Shows Like
Shows Like Game of Thrones: Fantasy, Politics and Scale
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
Game of Thrones ran eight seasons and seventy three episodes on HBO between 2011 and 2019, and the ending is still the loudest argument in television. Whatever you thought of it, the thing you're trying to replace is specific: a world with real geography, a cast big enough that anybody can die, and the sense that politics has consequences a sword cannot fix.
Almost nothing does all of that. So the honest way to answer this is to split it. Some shows give you the scale and the fantasy. Some give you the succession politics with no magic at all. A few give you the sheer size. Pick the lane first, then the show. If what you specifically want is more Westeros, the Targaryen line is covered in our House of the Dragon companion piece and this list deliberately stays out of that territory.
Fantasy at scale
The Witcher (Netflix, 2019 to present, four seasons, thirty two episodes) is the most direct attempt at the throne Game of Thrones left empty: a monster hunter, a sorceress and a princess with a bloodline everyone wants, on a continent full of politics. Henry Cavill played Geralt through three seasons and Liam Hemsworth took over for the fourth, which is a real adjustment. The first season's scrambled timeline confuses almost everybody, so know going in that three storylines are running years apart.
The Wheel of Time (Prime Video, 2021 to 2025, three seasons, twenty four episodes) adapts Robert Jordan's fourteen novels with Rosamund Pike as the woman recruiting five villagers because one of them is prophesied to break the world. The third season is a significant step up in confidence and it's the one people point to. Amazon ended it there, so this is an incomplete adaptation of an enormous story, which is the deal breaker for some readers.
His Dark Materials (BBC One and HBO, 2019 to 2022, three seasons) covers Philip Pullman's trilogy properly, which the 2007 film did not. It has the parallel worlds, an authoritarian church, armoured bears, and a genuinely complete ending across three seasons. It's aimed younger than Game of Thrones and it is much kinder to its characters. That's either the appeal or the problem.
The same brutality, no magic
Vikings (History, 2013 to 2021, six seasons, eighty nine episodes) starts with Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok raiding west and turns into a multi-generational saga about his sons falling out. It's the biggest time investment on this page and the closest to Game of Thrones's structure of a family splintering across a map. The later seasons drift after Fimmel leaves, which is worth knowing before you start eighty nine episodes.
The Last Kingdom (Netflix, five seasons, 2015 to 2022, forty six episodes, closed out by the 2023 film Seven Kings Must Die) follows a Saxon boy raised by Danes as Alfred tries to make England out of four kingdoms. Bernard Cornwell's novels are the source and the show is unusually good at making treaties feel dangerous. It's tighter than Vikings, better written, and it actually finishes. This is the pick for most people leaving Westeros.
Black Sails (Starz, 2014 to 2017, four seasons, thirty eight episodes) is a prequel to Treasure Island and it is far smarter than that premise suggests. Captain Flint is running a pirate republic in Nassau as an actual political project, and the show is about what it costs to build a state outside empire. The first season is slow. Season two contains the single best episode any of these shows produced. Stay for it.
Deadwood (HBO, 2004 to 2006, three seasons, thirty six episodes, with a 2019 film finishing it) is David Milch putting a lawless mining camp together into a town, one negotiation at a time, in dialogue that scans like Shakespeare and swears like a docker. Ian McShane's Al Swearengen is the best Littlefinger there has ever been. No dragons, no armies, just a saloon and a rigged election.
The politics without the swords
Succession (HBO, 2018 to 2023, four seasons, thirty nine episodes) is the same story in private jets. An ageing patriarch will not name an heir, four children destroy each other for the position, and every conversation is a manoeuvre. If the parts of Game of Thrones you rewatch are the small council and the Purple Wedding rather than the battles, this is a straight upgrade. It's also very funny, which Westeros rarely was.
Outlander (Starz, 2014 to 2026, eight seasons) ran to a proper conclusion in May 2026, moving a Second World War nurse into the Jacobite rising of 1745 and then across an ocean. It has the historical weight, the political stakes and considerably more romance than Game of Thrones ever offered. A prequel, Blood of My Blood, ran its first season on Starz in 2025 and returns for a second on September 18, 2026. Start here if the Jon and Ygritte register was your favorite part.
Britannia (Sky Atlantic, 2018 to 2021, three seasons) drops the Roman invasion of 43 AD into a landscape of warring Celtic tribes and hallucinating druids, and it is genuinely bizarre. It is nothing like prestige television. Try one episode. You will know inside twenty minutes.
How to choose tonight
If you want the safest bet, The Last Kingdom. If you want the writing, Deadwood or Succession. If you want fantasy specifically, The Witcher, and accept the timeline. If you want to disappear into something enormous, Vikings. Where each of these streams changes; the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
If you'd rather skip the auditioning, our TV recommendation tool takes a few shows you already rate and returns picks with a reason for each and where they stream.
Topics covered: game-of-thrones, fantasy, epic, drama
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.