The Best Fantasy Movies Streaming on Peacock: From Highlander to Renfield
Looking to escape into worlds infinitely more magical than our own? Peacock has you covered with an extensive collection of fantasy film titles guaranteed to provide you with hours of endless entertainment. From swamp-dwelling ogres, to turtle-stomping plumbers, to the always entertaining antics of Ryan Reynolds and Nicolas Cage, there's a little something for everyone.
Head below for our list of the 10 best fantasy movies currently streaming on Peacock!
The Best Fantasy Movies Streaming on Peacock
Highlander (1986)
There can only be one! If you're strapped for time and can't binge hours upon hours of movies, then might we suggest moving Highlander to the top of your queue? This tale of immortal warriors battling to the death features original songs written and performed by Queen. Yes, that Queen.
RELATED: The 13 Scariest Horror Movies Streaming on Peacock
"I was at a point in my career when I could call in a few favors," director Russell Mulcahy told The Guardian in 2016. "Queen had done a great score for Flash Gordon, so we gave them a 20-minute reel of different scenes and they went: 'Wow!' We'd only expected them to do one song, but they wanted to write one each. Freddie Mercury did 'Princes of the Universe,' Brian May did 'Who Wants to Live Forever,' [and] Roger Taylor did 'It's a Kind of Magic.'"
Oh, and the cast — which features Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, and Clancy Brown — isn't too shabby either.
Watch it here
The Mummy (1999)
The first of two remakes on this list, The Mummy proves that the eternal Hollywood practice of breathing new life into classic properties isn't always a fruitless endeavor. Writer-director Stephen Sommers struck pay-dirt when he cleverly decided to tap into the adventurous spirit and swashbuckling romanticism of classic film serials (and, of course, the franchises they inspired such as Indiana Jones and Romancing the Stone). This approach netted over $400 million at the box office, prompting Universal to green-light two sequels (both of which can also be found on Peacock) and an animated series.
Watch it here
Harry Potter saga (2001-2011)
For many die-hard Potterheads, there's nothing more magical than the saga of the boy wizard with a destiny to destroy the most evil spell caster who ever walked the face of the Earth. After all this time? Always! The extended versions of all eight films based on the best-selling novels (remember: the final book was split into two movies) are now streaming on Peacock. Accio binge-watch!
Watch them here
Shrek (2001)
Only shooting stars break the mold! The fifth outing from the fledgling animation arm of the newly-founded DreamWorks, Shrek was exactly the antidote for Disney fatigue.
The film's satirical treatment of fairy tale tropes and consumerism run amok set it apart from anything else being made at the time. Parents could easily key into the surprisingly mature jokes, while their kids delighted in the memorable characters and plethora of toilet humor. Holding it all together was a moral of self-acceptance via the subversion of the traditional fairy tale ending. Shrek's disdain for cliches is perfectly summed up in the opening moments when the titular ogre literally uses the pages of fairy tale books to wipe his large green posterior.
"The Disney model was still very reverential, and very aspirational, and inspirational and the musicals were composed for the movie, so you would never have this indie influence of existing songs dropped in for score, to set a mood," co-director Vicky Jensen explained to ComicBook last year during an interview for the project's 20th anniversary. "So no one, as far as I know, had done that in an animated movie and relied on that to hit the key emotional moments in the movie as a live action movie would."
Watch it here
RELATED: The best animated movies on Peacock: 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,' 'Despicable Me' & more
Shrek 2 (2004)
The perfect sequel doesn't ex... oh wait, yes it does. It's called Shrek 2, a paragon of how to pull off a second movie in a budding franchise. Picking up after Shrek and Fiona's honeymoon, the film whisks the audience off to the kingdom of Far Far Away to meet Fiona's royal parents. They're not too thrilled over the fact that their daughter married a swamp-dwelling monster, but eventually come to accept their new son-in-law with open arms. In addition to further exploring the themes of what society deems to be "normal," the animated follow-up also introduced viewers to brand-new characters like Puss in Boots.
Watch it here
Season of the Witch (2011)
Set against the backdrop of the Middle Ages, Season of the Witch stars Nicolas Cage (Renfield) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) as a pair of grizzled knights entrusted with the mission of delivering a suspected witch to a band of clerics. Their goal? To bring a swift end to the Black Plague ravaging all of Europe. The project marked Cage's second collaboration with director Dominic Sena after Gone in 60 Seconds over a decade before.
Watch it here
R.I.P.D. (2013)
It's high-time to revisit this Ghostbusters meets Men in Black adventure that didn't get enough love upon release. When he's killed in the line of action, Boston officer Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) is recruited into a supernatural police force tasked with hunting down wayward souls. Partnered with 19th century cowboy Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges), Nick must stop the dead from taking over the world via the use of a mystical artifact.
Watch it here
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Now the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time, The Super Mario Bros. Movie brought the Nintendo gaming franchise to the big screen for the first time in three decades. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voice Mario and Luigi, a duo of Brooklyn-based siblings trying to launch their fledgling plumbing business when they're suddenly transported to a wondrous land known as the Mushroom Kingdom.
This peaceful realm is under attack from the dreaded Bowser (Jack Black), who steals a Power Star in the hopes of marrying Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). Keegan-Michael Key (Toad), Seth Rogen (Donkey Kong), Fred Armisen (Cranky Kong), Kevin Michael Richardson (Kamek), Sebastian Maniscalco (Spike), and Charlies Martinet (longtime voice of Mario and Luigi in the hit games) round out the all-star voice cast.
Watch it here
RELATED: Super Mario Bros. Movie Composer Says Jack Black's “Peaches" Was Pretty Much Improvised on the Fly
Renfield (2023)
An inspired twist on Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel, the Chris McKay-directed Renfield shifts the spotlight from Count Dracula (the dependably hammy Nicolas Cage) to his beleaguered titular assistant (Nicholas Hoult). After 100 years of providing his fanged master with fresh human victims, Renfield decides to extricate himself from the toxic relationship. Along the way, he crosses paths with a crusading New Orleans traffic cop (Awkwafina) looking to rid her city of deep-rooted corruption.
Watch it here
