Can’t wait for HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’? Try 8 near-perfect fantasy series instead

Every Harry Potter fan knows the waiting game. You finish the books, binge the films, and suddenly, it’s another long slog until the next bit of Wizarding World magic. With HBO confirming a shiny new Harry Potter TV series for 25 December 2026, the anticipation is getting a tad ridiculous. They've promised a proper, book-faithful reboot picking over all seven novels, and they've even cast Dominic McLaughlin as Harry and—brace yourself—John Lithgow as Dumbledore. Yes, the John Lithgow. Make of that what you will.

Harry Potter’s return to the small screen is officially set for Christmas Day 2026.

Obviously, even for the most committed Potterhead, December 2026 is still ages away. Anyone who loves fantasy sees the wait for what it truly is—a chance to hoover up every other TV show that might scratch that Hogwarts-shaped itch. Not every fantasy series pulls this off. You’re not going to trick yourself into thinking you’re at Hogwarts whilst tuning into something completely different, but there are a fair few shows out there that recapture various bits and pieces of the magic: the friendships, the world-building, the big character journeys, or just the general sense of fantasy comfort. Here’s my shortlist—eight series that, one way or another, fill the Harry Potter gap better than most.

Worthy Shout-outs

• Lockwood & Co. (2023): This Netflix ghost-hunting romp is basically teenagers in haunted London, juggling supernatural baddies and quippy banter. It was cancelled after just one season, so probably best for a one-and-done binge.
• Once Upon a Time (2011–2018): Disney characters with amnesia in small-town Maine. Absurd as it is, it’s got that get-lost-in-the-magic feeling—until the silliness dials up past eleven by about series five. Seven whole seasons to pick through, if you fancy it.

The Main Contenders

The Sandman (2022–2025) – Imagine a fantasy show that’s somehow even more sprawling and off-the-wall than Harry Potter—that’s Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. We’re talking gods, nightmares and immortal siblings called 'The Endless'. Tom Sturridge does his haunted stare as Morpheus, who’s been locked away for a century and now needs to fix his broken realm. It’s unique and all sorts of ambitious, but don’t expect a warm hug—this one’s darker, thematically adult, and happy to linger on the bleak stuff. If you want schoolboy camaraderie or a neatly mapped ‘chosen one’ plot, look elsewhere.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020) – Take Hogwarts, make it a whole lot more Satan-adjacent, and you’ve got Sabrina. Kiernan Shipka’s teenage witch splits time between the cursed Academy of Unseen Arts (think Hogwarts with more blood pacts and mummy issues) and a regular American high school. Imagine if every spell had proper consequences and everyone looked at you funny for eating a sandwich with your non-dominant hand—plus a talking cat, naturally. Much, much darker than Potter, and absolutely not for the ten-year-olds. But the first couple of seasons? Weirdly compelling binge material, if you’re in the mood.

The Magicians (2015–2020) – If you ever wondered what would happen if Harry and co. went to uni, discovered magic’s real, and promptly spiralled into severe adulthood, The Magicians is for you. It starts out in the classic wizard school lane—Brakebills University—but quickly pivots into trauma, addiction, monsters, multiverse mess and existential misery. It genuinely pulls off some big swings: time loops, heartbreak, magical outlandishness you absolutely don’t see coming. It’s ingenious, nervy, and often goes where Potter never would. But it's definitely not the warm, comforting kind of fantasy: things get rough.

Shadow and Bone (2021–2023) – Is there a better YA fantasy out there that Netflix rinsed through too quickly? Shadow and Bone put Jessie Mei Li front and centre as Alina, who discovers she can summon light and ends up at magical school, in tangled court power plays. The highlight is the heist-happy Crows, who somehow steal every scene they’re in. Unfortunately, Netflix axed it after two series and then binned plans for a Six of Crows spin-off, so what you get is thrilling but heartbreakingly incomplete.

Netflix pulled the plug after two seasons, leaving the Grishaverse storyline unfinished.

His Dark Materials (2019–2022) – If you’re after something a bit more serious, His Dark Materials adapts Philip Pullman’s trilogy with proper ambition. Lyra, played by Dafne Keen, gets swept up into parallel worlds, metaphysical mysteries, daemon companions, and cosmic conspiracies involving a substance called Dust. Imagine all the secret rules of Hogwarts, but with the fate of the multiverse at stake. It does get philosophical—death, religion, free will, all of it thrown in—but it’s finished, well-acted, and worth the journey if you want your fantasy with a brain.

A Discovery of Witches (2018–2022) – No magical school, but lots of libraries, ancient spellbooks and clandestine societies at Oxford. Teresa Palmer leads as Diana Bishop, historian and witch, who unknowingly sets off an age-old feud between witches, vampires, and daemons. The vibe is academic fantasy meets grown-up supernatural romance—think less Quidditch, more ‘will they, won’t they’ and centuries of backstory. Polished, nicely paced, but much more about lore and politicking than duels or monsters.

The Wheel of Time (2021–2025) – Want to trade Hogwarts’ common room for a whole world of ancient magic, prophecies and various blokes who are just wildly unprepared for any of it? The Wheel of Time is massive: Rosamund Pike does all the heavy lifting as Moiraine, guiding various youths through world-ending chaos and battles between factions. The world-building is excellent, and shows how much bigger the genre can get beyond adolescence and school corridors. Amazon did, however, cancel it in 2025 after three series thanks to costs—so, again, don’t expect a neat finale.

Merlin (2008–2012) – This is about as close as you’ll get to Potter without copyright lawyers knocking. Merlin is old-school British fantasy—young sorcerer with a secret, a future king, forbidden magic, a kindly mentor, loads of dragons and ridiculous pseudo-medieval costumes. The effects look like they were done in Paint by today’s standards, and some episodes are cheesier than a Christmas buffet, but there’s an undeniable charm. If you need a comforting fantasy adventure to bridge the Hogwarts gap, that’s your winner.