The most underratedHBOfantasy show proved a harsh truth about the genre while also putting a $372 million dollar movie to shame. When it comes tofantasy shows, HBO is best known forGame of Thrones, which became a popular culture phenomenon that forever changed television and the expectations surrounding onscreen fantasy stories.
Game of Thrones' success led to HBO developing multiple spinoff series set within the universe George R.R. Martin created. In 2026 alone,House of the Dragonseason 3andA Knight of the Seven Kingdomsseason 1 are expected to be released. While these shows receive a great deal of attention, another HBO fantasy series deserves more recognition.
HBO’s His Dark Materials Put The Golden Compass Movie To Shame
The Show Is A Much Better Adaptation Of The Books
HBO’s three-season adaptation of Philip Pullman’sHis Dark Materialsnovels wasfar superior to 2007’sThe Golden Compassmovie. With a cast led by Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, and given the beloved source material,The Golden Compasshad the potential to become a hit fantasy film.
Instead, it became the2000s' biggest fantasy movie disappointmentthat failed to do the source material justice as it rushed through critical plot points and world-building and made unforgivable changes to the story. Despite making $372 million worldwide, it was also a box-office disappointment considering the $180 million budget.
Meanwhile,His Dark Materialshas perfect pacing and world-building, with each of the three seasons adapting to a different book in the trilogy. The series culminates with one offantasy TV’s best endings of all time, which is a stark contrast from the movie completely changing the first book’s conclusion.
His Dark Materials Proves That Television Is A Better Medium For Fantasy Adaptations
Fantasy Belongs On TV
His Dark Materialsis proof that fantasy is generally better-suited to television than it is to movies.A longer runtime and more serialized storytelling creates ample opportunity to explore complex worldsand to properly develop a large cast of characters in a way that is not possible in a feature film.
Fantastical elements like daemons and Dust are challenging to properly explain and bring to life inThe Golden Compassmovie, butinHis Dark Materials, there is breathing room to more organically explore these concepts. This is also true in later seasons when even more fantastical concepts, including other worlds and the Mulefa, are revealed.
Book
1
Northen Lights(published asThe Golden Compassin North America and some other countries)
2
3
The Amber Spyglass
The television format allows the audience to spend more time with the characters, allowing them to get to know and care about the characters in a way that is difficult, especially when there is an extensive cast in a movie.His Dark Materialsgives its main and supporting characters plenty of moments to shine across the three seasons.
Except for major franchises likeThe Lord of the RingsandHarry Potter,fantasy movies rarely have the runtimes or budget needed to tell their stories. Fantasy stories often take time to build, but when the first movie doesn’t perform well at the box office, sequels are canceled, and the narrative payoff never comes.
Even ifThe Golden Compasshad been a box office success, a sequel would not have worked well given how far the first movie’s ending strayed from the source material.His Dark Materialswas able to stay faithful to the booksand was afantasy show without a single bad season.
Fantasy TV Still Has A Long Way To Go In The Streaming Era
Many Fantasy Shows Have Been Prematurely Canceled
WhileHis Dark Materialsis undeniably a fantasy TV show success story,the genre has been struggling in the streaming era. AfterGame of Thrones' success, streaming services greenlit a wide range of fantasy series and hoped that some of them would become the nextGame of Thrones.
Some post-Game of Thronesfantasy shows have received critical acclaim and become streaming hits, butnone have quite reached the same level of popular culture phenomenon thatGames of Thronesdid. What is more concerning, though, is all thefantasy TV shows that have been canceled.
All of these shows were well-received and set up fascinating directions to take their stories in, but Netflix’s cancelations prevented this potential from being actualized.
Shadow and Bone,Warrior Nun,The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, andKaosare only a handful of the numerous fantasy shows that Netflix has canceled in the years sinceGame of Thrones' series finale aired. All of these shows were well-received and set up fascinating directions to take their stories in, but Netflix’s cancelations prevented this potential from being actualized.
More recently, Prime Video canceledWheel of Time. After a more mixed reception in seasons 1 and 2, the show hit its stride in season 3. This is indicative of another major issue, which is thatthe streaming service model does not reward shows that get better over time if they prove to be too expensiveor are not getting enough viewership.
In order to make fantasy shows look convincing, a large budget is often needed, but these high costs can lead streamers to deem that a show is not worth the financial cost. FromHBOto Netflix, fantasy shows need to be given time to tell their full stories the way thatHis Dark Materialswas able to do.
