fantasy TV. When it comes to the small screen, the genre has largely been shaped by Game of Thrones. That led to a boom in fantasy adaptations, most of which attempted to capture the same kind of epic feel as that series, from The Witcher on Netflix to HBO’s own GOT spinoff, House of the Dragon. Prime Video has had several of its own as well, most notably the now-cancelled The Wheel of Time, and The Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power, which will return for a third season later this year.

Those kinds of shows will obviously continue, even if not quite at the same pace as the expansion in the 2010s and early part of the 2020s (Prime Video has a major God of War adaptation lined up, for example), but a bigger shift is coming. Perhaps the dominant trend in the genre in terms of books this decade has been the rise of Romantasy, the combination of, you guessed it, romance and fantasy.

Romantasy novels – often featuring classic themes like enemies-to-lovers and fantastical creatures like dragons and faeries – are now a huge success. Fueled by popularity on BookTok, these books generated $610 million in sales in 2024 (according to Bloomberg). In 2025, Onyx Storm, the third book in Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean Series (also known as Fourth Wing), became the best-selling adult novel in two decades, selling nearly three million copies in its first week (as reported by The New York Times). The series is set at Basgiath War College, where students specialize as Infantry, Healers, Scribes, or Dragon Riders. It centers on Violet Sorrengail, who becomes a Rider and finds herself caught up in a far more dangerous journey than she expected.

Prime Video’s Fourth Wing Series Will Truly Begin Hollywood’s Romantasy Obsession

Prime Video knows how to capitalize on a trend, as seen with one of 2026’s biggest hits so far, Off Campus, which builds on the success of Heated Rivalry. Those themselves stem from publishing – both are based on book series, and hockey romances have similarly been massive in the past couple of years (even in the UK, it’s driven crowds of women to local ice hockey games, a friend of mine very much among them). And Romantasy is even bigger, and plays even broader (as a longtime fantasy fan, I think Fourth Wing is very good fun, and never underestimate the appeal of sex+dragons to audiences).

For a while now, streaming services have been competing to adapt popular fantasy romance novels – a trend often called the ‘Romantasy arms race’. Hulu initially seemed to be winning when they secured the rights to Sarah J. Maas’s breakout hit, A Court of Thorns and Roses, back in 2021. Unfortunately, the series never moved forward and the rights have returned to Maas. Now, Netflix is making its own moves, including a significant deal for Quicksilver, the first book in Callie Hart’s Fae & Alchemy series. It’s still unknown whether Quicksilver will be adapted as a movie or a TV show.

Everyone is especially excited about the adaptation of Fourth Wing, and development is moving along well. With Michael B. Jordan as an executive producer and the author, Rebecca Yarros, heavily involved, it’s a promising sign – many fantasy adaptations fail when they stray too far from the original books and don’t include the author. While there’s no news on casting or a release date yet – possibly around 2028 – it’s expected to be a huge success. It already has a dedicated fanbase, broad appeal, will likely have a large budget and be visually impressive, and could potentially run for five seasons, matching the five books in the series.

As a total movie and TV buff, I’ve noticed how quickly things catch on, especially when it comes to genres like fantasy. We saw it with Game of Thrones – everyone started looking for other epic fantasy books to turn into shows. Before that, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings did the same thing. Now, I think Fourth Wing is going to be that next big thing, truly kicking off a new wave of fantasy adaptations – not just on TV, but in movies too, I’m sure of it.

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2026-06-09 21:10