Forget The Wheel Of Time, Prime Video's Better High Fantasy Show Returns In 2 Months

Sep 17, 2026 - 01:09

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Forget The Wheel Of Time, Prime Video's Better High Fantasy Show Returns In 2 Months

Published Sep 16, 2026, 5:45 PM EDT

Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.

Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).

Prime Video's cancellation of The Wheel of Time remains a bitter disappointment. This was a book series with every bit as much potential for a great adaptation as The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire, but things didn't work out. In truth, the TV show that Prime ultimately produced was quite exceptional. Of all three seasons of The Wheel of Time, not a single one came in below an 80% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. What's even more impressive is that each batch of episodes got better than the last. Still, it wasn't enough.

While the reception to The Wheel of Time was overwhelmingly positive, overall ratings were rather low. There just wasn't strong enough viewership to justify the notoriously high budgets of the high-fantasy genre. So, Prime Video pulled the plug. It's likely no coincidence, too, that the most expensive fantasy TV show of all time hit the platform in 2022, just between The Wheel of Time seasons 1 and 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power became Prime Video's priority.

The Rings of Power is about to head into its third season on November 11, 2026, which means the series will have officially caught up with The Wheel of Time in terms of content. That idea does seem to present a particular question—will The Rings of Power now suffer the same fate?

For All Its Flaws, Rings Of Power Is Prime Video's Best Executed Fantasy

Adam Young as an orc in The Rings of Power.

Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power tends to be a controversial topic. The series is set during Tolkien's Second Age of Middle-earth, several thousand years before Frodo's adventures in The Lord of the Rings. The Rings of Power's source material also leans more toward the complicated side, making any adaptation, regardless of budget or structure, rather hard to pull off. All of this is further complicated by Prime Video's tendency to take creative liberties with the story.

It's for this reason that Rings of Power is a touchy subject. Critics have been largely pleased with the series, and Rotten Tomatoes reports an overall Tomatometer score of 84%. General audiences, on the other hand, are painfully divided, with only 48% having left positive reviews. There are also reports that The Rings of Power completion rate is rather low, with the vast majority of those who start the first two seasons never bothering to finish them. Despite all of this, Prime Video maintains that The Rings of Power is a success.

Prime is pouring an absolutely massive budget into its Lord of the Rings series, and it certainly shows on screen. Every moment is of cinematic quality, and that isn't something that could have been said for The Wheel of Time. The fact that Amazon continues to feel so positive about this endeavor suggests that, despite the controversy, cancellation is extremely unlikely here. The Wheel of Time suffered an abrupt ending, but Rings of Power is essentially guaranteed to complete its planned five seasons.

Rings Of Power Season 3 Will Be A Turning Point For The Series

Gil-galad and Elrond during a battle in Rings of Power

The upcoming season of The Rings of Power will determine a great deal. Prime Video has five seasons planned for this series, the first of which set the stage for this period of Middle-earth's history while the second revolved around Sauron's early scheming over the titular Rings of Power. Now, The Rings of Power season 3 is diving into the real meat of the War of the Elves and Sauron. This is the Main Event of the series, fittingly situated right in the middle.

While it's unlikely that Prime Video will ever cancel Rings of Power, season 3 will still determine precisely how this project will be remembered. The divisiveness we've seen so far could make way for a more positive outlook as the volume is turned up and the true action of the Second Age begins. Or, if The Rings of Power season 3 proves just as divisive as its predecessors, Rings of Power's status as a controversial adaptation will forever be solidified. Regardless, this all makes now the perfect time to get started on this series. By November, you'll be ready to see what comes next.