Prime Video's upcoming dragon series is a fantasy project that could become one of the best dragon series of all time, and it faces a major challenge. Dragons are creatures that often appear in high fantasy books, shows, movies, and more. It makes sense, as these stories are all about exploring wondrous new worlds filled with creatures that we don't see walking around in real life.
Looking at the best fantasy shows in recent years, it is easy to see that audiences respond well to dragons. HBO's Game of Thrones franchise, the genre's biggest in terms of TV shows, thrived with its portrayal of dragons in live-action. First, Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen went on a journey to mature her dragons, then House of the Dragon brought several fire-breathing beasts to the small screen.
Prime Video's fantasy shows, thus far, have been pretty tame in terms of dragons aside from the animated The Legend of Vox Machina. Thankfully, subscribers should not have to wait too long to get one of the biggest dragon shows ever, as Prime Video has put in development a high fantasy series adapting a beloved book series.
From Westeros to Middle-Earth to the Continent · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Fantasy TV? “The night is dark and full of terrors.”
🪨Game of ThronesWinter is coming
👑Rings of PowerOne ring to rule
🗡️The WitcherToss a coin
⚢Wheel of TimeThe Pattern weaves
👻The SandmanLord of Dreams
01
HBO’s Game of Thrones — the pop-culture juggernaut that made fantasy TV prestige — premiered with the episode “Winter Is Coming.” Across eight seasons it picked up a record 59 Emmy wins. In which year did its first episode air?
✓ Correct! 2011 — April 17, to be exact. The unaired pilot was so notoriously poor (after a friends-and-family screening, novelist George R.R. Martin reportedly told showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss they had a real problem) that nearly all of it was reshot before broadcast. The retooled premiere immediately became HBO’s biggest hit since The Sopranos. The series ran 73 episodes across eight seasons through 2019.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 2011. 2009 is when the original pilot was filmed (and largely reshot). 2013 is when Season 3’s Red Wedding episode aired. 2014 is when Season 4’s “The Watchers on the Wall” reset what TV could do with effects. GoT debuted April 17, 2011.
02
Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are all adapted from the sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire universe. Name the author whose unfinished novels (the next book has been pending since 2011) underpin every adaptation.
✓ Correct! George R.R. Martin (born 1948). The first ASOIAF novel A Game of Thrones came out in 1996; the most recent in the main sequence (A Dance with Dragons) in 2011. The Winds of Winter is now over 13 years overdue. Martin has remained heavily involved in the HBO universe through House of the Dragon, the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026), and an in-development Aegon’s Conquest series.
✗ Wrong. The answer is George R.R. Martin. Brandon Sanderson is the Cosmere/Stormlight Archive author (and the writer Robert Jordan’s estate hired to finish Wheel of Time). Patrick Rothfuss is the Kingkiller Chronicle author with his own infamous-publication-delay reputation. Joe Abercrombie writes the First Law series. ASOIAF is Martin’s.
03
Netflix’s The Witcher (2019–) adapted Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels with a lead actor who’s a famously hardcore fan of the source material — he wore the white wig, did much of his own swordplay, and personally pushed back against Lauren Schmidt Hissrich’s scripts before departing after Season 3. Name him.
✓ Correct! Henry Cavill. He played Geralt of Rivia for three seasons before exiting in 2022 over creative differences with the show’s writers’ room (the books-vs-show approach being the open wound). Liam Hemsworth was announced as his replacement and takes over from Season 4 (2025). Cavill’s exit was widely treated as a major moment of fan-vs-streamer tension and contributed to the late-2022/2023 Netflix-fantasy-slate scrutiny.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Henry Cavill. Liam Hemsworth replaces him as Geralt from Season 4 (2025) onward. Aidan Turner played Kili in The Hobbit films. Sam Heughan is Outlander’s Jamie Fraser. The Witcher’s original Geralt is Henry Cavill, through Seasons 1–3.
04
House of the Dragon — the Game of Thrones prequel chronicling the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons — is set how long before the events of the original series?
✓ Correct! Approximately 200 years before A Game of Thrones (172 years before Robert’s Rebellion, more precisely). The series adapts material from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood (2018), a fictionalised in-universe history of the Targaryen dynasty. House of the Dragon premiered in August 2022, drew 9.99 million viewers across HBO’s simultaneous-platform debut and Season 2 followed in 2024 with the Battle of Rook’s Rest as its climactic setpiece.
✗ Wrong. The answer is ~200 years. The Targaryen kings featured (Viserys I, Aegon II, Rhaenyra) reign during the Dance of the Dragons (129–131 AC), which is roughly 172 years before Robert’s Rebellion in the original series. Martin’s Fire & Blood is the in-universe history that the show mines for source material.
05
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — reportedly the most expensive TV series ever made, with a five-season commitment from its streamer at well over $1 billion total budget — is set in Middle-earth’s Second Age, thousands of years before The Hobbit. Which streaming service is it on?
✓ Correct! Amazon Prime Video. Amazon paid $250 million just for the rights from the Tolkien Estate in 2017, then committed to a five-season run with reported per-season budgets of $400–$465 million on Season 1 alone. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay were given access to the appendices of The Lord of the Rings (specifically the Second Age material) but not The Silmarillion proper, leading to many adaptation choices that have divided Tolkien purists.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Amazon Prime Video. Netflix has The Witcher and Sandman. HBO Max has Game of Thrones and HotD. Apple TV+ has Foundation. Rings of Power is Amazon’s flagship original drama and reportedly its single biggest production-budget bet.
06
Amazon’s The Wheel of Time (2021–) is adapted from a 14-novel epic fantasy series running from 1990 to 2013. The series’ original author died in 2007 after completing only 11 of the planned books; Brandon Sanderson was hired by the estate to finish the final three. Who was the original author?
✓ Correct! Robert Jordan — pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr. He started The Wheel of Time in 1990 with The Eye of the World and worked on the series for 17 years before dying of cardiac amyloidosis in 2007 with three books left to go. His widow Harriet McDougal hired Brandon Sanderson, then a young Mistborn-era novelist, on the strength of a eulogy he wrote for Jordan; Sanderson finished the series across The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney Jr.). Terry Brooks wrote the Shannara saga. Raymond E. Feist wrote the Riftwar Saga. Terry Pratchett wrote the Discworld series. The Wheel of Time is Jordan’s, with Brandon Sanderson finishing the last three books from his notes.
07
Netflix’s The Sandman (2022–) adapts a beloved 75-issue DC/Vertigo comic that ran 1989–96 about Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and his troubled siblings — the Endless. Whose comics is the show based on?
✓ Correct! Neil Gaiman. The 75-issue Sandman ran at DC’s mature-readers Vertigo imprint from 1989 to 1996 (with later spinoffs Sandman: Overture, etc.) and is widely cited alongside Watchmen and Maus as proof of comics’ literary potential. Gaiman’s direct involvement was central to the Netflix show’s development. Note that ongoing public controversies around Gaiman from 2024 onward have shaped the show’s future and Season 2’s framing.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Neil Gaiman. Alan Moore wrote Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. Grant Morrison wrote Doom Patrol, The Invisibles and All-Star Superman. Mike Mignola is the creator of Hellboy. Sandman is Gaiman’s.
08
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone (2021–23) wove together the Shadow and Bone trilogy (Alina Starkov, the Sun Summoner) with the Six of Crows duology (Kaz Brekker’s Crows heist crew). Both source novel series are set in the same imagined Tsarist-Russia-coded fantasy world. Whose books are they?
✓ Correct! Leigh Bardugo. Her Grishaverse spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy (2012–14), the Six of Crows duology (2015–16), the King of Scars duology (2019–21) and various short fiction. Netflix’s adaptation merged plotlines from the two main series simultaneously and was cancelled after two seasons in 2023, with a Six of Crows-focused spinoff that had been in development at one point also abandoned.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Leigh Bardugo. Sarah J. Maas writes the Throne of Glass and ACOTAR series (the latter has a Hulu show in development). Cassandra Clare writes the Shadowhunters Chronicles (which also got a TV adaptation, on Freeform 2016–19). Marie Lu writes Legend and Warcross. The Grishaverse is Leigh Bardugo’s.
The Maester’s Verdict · Final Tally Your Realm Standing
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Lord of the Realm — or smallfolk in the keep?
The show in question is Fourth Wing, which will adapt Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean novels. At the time of writing, not much has been revealed about what the live-action dragon series will entail. That said, it is clear that for the Prime Video fantasy series to be successful, it will have to face a major challenge.
Prime Video's Fourth Wing Series Has To Live Up To A Beloved Franchise
A close crop of The Fourth Wing book cover
Much like how the Game of Thrones franchise has had to adapt George R. R. Martin's novels to divisive results, as the original fantasy series started on the right foot and was derailed after the source material was surpassed, while House of the Dragon chose to deviate from the books for certain events, Prime Video's Fourth Wing will inevitably be judged by how it lives up to Yarros' Empyrean novels. The bar for the show is set high. On Goodreads, Fourth Wing currently stands at a high 4.56 score based on nearly 4 million ratings.
Prime Video's New High Fantasy Live-Action Dragon Series Is Off To A Great Start
Prime Video's new live-action dragon series is off to a great start after a major actor update, as the ambitious show could nail its crucial casting.
For comparison, none of Martin's individual Game of Thrones novels — from the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise — rank higher than Yarros' Fourth Wing on the platform. The fantasy franchise's highest-rated book is A Storm of Swords, coming in close at 4.55 with 860 thousand ratings. It is easy to see that Fourth Wing is not just another novel, but one of the fantasy genre's most beloved releases. The series' exciting elements include its depiction of a world filled with dragons and a unique bond between dragon riders and their beasts, which gives them magic abilities. That needs to look good in live-action.
How Prime Video's Fourth Wing Series Shows Signs That It Will Succeed
Fanart of Mira Sorrengail and her dragon Teine from Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Fanart by @artworks_by_rokii
Ahead of Prime Video's Fourth Wing series, the first signs that the upcoming fantasy show will be a success come from the creatives involved. Moira Walley-Beckett will serve as the showrunner of Prime Video's Fourth Wing, and her credentials include being the creator of Anne with an E and the writer of multiple episodes of Breaking Bad. Among its executive producers, Fourth Wing has united names like the Best Actor Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan and the co-creators of HBO's Westworld, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan. Joy will also direct the first episode of the upcoming fantasy series.
Now, it stands to be seen if all that talent behind the scenes will be matched by the right casting choices for important Fourth Wing characters like Violet Sorrengail, Xaden Riorson, Dain Aetos, and more. That said, given the track record of the show's executive producers, I feel confident that Fourth Wing will rise to meet its challenge and become one of the best high fantasy series on streaming, and I can't wait for the first look at the dragons.
