7 Years After Game Of Thrones, HBO Is Officially Reclaiming The Title Of King Of Fantasy TV

Although Game of Thrones was the first show to make the cable network a leading figure in the world of fantasy television, a series of ambitious 2026 projects proves that HBO truly has held onto this title in the years since. HBO has produced a diverse array of acclaimed TV shows over the decades, from Boardwalk Empire, Westworld, and The Leftovers, to Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and the City, and The Wire.

However, if the list above proves anything, it is that HBO was never historically associated with one specific genre, like sitcoms or horror. The same network that created the iconic and brutal Western series Deadwood also produced the gangster drama The Sopranos and, around the same time, light-hearted comedy shows like Flight of the Conchords, The Comeback, and Entourage. In 2011, the cable network’s reputation changed thanks to an ambitious and expensive adaptation of George RR. Martin’s cult novel series, the A Song of Ice and Fire saga.

Game of Thrones was a colossal, unprecedented hit whose success single-handedly proved that decidedly mature, R-rated fantasy shows were not only commercially viable, but an unexpectedly hot commodity. As well as spawning the direct spinoffs A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones helped create the conditions for critically acclaimed adult fantasy shows to thrive across streaming services and other networks. From Prime Video’s Critical Role shows The Mighty Nein and The Legend of Vox Machina to Netflix’s Castlevania and The Witcher, everyone wanted in on the action.

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Image courtesy of Everett Collection

Everything from Starz’s Outlander to AMC’s Interview with a Vampire proves that the adult fantasy boom is still going strong. There are countless shows vying for the eyes of viewers, and a decade and a half after HBO’s Martin adaptation originally began, big-budget shows like Fourth Wing are still hoping to recapture the massive mainstream success and global popularity of the original show. Meanwhile, every streaming service has attempted, often at great expense, to outdo each other when it comes to bigger, better, more critically acclaimed, darker, and more complex fantasy shows.

That said, HBO has not given up its title as the biggest creator in this genre. While The Legend of Vox Machina might be great, Prime Video’s cult hit has never come close to matching the mainstream success of Game of Thrones. Although AMC’s Interview with the Vampire and the post-apocalyptic action epic Into the Badlands are both critically adored, neither had the crossover appeal of the Martin adaptation, either. Even Netflix’s The Witcher franchise proved with 2025’s underwhelming spinoff, The Rats: A Witcher Tale, that the show never matched the hype of Game of Thrones.

Meanwhile, HBO is about to become an even bigger force in the genre by expanding into more family-friendly entries in the fantasy space. After the success of Disney’s small-screen Percy Jackson reboot, it should come as no surprise that HBO is producing a big-budget Harry Potter TV show scheduled for release in December 2026. The eight-episode Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is already set to be the single biggest season of TV ever, and will need to be a massive, record-breaking success just to recoup its huge budget.

Of course, this series comes with a unique set of challenges, too. Author J. K. Rowling’s public history of transphobia makes supporting the franchise a controversial and divisive topic, something that was never an issue for Martin’s earlier HBO adaptation. Meanwhile, the similarity between the original movies and early glimpses of the new series hasn’t gone unnoticed, and even prominent creators involved with the original movies, like original Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone director Chris Columbus, have questioned the wisdom of another live-action adaptation.

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Lyonel Baratheon in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

That said, this won’t pose a problem for HBO, since although Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a huge part of their upcoming output, the ambitious series is not the extent of HBO’s future fantasy offerings. With A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms renewed for two more seasons and House of the Dragon season 3 on the way, the Game of Thrones franchise itself is still going strong. However, the Baldur’s Gate 3 TV show that was announced in February 2026 has the opportunity to be even bigger.

Obviously, HBO’s risky Harry Potter show is its biggest upcoming project in the fantasy genre, and its family demographic represents a massive existential shift for a cable network that built its stellar critical reputation by offering viewers mature, unapologetically adult stories. HBO has historically been known as a distinctly grown-up entertainment giant, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone flips that on its head.

HBO’s Baldur’s Gate 3 Reinforces HBO’s Status As TV’s Biggest Fantasy Producer

Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 — Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3

However, the upcoming Baldur’s Gate 3 show proves that HBO is still going strong when it comes to more adult fantasy, even outside the Game of Thrones banner. This series, developed by Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin, is set to be another tremendously ambitious effort from the mind behind HBO’s earlier critically adored video game adaptation The Last of Us. Since 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3 is a sprawling, endlessly ambitious game, its adaptation will need to be incredibly expansive to feel like it does the game justice.

Set in the Forgotten Realms setting of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, the Baldur’s Gate video game series has been running since 1998’s PC game of the same name. However, it is 2023’s blockbuster hit Baldur’s Gate 3, widely considered to be one of the most successful video games ever made, that is receiving a screen adaptation from HBO and Mazin. Thus, if Baldur’s Gate 3 lives up to its source material, the show could spawn an entire franchise of Baldur’s Gate adaptations.

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This, in turn, could allow HBO to return to massive-scale adult fantasy shows like Game of Thrones with more releases like Baldur’s Gate 3. Simultaneously, this would also allow the cable network to challenge the success of Prime Video’s Critical Role shows, also based in the world of Dungeons and Dragons games. Thus, even over a decade after Game of Thrones first established HBO as a fantasy TV giant, the network has only grown stronger in the genre thanks to consistent investment.