Nailing a new series’ pilot episode is one of the hardest feats in storytelling, and incorporating the fantasy genre only makes it more difficult. In fantasy TV, not only does the show have to establish its premise, main cast of characters, and primary source of conflict in a mere matter of minutes, but there’s also usually a hefty amount of world-building that has to be seamlessly worked into the pilot, too. Perhaps that’s why when a fantasy series has a great pilot, the show typically enjoys a long run and a devoted fanbase that endures long after it goes off the air. Here are the ten best pilots in fantasy TV, and nearly all of them have multi-season runs to show for it.
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10) Lucifer
If one thought that the Devil and network television didn’t mix, they were thoroughly proven wrong when Lucifer premiered on FOX back in 2016. Lucifer‘s pilot perfectly lifted The Sandman character from the DC comics and made him the center of his own world. Furthermore, Tom Ellis is irresistible in the lead role as the so-called Prince of Darkness, his ability to switch from effortlessly charming to a damaged, resentful son at a moment’s notice. We were already craving more after the first episode of the fantastical procedural.
9) Once Upon a Time
Fairytales have only been reimagined about a million times, which why in 2011 Once Upon a Time’s pilot felt so special. The show grounded itself in a compelling story about lost family, while also pulling off its parallel timelines and effects-heavy nature with aplomb. From the second Emma Swan and Henry Mills in Storybrooke we were riveted to the screen.
8) What We Do in the Shadows
Vampires are another monster we’ve seen countless interpretations of across media, and when What We Do in the Shadows premiered in 2019, expectations were high since the show’s source material, the movie of the same name, had become a cult classic with recognizable faces which included Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. However, the series’ cast were all so perfectly suited to their roles and incredibly funny that any comparisons to the movie and doubts the show wouldn’t work as a sitcom disappeared.
7) Good Omens
Michael Sheen and David Tennant. Need we say more? The pair of lauded British actors made an odd couple for the ages in the pilot of Good Omens back in 2019, seemingly born to play their respective parts. It was Sheen and Tenant’s onscreen banter, along with the fresh, imaginative tone surrounding the show’s apocalyptic stakes that had us hooked from there on out.
6) Kaos
Greek mythology is yet another well-trodden subgenre of fantasy, but the creativity and specificity of Charlie Covell’s Kaos was unlike anything we’d ever seen before. The Kaos pilot doesn’t tell one too much as it barrels through introducing its ensemble cast, yet the world felt so well-thought out and lived-in that we were happily along for the ride, one the Covell brilliantly connected by season’s end. Plus, Jeff Goldblum as Zeus is such inspired casting we’re still cursing its premature cancellation.
5) Supernatural
Supernatural ended up running for a mind-boggling fifteen seasons and after returning to the pilot, it’s easy to see why. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles fraternal chemistry in undeniable, and anchoring the series in their brotherhood as they face all sorts of horrifying demons is the show’s special sauce from the very start.
4) The Good Place
The Good Place was a swing for television writer Mike Schur, known for the workplace comedies The Office and Parks and Recreation. However, a woman who mistakenly finds herself in heaven, or The Good Place, brilliantly brought to life by Kristen Bell, was too juicy for us viewers to resist. The Good Place pilot is such a success because not only do we get an idea of the conflict and the characters swiftly and hilariously, Schur layers in an undercurrent of foreshadowing that makes the end of Season One’s big twist both shocking, but simultaneously, inevitable.
3) Smallville
“Superman in high school” could have gone schmaltzy or campy all too easily, but creators Al Gough and Miles Millar gave Smallville the same sort of gravitas as was evident in both the Richard Donner’s Superman and a Greek tragedy (since we know how the story ends), all without losing any of the qualities that made Clark relatable to teens in the early ’00s. The pilot of Smallville took its subject matter and its audience seriously, while providing a new insight into a character the world thought it knew, making for one of the best fantasy pilots on television ever.
2) Game of Thrones
The world of Game of Thrones is an intricate and complex one, full of characters and creatures that most of us need a chart to keep straight. Even so, the HBO pilot portrayed Westeros in all its vicious, complicated glory, while also introducing us to characters we were able to truly connect with. The pilot struck a precarious balance between salaciousness and a sense of foreboding, in turn launching the show that would become a worldwide phenomenon.
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy Sanders infused a whole lot of girl power and relatability into “the chosen one” trope when Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered in 1997. The pilot walked the tightrope between fantasy, teen drama, network comedy, and horror so well, it’s likely the reason so many other shows on this list got the green light. Even twenty-eight years later, the pacing, script, and performances of the Buffy pilot hold up.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
