Michael B. Jordan's New Fantasy Series On Prime Video Is The Start Of An Era

Image via MovieStillsDB Published Sep 18, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Prime Video fantasy show Michael B. Jordan is producing will launch a new era for the genre. Since Game of Thrones' immense success on HBO in the 2010s, streamers have fallen over themselves to find the next major high fantasy franchise. Shows like The Wheel of Time, The Witcher, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and HBO's Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, have redefined what a small-screen fantasy show can be. The scopes (and budgets) for these projects are bigger than ever. Of course, the fantasy genre includes numerous subgenres, each with its own set of themes, archetypes, and narrative guidelines. Contemporary fantasy, high fantasy, cozy fantasy, portal fantasy, dystopian fantasy, science fantasy, epic fantasy, gothic fantasy, horror fantasy — there's truly something for everyone in this genre. However, over the last few years, one fantasy subgenre in particular has exploded in publishing, and Hollywood is finally catching up. Romantic fantasy, now better known as "romantasy," is one of the fastest-growing niches in the book space, with authors like Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, Callie Hart, and more dominating sales charts and public conversation. Maas alone has sold over 75 million copies of her books across three separate (interconnected) series. Meanwhile, Yarros' Onyx Storm, the latest in her dragon-centric, wartime romantasy Empyrean saga, was the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years upon its January 2025 publication (via The New York Times). Hollywood's desire to cash in on this fantasy trend is understandable. Michael B. Jordan's (through his production company, Outlier Society) and Prime Video's big romantasy adaptation project, Fourth Wing, will set the tone for a new era in the genre, as fans will get to watch dragon riders Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson join rebellions, fight dangerous dark magic wielders, and, most importantly, fall in love. Michael B. Jordan's Fourth Wing Series Is One Of The First Major Romantasy Book Adaptations Custom image by Yeider Chacon. In development since 2023, the Fourth Wing TV adaptation produced by Amazon MGM and Michael B. Jordan is one of Hollywood's most anticipated fantasy projects. Based on Rebecca Yarros' epic, high-fantasy Empyrean series, Amazon officially announced the show was ordered to series at this year's Amazon Upfront showcase. This was a big moment for the adaptation, which has undergone numerous behind-the-scenes transitions, including a change in showrunner since the project was first revealed three years ago. It was also a big moment for romantasy as a whole. Now that the show is officially in the works, Fourth Wing is on track to be one of the first major high-profile romantasy book adaptations, especially after Hulu's adaptation of Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series failed to get off the ground. While other romantic fantasy shows and movies exist, even recently, including Prime Video's My Lady Jane and Netflix's Shadow and Bone, both were sadly canceled after one or two seasons, failing to find the necessary audience. 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 UNROLL THE SCROLL → 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? A2009 B2011 C2013 D2014 ✓ 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. NEXT → 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. ABrandon Sanderson BGeorge R.R. Martin CPatrick Rothfuss DJoe Abercrombie ✓ 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. NEXT → 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. AHenry Cavill BLiam Hemsworth CAidan Turner DSam Heughan ✓ 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. NEXT → 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? A~50 years B~100 years C~200 years D~500 years ✓ 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. NEXT → 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? ANetflix BHBO Max CAmazon Prime Video DApple TV+ ✓ 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. NEXT → 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? ARobert Jordan BTerry Brooks CRaymond E. Feist DTerry Pratchett ✓ 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. NEXT → 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? AAlan Moore BGrant Morrison CNeil Gaiman DMike Mignola ✓ 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. NEXT → 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? ASarah J. Maas BLeigh Bardugo CCassandra Clare DMarie Lu ✓ 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. REVEAL MY RATING → The Maester’s Verdict · Final Tally Your Realm Standing 🪨 / 8 Lord of the Realm — or smallfolk in the keep? ⤴ ANOTHER RAVEN Perhaps both shows were just too ahead of their time, premiering before publishing's romantasy boom could bleed over into Hollywood. Still, neither show's source material was ever as massive as Fourth Wing and its sequels. If Prime Video gets this right — the cast will be a big deal, particularly for Violet and Xaden's characters — there's little doubt other streamers, networks, and studios will follow in its footsteps. Some have already started preparing, with Netflix paying an immense seven-figure sum for the movie rights to Callie Hart's bestselling novel, Quicksilver, Starz working on Lauren Palphrey's The Wolf King, and Sony developing Jennifer L. Armentrout's From Blood and Ash. Even Prime is working on multiple romantasy and romantasy-adjacent adaptations alongside Fourth Wing, including Lauren Roberts' YA romantasy trilogy, Powerless, and R.F. Kuang's dark academia fantasy, Katabasis. Romantasy Adaptations Could Be The Next Major Subgenre, Bigger Than YA And Zombies Custom Image by Amanda Mullen One reason fantasy adaptations (of any kind) remain such a popular prospect, despite their often hefty price tags, is the genre's built-in fanbase. Readers and communities who love these series and worlds are almost guaranteed to try their adaptations. Of course, these adaptations need to tread carefully between honoring the source material and making the story work in a wholly different format, but the love for these stories is real. Viewers are passionate. They care about what happens to their favorite characters. Romantasy is no different. This subgenre has dominated online spaces like BookTok and Bookstagram for years. There's fan art. Fanfiction. It arguably has more reach than other major trending genres in the 21st century, including dystopian YA, which dominated publishing and the theatrical landscape in the 2000s and 2010s with franchises like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent, or even evergreen themes like vampires and zombies. This isn't the same as the hype for Stephanie Meyer's Twilight or the early days of The Walking Dead. The fervor in those fandoms was very specifically related to those productions; nothing else really came close. While Fourth Wing is an undeniable outlier, it isn't the only major romantasy title. This is a genuine lasting movement. Romance and romantasy-only bookstores have even started popping up in the US and the UK. It helps, of course, that romantasy combines two of fiction's most popular genres; fantasy has always been widely read, and romance has consistently and quietly been the backbone of the publishing industry for decades. What's great about these books, however, is that, despite their focus on romance, they, like the fantasy genre as a whole, have something for everyone. War, politics, intricate magic systems, complex world-building, epic battles, massive dragons. It's all there. The romantic angle doesn't detract from those aspects, and no adaptation is better positioned to showcase all that romantasy has to offer than Prime Video's, Michael B. Jordan's, and Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing. Network Prime Video Showrunner Meredith Averill Directors Lisa Joy Creator(s) Meredith Averill, Rebecca Yarros