In recent years, the world of sci-fi has found a lot of success and popularity in adapting books. Shows like The Wheel of Time and Shadow and Bone are examples of popular sci-fi fantasy books that made the jump to streaming and contributed to the current fantasy streaming war. The latter has big players like Netflix, Prime Video, and Max, but a new book adaptation is adding a new player.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Makes Peacock A Player In The Fantasy Streaming Wars
The latest sci-fi book series getting the streaming TV treatment is Dungeon Crawler Carl. Written by Matt Dinniman, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a science fantasy LitRPG book series that was initially self-published before being acquired by Ace Books in 2024. So far, the series consists of seven books.
Literary role-playing game, or LitRPG, is a literary genre that brings together elements of computer RPGs and sci-fi and fantasy novels.
Dungeon Crawler Carl centers on United States Coast Guard veteran Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut. Carl and Donut are two of the few survivors of the elimination of the human species and mining of Earth’s resources, this by the alien Boran Corporation. Carl and Donut are forced to compete in a dungeon crawl reconstructed from Earth’s resources in order to survive, hence the “crawler” part in the title.
In 2024, it was revealed that the rights to an adaptation of Dungeon Crawler Carl had been acquired by Universal International Studios and Seth McFarlane’s production company Fuzzy Door Productions. Although the project has been in development since then, it wasn’t until March 2026 that a live-action adaptation of Dungeon Crawler Carl was confirmed to be in development at Peacock.
Thanks to it, Peacock has officially entered the fantasy streaming wars. While Peacock does have its own sci-fi and fantasy TV shows, they haven’t exactly made the streamer a strong player in this current streaming war, but Dungeon Crawler Carl can definitely make it one.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Isn’t The Only Popular Fantasy Book Series Coming To Streaming Soon
As mentioned above, one of the current trends on streaming TV is adaptations of sci-fi and fantasy book series. 2026 is preparing to welcome the first season of the TV remake of the Harry Potter book series in December, while A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is confirmed to get a second season in 2027.
One of the most anticipated adaptations currently in development is Prime Video’s Fourth Wing. Written by Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing was a viral sensation on social media and is now getting a live-action adaptation over at Prime Video, with Michael B. Jordan producing. Another exciting project is Apple TV’s adaptation of The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson, while the rest of the books in the Cosmere universe could be getting movie adaptations.
For those more into sci-fi horror, a new adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower book series is in development with Mike Flanagan on board, but details about it haven’t been revealed.
How Dungeon Crawler Carl’s Sci-Fi Aspects Give The Show An Advantage
Dungeon Crawler Carl is already a unique book series thanks to its RPG elements and overall sci-fi and fantasy concept and elements, and all of these will be the TV show’s biggest strengths. Dungeon Crawler Carl has a unique setting that will give the team behind it a lot of creative liberty to bring it to life, while also allowing them to add absurd elements that make it even more unique.
Each dungeon level in Dungeon Crawler Carl is completely different from the previous ones – there’s one dominated by trains, another one is fairytale-themed, and there’s another one set during the last days of Earth. This makes the idea of a live-action show even more exciting and intriguing, as bringing them to life will require a lot of creative skills.
Dungeon Crawler Carl has a lot of potential thanks to the books’ creativity, uniqueness, format, characters, and narrative, and, if done well, it can make Peacock stand out in the fantasy streaming wars.