Forget 'Game of Thrones,' the Best Fantasy Game Ever Deserves a Better Adaptation

Published Jul 19, 2026, 11:54 AM EDT

Kendall Myers is a Senior Author with Collider. As part of the TV and Movies Features team, she writes about some of the most popular releases before, during, and after they premiere. In three years, she has written over 900 articles with topics ranging from classic sitcoms to fantasy epics.

Fantasy is one of the fastest-growing genres on TV, especially following a phenomenon like Game of Thrones, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. While many popular fantasy books have gotten their adaptation, there is another source for epic stories that is sorely underused: video games. For the last few decades, some of the most expansive and thrilling stories have been ones fans got to play through, and more recently, they have begun to be adapted for TV. Fallout, The Last of Us, Arcane, and many more prove the merit of turning a game into a show, but there are still plenty of thrilling games that haven’t yet gotten this treatment, including the best fantasy game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The 2011 video game became an instant success, reaching critical acclaim and remaining popular fifteen years later. Many fans have been clamoring for an adaptation, but it has yet to happen. The fantasy genre can be tricky, but when it’s done well, fans do not soon forget, like *Game of Thrones. ***With an epic story, expansive world, and extensive lore, Skyrim has the potential to become one of the genre’s best, if it ever gets the adaptation it deserves.

While many video games could make great TV series,** *Skyrim *stands out because of its expansive world, thrilling story, and unique magic system**. Though it is part of the larger *Elder Scrolls *series, *Skyrim *is not a direct sequel to the previous game. Though set in the same world, the story takes place roughly 200 years in the future, separating it from other games in the series and providing a self-contained story within the larger world. As an open-world RPG, there is a lot to explore, from ancient cities to mountainous landscapes that provide side quests for the player. But that is true of many games, while *Skyrim *goes above and beyond by explaining the world’s unique history as it introduces the different races of beings and the ongoing civil war on the continent of Tamriel that the hero must navigate throughout their mission.

Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don’t. That’s very much up to you.

Winter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.

You understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.

You carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.

You are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.

You understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes.

The story starts when a dragon attack provides a unique mission for the hero. Witnessing a dragon’s death, the character absorbs its soul, identifying themself as the last Dragonborn, a prophesied figure with rare powers needed to defeat Alduin, the dragon who will consume the world. Though Alduin was defeated once before, the beast was really sent into the future, reappearing in the story and forcing the unsuspecting Dragonborn to go on a journey to save the world. With a prophesied hero, an evil dragon, and a world overflowing with characters and stories, Skyrim is full of everything fantasy fans look for, making it the perfect source for a new series.

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