The fantasy genre is always a popular one for filmmakers to harvest from and adapt into films. Lately, we’ve also started seeing more TV shows or on-demand series taken from these fictional worlds. The success of Game of Thrones paved the way for many new and upcoming shows that promise big things. 

Today, we’re looking at some of the most popular books that have been adapted and outlining a few of the most highly anticipated film and TV adaptations. Some of the mentions on this list are coming out very soon – and may even be out by the time you’re reading this – while others are still in the works.

The Witcher Season 2

The first season of The Witcher was an absolute rollercoaster that showcased Netflix’s ability to put together a big-budget fantasy show with an impressive cast. Henry Cavill starred as Geralt from the popular Andrzej Sapkowski books, and he’s back again in December 2021. The actual premiere date is December 17, so it should be out already by the time you’re reading this. We’re excited for more action, more monsters, more potions, more spells, and to see how accurately the series reflects the books, which are brilliant if you haven’t already read them. 

Lord of the Rings

Yes, one of the biggest fantasy film franchises of all time is getting its very own series on Amazon Prime. The interesting thing about this series is that it isn’t technically based on a specific JRR Tolkein book. Instead, the Lord of the Rings series takes place before both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books. So, it’s a brand new story, but we can expect to see some characters we saw in the films and read about in the books. After all, in Middle Earth, people and elves can live for thousands of years. It’s scheduled for release in September 2022, so that gives you more than enough time to read all of JRR Tolkein’s work within this universe, brushing up on the lore behind everything. 

Dungeons and Dragons

D&D is the best-selling role-playing game of all time, so how can we really call it a fantasy book? Well, the fact remains that there are plenty of D&D books out there, many of which are used to play the game. As such, content is likely to be taken from these novels to form the basis of the movie coming in 2023. We don’t know much about it just yet, only that it features Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, and Michelle Rodriguez. Fantasy fans should be really excited about this as we’ve never really got a D&D movie or TV series, apart from some very poor movies in the early 2000s. Hopefully, this one will be a big hit. 

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Another movie adaptation that’s based on a best-selling book series yet isn’t strictly adapted from a particular book. As you’re well aware, this comes from the Harry Potter universe, and it’s hotly anticipated by fans. Albus Dumbledore was one of the most powerful wizards in the world, but we only rarely got a glimpse into his past throughout the popular book series. Sure, we dipped into a few of his memories in books 4 and 6, but we only really knew Dumbledore as the old headmaster of Hogwarts. This film looks to expand on what we’ve already seen from the first Fantastic Beasts films, giving us a backstory to Dumbledore that will surely show us how powerful a wizard he truly was. 

House of the Dragon

Was there an end to a TV show that created as much controversy as the one to Game of Thrones? For fans of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy books, much was left wanting when the show concluded a couple of years ago. It’s made worse by the fact that he still hasn’t written the final books yet, so we can’t even see how things were supposed to happen. Still, big things are expected from House of the Dragon when it airs in 2022. Matt Smith plays one of the leading roles and looks to be perfect in some of the early trailer footage. It’s a show that’s based on much of the lore found in a spin-off book called Fire and Blood, and it’s all about the Targaryen family. We’re sure that everyone involved in the show is keen to reignite the fire surrounding this fantasy world, and it’s exciting to see how things pan out. 

There you go; the most anticipated TV and film adaptations of popular fantasy book series coming to big and small screens in the coming days, months, and years. Which one are you most excited for, or are there any others that get you even more excited?

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