5 Sci-Fi Franchises That Are Officially Better Than Star Wars

Image via Lucasfilm Ltd. Published Sep 5, 2026, 6:05 AM EDT Marcel is a writer who is passionate about most movies and series. He will watch anything that's good. He is a content manager by day and a videographer when needed. Marcel used to work at a major streaming service based in Asia Pacific as a Content Specialist and was the Distribution Manager for a local movie distribution company. Sign in to your Collider account Few science-fiction franchises have had the cultural impact of Star Wars. Since the original film was released in 1977, it has become one of the most recognizable franchises in popular culture. It influences everything from filmmaking and CGI technology to toys and merchandising. The franchise grew even larger after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and opened the floodgates to more Star Wars stories. But cultural impact and sheer popularity do not automatically make something the best, especially if you look at the franchise as a whole. Here, we take a look at the select franchises that are better than Star Wars. It may sound impossible, but these franchises excel in areas where Star Wars has sometimes struggled, from storytelling expansion to tackling more sophisticated ideas. What's interesting about these franchises is that there are some mutual names involved, and they either created these franchises or energized them for the new generation. Star Wars may remain the king of sci-fi, but these are the franchises that can legitimately challenge its throne. 1 'Blade Runner' (1982–Present) Image via Warner Bros. Pictures Directed by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a weary blade runner tasked with hunting down escaped replicants in a dystopian future. Denis Villeneuve followed it up decades later with Blade Runner 2049. The sequel expands that universe, now following replicant officer K (Ryan Gosling) as he uncovers a secret that could change the relationship between humans and artificial beings. Across both films, the franchise has built one of science fiction's richest visions of the future, and also one of the most influential. The Blade Runner franchise may be small compared with Star Wars, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in ambition and consistency. It combines noir detective fiction, breathtaking production design, and deeply philosophical storytelling. Blade Runner 2049 is particularly impressive because it manages to expand the mythology while preserving the mood and intellectual seriousness of the original, something Star Wars has struggled to maintain across its increasingly sprawling canon, especially after Disney's acquisition. The true test of the franchise will be its first series, Blade Runner 2099, led by Hunter Schafer. 2 'Avatar' (2009–Present) Image via Disney James Cameron's Avatar franchise began in 2009 with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine who travels to Pandora and operates an artificially grown Na'vi body as part of a scientific expedition. Also working to gather intelligence for a corporation seeking Pandora's resources, Jake gradually becomes immersed in Na'vi society and falls in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). He becomes a key figure in the tribe and has a big family, as seen in the sequels. Star Wars was revolutionary for its technological advancements. However, those advancements seemed to slow down after the prequel series. The franchise adopted a retro look to replicate the original trilogy that became a standard for the subsequent entries. Avatar, however, is simply breathtaking in its world-building and pioneering new tech, such as motion capture and CGI. Cameron created an ecosystem in which the geography, animals, plants, and cultures of Pandora all feel interconnected. The films also use their spectacular visuals to reinforce their themes of environmental exploitation, colonialism, and humanity's relationship with nature. Cameron's commitment to pushing visual-effects technology has also allowed the franchise to repeatedly redefine what audiences consider possible in blockbuster filmmaking. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 3 'Alien' (1979–Present) Image via 20th Century Studios The Alien franchise began as a horror film in which the crew of the spaceship fights for survival as a deadly alien is loose aboard their vessel. The sequel amps up the action while still focusing on Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). The recent films vary from horror space-adventure to survival horror, with the most recent one, Alien: Romulus, taking on a smaller-scale approach but still delivering the usual thrills of the franchise. Alien is almost as old as Star Wars, but the fact that this franchise can reinvent itself without losing its identity edges out the franchise set in a galaxy far, far away. Alien, Aliens, and even Alien 3 are radically different films, yet all feel unmistakably part of the same universe. Prometheus injects a new thematic core to the franchise. While the result may be mixed, it is a brave step. Its first series, Alien: Earth, expands the franchise's storytelling scope. At its best, the franchise combines groundbreaking creature design, atmosphere, practical effects, memorable characters, and genuinely mature science-fiction ideas. 4 'The Matrix' (1999–2021) Image via Warner Bros. The Matrix follows Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), a computer programmer and hacker known as Neo, who discovers that the world he knows is actually a simulated reality created by machines that have enslaved humanity. Guided by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Neo joins the resistance and fulfills the prophecy as The One. The Matrix Resurrections revisits Neo's story but also subverts expectations by delivering a critique of nostalgia. In some respects, The Matrix is an obvious franchise on this list to argue that it is better than Star Wars. Its central concept remains extraordinarily focused, and it's always pushing the limits of filmmaking. Its central premise is undeniably ambitious and cerebral, questioning reality, identity, and control. The original film, in particular, is almost perfectly constructed as a blockbuster, and the sequels go even bigger. Even the animated spin-off, The Animatrix, is a respectable entry that captures the spirit and themes of the movies. Its influence on popular culture and action filmmaking is simply enormous. Star Wars may have the larger universe and greater longevity, but The Matrix arguably has the stronger philosophical foundation and themes. 5 'Dune' (2021–Present) Image via Warner Bros. Frank Herbert's Dune has always been one of science fiction's most ambitious stories. The book is a dense, sprawling story of politics, religion, and power. After several ambitious adaptations, Denis Villeneuve's Dune films finally demonstrated what the material could accomplish. The story follows Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), whose family is given control of the desert planet Arrakis. After the family's downfall, he follows the path laid for him as Lisan Al-Gaib. It is no secret now that Star Wars borrows heavily from Dune. It's just unfortunate that Dune wasn't adapted first into a film. While David Lynch's version has its supporters, Villeneuve's films have put the title back on the map. The film's success has won new devoted viewers. The films are huge in scale, and they are also ambitious in their storytelling. Star Wars remains more accessible and arguably more fun, but Dune offers a more sophisticated look at power and heroism. With its star-studded cast, the films are simply unmissable and have even spurred a respectable spin-off series, Dune: Prophecy. The end of the saga, Dune: Part Three, will arrive this December. Dune Release Date September 15, 2021 Runtime 155 minutes A noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.