There’s only one season left of “House of the Dragon,” HBO’s hit “Game of Thrones” spin-off, but it won’t be coming for a while; after all, the special effects required to bring all those dragons to life take a long time to pull off. Luckily, in the meantime, there are plenty of other shows like “House of the Dragon” out there.
Not all of them are fantasy shows — in fact, most of them aren’t. And while there’s no series (except for maybe “Game of Thrones”) that perfectly replicates everything that audiences might love about “House of the Dragon,” the following five shows have aspects that fans will love, including palace intrigue, sweeping, epic storylines, and even some dragon-based action.
What you won’t find on this list is “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which aired its first season on HBO earlier this year. Obviously, if you liked one “Game of Thrones” spin-off, you’ll probably like the other one, too — even if “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is a much more low-key Westeros adventure than the two other adaptations of George R.R. Martin’s stories.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
When HBO premiered “House of the Dragon” two weeks before Prime Video was set to debut its very, very expensive “Lord of the Rings” prequel series, George R.R. Martin didn’t see the point in comparing them. “We’re not even on the same night!” he told The Hollywood Reporter. But of course two blockbuster fantasy series that came out the same summer were going to be positioned against each other. Four years later, it seems that “House of the Dragon” may have won the battle, as the reviews, ratings, and audience enthusiasm for the “Game of Thrones” spin-off are generally higher than its supposed rival, though it’s hard to make a perfect comparison.
And yet the sheer scale of “The Rings of the Power” makes it the only other ongoing series that exists in the same class as “House of the Dragon.” Set thousands of years before the events of “The Lord of the Rings,” the show follows the rise of Sauron as he crafts the titular Rings of Power, nearly bringing all of Middle-earth under his thrall. The high-fantasy nature of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation can make some of the characters in “The Rings of Power” a little harder to relate to than those in “House of the Dragon,” but there’s a heartfelt sense of emotion underlying the series and epic battles that, frankly, might just eclipse anything you’ll see on the HBO show. And with the third season set to premiere in November, it’s a great time to let Middle-earth’s Second Age fill the void left by the Dance of the Dragons.
The Expanse
The elevator pitch for “The Expanse,” which premiered on Syfy before finishing its run on Prime Video, is basically this: “What if ‘Game of Thrones’ was science fiction instead of fantasy?” Based on the book series by James S. A. Corey — a pen name for the author duo of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the former of whom actually worked with George R. R. Martin many times – “The Expanse” is set in a future in which mankind has colonized the solar system. There are three main factions: Earth, the militaristic Mars, and a consortium in the asteroid belt where a lot of mining takes place.
The action in the first season kicks off when a potential extraterrestrial biohazard threatens to send the solar system into absolute chaos. Characters who hail from all three factions find themselves aboard an advanced spaceship, where they become major players in the events that follow. With memorable characters, complex world-building, and some incredible action set pieces, “The Expanse” is perhaps the best possible Westeros substitute for those who don’t mind a change of genre.
Shōgun
The drama darling at the 2024 Emmys, FX’s “Shōgun,” might actually have more scheming over a throne than “House of the Dragon” — which is saying something. And, unlike “House of the Dragon,” it doesn’t have any giant CGI dragons in its back pocket. While there are a few exciting action set pieces, the most thrills come from the show’s take on Japanese palace intrigue; feudal honor shaped the country’s politics in a way that was so cutthroat that you almost didn’t need the literal cutting of throats.
An adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel, which had already been adapted into a hit miniseries in 1980, “Shōgun” tells the story of John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), an Englishman who finds himself held captive in an isolationist Japan. He becomes a part of Lord Yoshii Toranaga’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) machinations for power and develops a complex relationship with Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai). Considered by many to be one of the best historical TV dramas of all time, “Shōgun” was originally conceived as a limited miniseries — but, excitingly, a second season is now on the way.
The Legend of Vox Machina
“House of the Dragon” has plenty of moments of humor and levity, but it’s a fairly serious show overall. The same can’t be said about Prime Video’s “The Legend of Vox Machina,” an animated adaptation of a “Dungeons & Dragons” campaign originally played out in the actual-play web series “Critical Role.” The players, all professional voice actors, return for the cartoon take on their fantasy adventure, which streamlines hundreds of hours of gameplay into a more concise, but still expansive, story. There’s gross-out humor, egregious cursing, and crude gags galore, just like in the original “D&D” campaign — but the show also carries over the deeply developed characters, detailed worldbuilding, and high-stakes action.
The first seasons of “The Legend of Vox Machina” follow Vox Machina, a team of adventurers for hire, as they find themselves standing up against an alliance of dragons that threatens the entire realm of Exandria. The fights against the dragons are as thrilling as anything on “House of the Dragon,” though you’ll be able to tell the difference; only one of the two shows has a character go inside a dragon’s butt to fight it from the inside. In addition to “The Legend of Vox Machina,” the second “Critical Role” campaign has also been adapted as a Prime Video animated series. Season 1 of “The Mighty Nein” premiered in 2025.
Andor
“Star Wars” is obviously part of the science fantasy genre, but one of the most impressive things about “Andor,” the most ambitious and complex entry in the entire franchise, is how effectively it transcends its setting.
A prequel to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (which was itself a prequel to “A New Hope,”) “Andor” tells the story of how Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) became a spy for the nascent Rebel Alliance. More than that, “Andor” is a series about how resistance emerges among the oppressed, and how fascism tries to maintain its tenuous grip on power. The show is full of intrigue, factionalism, and secret scheming, most of which frankly outdoes “House of the Dragon” in complexity and meaning. If you like those tense scenes in “House of the Dragon” where characters debate strategy and the nature of power, you’ll love “Andor.”
At the same time, it’s worth remembering that “Andor” is a “Star Wars” show through and through, with all the space-opera action that comes with that. As such, there are several incredibly exciting sequences over the course of the two incredible seasons, which should placate anyone who’s missing the thrill-a-minute battle sequences of “House of the Dragon.”
