5 Best Fantasy TV Show Theme Songs Of All Time, Ranked

The best fantasy TV shows often have a few things in common — complex worldbuilding, interesting webs of character relationships, high stakes, and hopefully, a banger soundtrack to underscore it all. Fantasy often gives composers the license to play in grander, more epic spaces, creating themes that can linger in pop culture long after the final episode of the show has come and gone.

Today, we're looking specifically at some of the greatest main themes from fantasy shows — songs that intro each episode or herald the most dramatic moments. From classic '90s series to modern prestige TV hits and the biggest fantasy series of all time, these songs stand above the rest and elevate their respective series to epic, iconic, and transcendent places.

In forming the list, we took account of overall impact, longevity, how central the themes are or were to their respective shows, and of course, how affecting and memorable the songs themselves are. These are the 5 best fantasy TV show theme songs of all time, ranked.

The modern age of streaming and prestige TV has brought more high-budget fantasy television than any other era in the history of medium, and we considered a lot of those shows for inclusion on this list. Series like "The Wheel of Time," "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," "Shadow and Bone," and others all have strong main themes, but none of them quite reach the transcendent highs of the main title theme for "His Dark Materials," composed by Lorne Balfe.

The HBO and BBC series — an adaptation of Philip Pullman's trilogy of fantasy novels — received widespread acclaim during its run for its faithful translation of Pullman's story, high production values, and strong casting. Balfe's score is another facet of the show that just fits perfectly with the frequently dark, always mysterious world of Pullman's fiction, and the main title theme locks you into that world at the beginning of each episode.

It's not just the song, but the title sequence as a whole. In an age overstuffed with monochromatic CGI opening sequences, "His Dark Materials" managed to stand out. The simple, haunting melody of Balfe's theme, brought to life by an aggressive, urgent choir of strings (and joined by horns in the back half) instantly conveys the stakes of the story — one in which the nature of creation itself hangs in the balance. It's a beautiful, brilliant song, and it's pitch-perfect for the tone of the show.

You only get a short sting of the main theme for "Avatar: The Last Airbender" in the iconic intro, but it swells to full power in many of the show's most climactic moments. Aang's first dip into the Avatar State, his battle with the Fire Nation fleet at the North Pole, the destruction of the drill at Ba Sing Se — all these and more are accompanied by one of the most chill-inducing fantasy themes of all time.

Composer Jeremy Zuckerman — who returned to the franchise for the excellent 2026 film "Avatar Aang; The Last Airbender" — went absolutely ham on this one. The build-up, crescendo, and powerful instrumentation highlight the epic scale of the series. Any time those first few notes start to play in the background of a scene, you know something wild is about to happen.

A few modified, even more emphatic versions of the main "Avatar" theme play in the third season — first in the season premiere episode, "The Awakening," and again in the final end credits of the show after the four-part series finale, "Sozin's Comet." The finale-season main theme upgrade isn't a necessary touch, but it is a fun one, and one that more shows could stand to embrace.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was conceived as a subversion of tropes — the blonde high school girl who always dies first in the horror movie turned into the superpowered hero saving the world and killing the monsters. And that same kind of irreverent twist is part and parcel to the show's iconic theme song, performed by self-proclaimed geek rock band Nerf Herder. The best and worst episodes of "Buffy" all feature the track, which begins with a brief gothic organ sting before flipping hard into a '90s garage punk medley of shredding guitars and pounding drums.

"This isn't your parents' vampire story," the song seems to say. And it's right. Despite decades spent breaking down the craft and influence of the show, it's still hard to understate the importance of "Buffy" as a trailblazer in modern television — the season-long storylines, the blend of genres, the extensive worldbuilding, and much more.

The overall tone of the show, which pairs teen drama and high camp with a sort of power ballad spin on the horror genre, is another big part of that legacy, so it only fits that the theme song itself reflects that energy. Regardless of what part of the show you're jumping into, the intro's shrieking licks set the tone.

There were a lot of iconic fantasy anime theme songs to sort through when picking the final selections for this list, from classics like "Death Note" and "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood" to more recent shonen hits like "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and "Tokyo Ghoul." They're all great, but none of them can stand up to Linked Horizon's immediately unmistakable "Guren no Yumiya" from "Attack on Titan."

The biggest anime of its day had an accordingly massive opening track, which quickly became an anthem of the show's popularity. The instant aggression, combination of rock and orchestral motifs, and the vocal distortion combine to form an unsettling, pulse-pounding theme appropriate to the dark and twisty story it anchored. The song topped the Japan Hot 100 chart back in July of 2013 and clocked in at 13th for the year-end ratings, reflecting both the popularity of the series and how strongly fans associated it with its main theme.

The epic scale of the "Attack on Titan" timeline, and the edge-of-your-seat plotting that made it such a phenomenon worldwide, are both embodied in the frenetic intensity of the title track. In short, it's a perfect theme. But it's also not quite the greatest when it comes to fantasy television.

You could argue that Season 8 permanently ruined an otherwise masterful series. You could argue that there are other fantasy TV shows better than "Game of Thrones." But it would be difficult to argue, even for a moment, that a greater main theme has ever been written for any of those competitors. When Ramin Djawadi wrote that particular song, he broke the mold.

HBO didn't even try to match the song when producing the spin-off series "House of the Dragon." Instead, the studio decided to just use the same song. In almost any other circumstance, it would have been a lazy move. But in Westeros, it seemed right. This is how people like to start their Sunday evenings when new episodes drop, after all: with the greatest fantasy TV show theme of all time.

As Djawadi discussed with The Ringer back in 2019, "Game of Thrones" was far more about intrigue than epic-scale action in its first season, and his score evolved as the series took on larger and larger stakes. Still, the original theme he wrote for the stayed a steady, perfect pairing. "When I saw the visuals and I drove back to my studio in the car, that's when that melody came to me," Djawadi told the outlet. "I listened to what they had in mind, and they said to me, 'What do you think? What do you think about the scenes? What do you want to do?'" The collaborative nature of the project helped contribute to a pitch-perfect sonic landscape, which still continues to influence the franchise.