The 2020s did not treat fantasy like a costume closet you visit once a year. A suburban elf quest that arrived as theaters shut down, a Ten Rings legend that finally gave Marvel a martial-arts epic, a Colombian casita that sang its way into every kitchen, and an Oz prequel that turned a Broadway warhorse into a Saturday-night event all showed up in the same decade. From Onward and Encanto to The Green Knight, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Wicked, 2020s fantasy movies kept asking the same question: what do you do with magic once the world has already decided it is ordinary?
This list gathers thirteen essential fantasy movies from the 2020s — quests, multiverses, stop-motion fairy tales, Viking revenge, and one chocolate-box musical that treats green skin like a political problem. Every pick uses TMDB-backed metadata and a short guide to why it belongs on a 2020s fantasy watchlist.
1. Onward
- Movie Title: Onward
- Release Date: February 29, 2020
- Main Cast: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Director: Dan Scanlon
- TMDB Score: 7.6/10
Why We Included Onward on This List
Dan Scanlon’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that opened the decade by putting elves in a cul-de-sac and asking whether the old magic still worked. Tom Holland’s Ian, Chris Pratt’s Barley, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s mother who has already learned to live without a wizard for a husband turn a suburban quest into a story about a father who is only half there. It belongs here because so many 2020s fantasies are about leftover wonder, and this one makes the leftover the plot. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Pixar film that treated a staff, a map, and a 24-hour spell like a last chance to meet someone you already missed.
Quick Onward Summary
In a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there. Ian Lightfoot has never met his dad. Barley never stopped believing the old stories. A gift from the past gives them one day with a half-restored father, and the clock starts before they have finished arguing about which road to take. The dragons are not the point. The point is how far two brothers will drive to keep a spell from running out.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Onward
Scanlon has talked about building the story from the gap left by a father he barely knew, which is why the film’s magic is a time limit instead of a coronation. Holland and Pratt play the Lightfoot brothers as a nervous kid and the loud older sibling who still owns every vinyl soundtrack of a quest he has never been on. The movie reached theaters in early 2020 and then moved, like so much else that year, onto living-room screens. It is the 2020s fantasy opener people still recommend when they want a quest that happens after the world has already paved over the enchanted forest.
2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Movie Title: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Release Date: September 1, 2021
- Main Cast: Simu Liu, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Awkwafina
- Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
- TMDB Score: 7.5/10
Why We Included Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on This List
Destin Daniel Cretton’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that took Marvel’s oldest leftover MacGuffin and gave it a family. Simu Liu’s Shaun, Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s Wenwu, and Awkwafina’s Katy who did not sign up for a hidden village turn a bus fight into the first page of a legend the MCU had been name-dropping for years. It belongs here because superhero movies in this decade kept promising mythology; this one actually walks into a bamboo forest and means it. On a 2020s watchlist it is the martial-arts epic that made ten rings feel like inheritance instead of inventory.
Quick Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Summary
Shang-Chi must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. A parking-garage life in San Francisco is not enough cover when your father can find you from the other side of the world. The rings are not jewelry. They are a history that wants another generation to wear it, and the village on the other side of the map is not a retreat so much as the place the story was always going.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Cretton made this Marvel’s first film built around an Asian lead, and Liu’s Shaun is a valet who is better at disappearing than at introductions. Leung, long one of the great faces in world cinema, plays Wenwu as a man who has already won every fight except the one with grief. The Ten Rings had been a logo and a rumor in earlier Marvel movies; this is the one that finally treated them as a culture with a door you can walk through. It is the 2021 fantasy blockbuster people still point to when they want an MCU entry that remembers wuxia is allowed to be beautiful.
3. Encanto
- Movie Title: Encanto
- Release Date: October 13, 2021
- Main Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo
- Director: Byron Howard
- TMDB Score: 7.6/10
Why We Included Encanto on This List
Byron Howard’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that put a miracle in a house and then asked what the house wanted in return. Stephanie Beatriz’s Mirabel, María Cecilia Botero’s Abuela Alma, and John Leguizamo’s Bruno who would rather not be the subject of the song turn a Colombian casita into a character that cracks when the family does. It belongs here because so many fantasy lists in this decade are about chosen ones, and this one is about the girl who did not get a gift. On a 2020s watchlist it is the musical that made a glowing door feel like pressure, not a prize.
Quick Encanto Summary
The tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. Every child in the family receives a gift — strength, weather, prophecy — except Mirabel, who still lives in the house that loves her and cannot figure out why the walls are starting to fail. The miracle is older than she is. The question is whether a family can keep a miracle if they only love the people it made useful.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Encanto
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs, and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became the kind of earworm that does not care whether you have seen the movie. Encanto won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Beatriz plays Mirabel as a girl who is already doing the work of holding a family together before anyone admits that is a gift. It is the 2021 fantasy that people still put on in kitchens, which is a strange afterlife for a story about a house that can fall down if nobody tells the truth.
4. The Green Knight
- Movie Title: The Green Knight
- Release Date: July 29, 2021
- Main Cast: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton
- Director: David Lowery
- TMDB Score: 6.6/10
Why We Included The Green Knight on This List
David Lowery’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that looked at King Arthur’s court and refused to make it a comfort watch. Dev Patel’s Gawain, Alicia Vikander’s woman who knows more than the quest, and Joel Edgerton’s king who needs a story to tell at Christmas turn a beheading game into a year-long walk toward a promise you should not have made. It belongs here because prestige fantasy in this decade kept trying to feel ancient, and this one actually sits in the fog long enough to be uncomfortable. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Arthurian film that treats honor like a dare you might fail on purpose.
Quick The Green Knight Summary
An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who ventures out on his first quest to confront the Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. A Christmas game in Camelot ends with a blow that must be returned in a year. The road north is full of thieves, saints, and people who want to know what kind of knight he is before he does. The axe is waiting. So is the question of whether showing up is the same thing as being brave.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Green Knight
Lowery adapts the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight without turning it into a helmet commercial. Patel plays Gawain as a young man who wants a legend more than he has earned one, which is why the movie can be gorgeous and still feel like a warning. A24 released it as a mid-pandemic theatrical event, the kind of wide, strange image that looks better on a screen bigger than your phone. It is the 2021 fantasy people still argue about — too slow, too pretty, too willing to sit in silence — which is usually a sign it did not sand the poem down.
5. Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Movie Title: Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Release Date: December 15, 2021
- Main Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch
- Director: Jon Watts
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Spider-Man: No Way Home on This List
Jon Watts’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that treated the multiverse like a secret you could not keep once the whole internet knew your name. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, Zendaya’s MJ, and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Strange who should have said no turn a botched spell into a reunion nobody was supposed to be allowed to film. It belongs here because this decade’s biggest fantasy idea was not a new sword — it was other versions of the same story walking into the room. On a 2020s watchlist it is the blockbuster that made a high-school identity crisis feel like a tear in the sky.
Quick Spider-Man: No Way Home Summary
Peter Parker is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a super-hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange to restore his secret, the spell goes wrong and breaks a hole between worlds. Villains from other lives start arriving in his New York, and the only way to send them home is to understand them first. The wish was privacy. The bill is everyone Peter has ever been, showing up at once.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Spider-Man: No Way Home
Sony and Marvel spent months refusing to confirm the rumor everyone had already decided was true, which is why the movie’s guest stars still felt like a magic trick in a decade that spoils everything. Holland’s third Spider-Man film became the event that closed 2021 for a lot of theaters still trying to remember what a crowd sounded like. Watts keeps the high-school texture even when the sky is tearing, so the fantasy never fully leaves the apartment. It is the 2021 fantasy people still quote when they talk about a multiverse that actually cost the hero something.
6. Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Movie Title: Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Release Date: March 24, 2022
- Main Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan
- Director: Daniel Scheinert
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included Everything Everywhere All at Once on This List
Daniel Scheinert’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that looked at an IRS hallway and decided that was a fine place for the end of the world. Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn, Stephanie Hsu’s Joy, and Ke Huy Quan’s Waymond who keeps choosing kindness turn a laundromat family’s worst Tuesday into a tour of every life they did not live. It belongs here because multiverse stories in this decade got loud and expensive, and this one made them small enough to fit in a fluorescent office. On a 2020s watchlist it is the film that proved a googly eye could be as serious as a ring of power.
Quick Everything Everywhere All at Once Summary
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what’s important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes. Evelyn Wang is already failing her taxes, her marriage, and her daughter when another version of her husband explains that she is the worst Evelyn, which is why she can still change. The weapon is not a sword. It is the ability to borrow a skill from a life where she became someone else, and the enemy is a grief that has already seen every universe and found them wanting.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Everything Everywhere All at Once
A24 released a movie that jumps from kung fu to a universe of rocks and somehow won Best Picture. Yeoh won Best Actress; Quan, back on a major screen after decades away from the kind of fame he had as a kid, won Best Supporting Actor. Scheinert’s film treats the multiverse as a family argument that got out of hand, which is why the jokes never cancel the feeling that someone might still walk out of the laundromat. It is the 2022 fantasy that people still use as a measuring stick: if your universe-hopping story does not also work as a story about a mother and a daughter, it is just traffic.
7. The Northman
- Movie Title: The Northman
- Release Date: April 7, 2022
- Main Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang
- Director: Robert Eggers
- TMDB Score: 7.0/10
Why We Included The Northman on This List
Robert Eggers’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that treated a Viking revenge vow like a weather system you cannot talk out of. Alexander Skarsgård’s Amleth, Nicole Kidman’s queen who has already rewritten the story, and Claes Bang’s uncle who took a kingdom the old way turn a childhood raid into two decades of becoming the animal the prophecy asked for. It belongs here because historical epics in this decade often sand off the visions; this one keeps the seers, the ravens, and the night when a man decides he is a bear. On a 2020s watchlist it is the saga that makes fate look like a job, not a vibe.
Quick The Northman Summary
Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy’s mother. Two decades later, Amleth is a Viking raider who has not forgotten the oath he whispered as a child: avenge his father, save his mother, kill Fjölnir. The North Atlantic is not a backdrop. It is the clock. Every raid, every farm, every vision is another step toward a farmstead in Iceland where the story he has been telling himself might not be the one his mother has been living.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Northman
Eggers, coming off The Witch and The Lighthouse, used the Amleth legend — the same Scandinavian story that later fed Hamlet — and refused to modernize the manners. Skarsgård trained into a body that looks like a weapon someone else is swinging. The film was Eggers’s biggest production, shot with a patience for mud, ritual, and long takes that studio Viking movies usually cut away from. It is the 2022 fantasy people still recommend when they want myth that feels cold enough to have been believed.
8. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Movie Title: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Release Date: May 4, 2022
- Main Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Xochitl Gomez, Elizabeth Olsen
- Director: Sam Raimi
- TMDB Score: 7.2/10
Why We Included Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on This List
Sam Raimi’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that let Marvel get ugly on purpose. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Strange, Xochitl Gomez’s America Chavez who can punch holes between worlds, and Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda who has already lost too much turn a rescue mission into a horror picture with a sorcerer’s wardrobe. It belongs here because the MCU spent years promising the multiverse and this is the one that treated it like a haunted house. On a 2020s watchlist it is the blockbuster that remembered Raimi made his name on camera moves that feel like a curse.
Quick Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Summary
Doctor Strange, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to protect a mysterious newcomer, America Chavez, from an enemy who wants her power. Every universe has a Strange who made a different choice. Some of those choices look like heroism until you see the body count. The Scarlet Witch is not a cameo. She is the grief the multiverse cannot outrun, and the only door America has is the one people keep trying to take from her.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Raimi returned to a comic-book studio after the Spider-Man years and brought the Dutch angles and corpse-choir energy with him. Olsen’s Wanda continues the story that Wandavision started, which is why the movie can be a chase and a tragedy in the same scene. Cumberbatch plays a sorcerer who is better at winning than at listening, a useful flaw when every universe has a version of you who already failed. It is the 2022 fantasy that people still cite when they want an MCU movie that is willing to look like a nightmare instead of a toy aisle.
9. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Movie Title: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Release Date: December 7, 2022
- Main Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Harvey Guillén
- Director: Joel Crawford
- TMDB Score: 8.2/10
Why We Included Puss in Boots: The Last Wish on This List
Joel Crawford’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that looked at a fairy-tale spinoff and decided it was allowed to be about dying. Antonio Banderas’s Puss, Salma Hayek Pinault’s Kitty Softpaws, and Harvey Guillén’s Perrito who believes in the team turn a last life into a road movie with a wolf who does not care about your legend. It belongs here because animated fantasy in this decade got visually wild, and this one used that wildness to make fear look like a person in a cloak. On a 2020s watchlist it is the DreamWorks film that treated nine lives as a tab you finally have to pay.
Quick Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Summary
Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: He has burned through eight of his nine lives, leaving him with only one life left. Puss sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives. The map is a star. The company is a dog, a rival, and a crime family that wants the same wish for greed instead of extra time. Death is not a metaphor waiting at the end. Death is already walking behind him, and the wish is only useful if he still wants the life he has.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Banderas has been this cat since the Shrek years, and the joke of a Zorro swagger in a fairy tale suddenly becomes a midlife movie. Crawford’s team pushed the animation toward painterly stills and comic-book speed, a look that made a wolf in a hood into one of the decade’s great fantasy images. The film became a late-2022 hit after years of people assuming the Shrek universe was done surprising anyone. It is the 2022 fantasy people still recommend to adults who think they are only in the room for the kids.
10. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
- Movie Title: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
- Release Date: November 9, 2022
- Main Cast: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann
- Director: Mark Gustafson
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio on This List
Mark Gustafson’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that took a wooden boy and set him down in a country that already worshipped obedience. Ewan McGregor’s cricket, David Bradley’s Geppetto, and Gregory Mann’s Pinocchio who will not stay in the grave turn Mussolini’s Italy into a fairy tale about fathers, fascism, and a puppet who cannot die the way other children can. It belongs here because this decade produced more than one Pinocchio, and this is the one that remembered the story was always about grief. On a 2020s watchlist it is the stop-motion film that makes immortality look like a punishment you have to grow into.
Quick Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Summary
During the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father’s expectations. Geppetto carves a son out of a pine that grew on a grave. The cricket narrates because someone has to. Pinocchio is loud, disobedient, and impossible to keep buried, which is a problem in a country that wants boys in uniform and fathers who do not ask questions. Becoming real, in this version, is not about good behavior. It is about choosing a life that can end.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
The film is stop-motion, built by hand in a decade when most wooden boys are software. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Gustafson’s production, with del Toro’s name on the title, moves the tale out of a timeless village and into a specific dictatorship, which is why the carnival and the army camp feel like the same machine. It is the 2022 fantasy people still put against the other Pinocchio that year when they want to remember that a fairy tale can have dirt under its nails.
11. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
- Movie Title: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
- Release Date: March 23, 2023
- Main Cast: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith
- Director: Jonathan Goldstein
- TMDB Score: 7.4/10
Why We Included Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on This List
Jonathan Goldstein’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that treated a tabletop brand like a heist you could actually enjoy. Chris Pine’s Edgin, Michelle Rodriguez’s Holga, and Justice Smith’s Simon who does not believe his own spells turn a prison break into a campaign where the dice, for once, seem to like the players. It belongs here because video-game and hobby adaptations in this decade had a losing streak, and this one remembered that D&D is funny when the plan is stupid and the friendship is not. On a 2020s watchlist it is the quest movie that made a resurrection the MacGuffin instead of the ending.
Quick Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Summary
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. Edgin wants his daughter back more than he wants another score. Holga wants a fight that means something. Simon wants to be the sorcerer the party already introduced him as. The relic can raise the dead, which means every villain in the region has a reason to sit down at the same table, and the only advantage this crew has is that they have already failed together once.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Goldstein, with longtime collaborator John Francis Daley, made a studio fantasy that plays like people who have actually sat at a table and watched a plan collapse. Pine leans into a bard who talks his way into trouble; Rodriguez’s barbarian is the reason the talking ever works. After years of sour D&D screen versions, the 2023 film got credit for being light on its feet without turning the monsters into a joke. It is the heist-quest people still put on when someone says they want fantasy that feels like a good session instead of a lore lecture.
12. Poor Things
- Movie Title: Poor Things
- Release Date: December 7, 2023
- Main Cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe
- Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
- TMDB Score: 7.6/10
Why We Included Poor Things on This List
Yorgos Lanthimos’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that rebuilt Frankenstein as a travelogue about a woman learning the world faster than the men who made her. Emma Stone’s Bella, Mark Ruffalo’s lawyer who thought he was the adventure, and Willem Dafoe’s Godwin Baxter who stitches life together in a house full of hybrid animals turn a Victorian experiment into a coming-of-age story with fisheye streets. It belongs here because literary fantasy in this decade often stayed polite, and this one is not polite. On a 2020s watchlist it is the film that treated a second brain as a chance to refuse the life that ended the first one.
Quick Poor Things Summary
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella Baxter grows rapidly, collecting experience after experience. Lisbon, Alexandria, and a cruise ship full of opinions become classrooms. Baxter wants to keep his creation safe. Bella wants to find out what a body is for when nobody else gets to write the rules, and the men who love the experiment are not prepared for the person it becomes.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Poor Things
The film adapts Alasdair Gray’s novel and looks like a storybook someone left too close to a laboratory. Stone won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Lanthimos and his designers built cities that feel handmade and slightly wrong, which is why Bella’s education never looks like a costume drama you have already seen. It is the 2023 fantasy people still talk about in pieces — the dance, the ship, the house — because the plot is really a woman deciding she does not owe her maker a quiet life.
13. Wicked
- Movie Title: Wicked
- Release Date: October 16, 2024
- Main Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh
- Director: Jon M. Chu
- TMDB Score: 6.9/10
Why We Included Wicked on This List
Jon M. Chu’s film is the 2020s fantasy movie that took a Broadway phenomenon and gave it the scale of a country that already knows how the story ends. Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, Ariana Grande’s Glinda, and Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible who knows a useful girl when she sees one turn Shiz University into the place a green-skinned student learns that Oz’s kindness is a press release. It belongs here because musical fantasy in this decade needed a new tentpole, and this one made friendship the political problem. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Oz film that treats Defying Gravity as a decision, not a finale sticker.
Quick Wicked Summary
In the land of Oz, ostracized and misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba is forced to share a room with the popular aristocrat Glinda at Shiz University. Their pairing looks like a sitcom until the Wizard’s invitation starts sorting students into people he can use and people he can blame. Elphaba can do things with magic that the school would rather manage. Glinda can do things with a smile that the school would rather broadcast. The yellow brick road is still years away. The question is who gets to write the history of the witch before the house falls.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Wicked
Chu adapts the first act of the long-running Broadway musical, itself a retelling of Gregory Maguire’s novel and, behind that, The Wizard of Oz. Erivo and Grande spent years attached to the roles, and the film is built as part one of two, which is why the last number feels like a door slamming instead of a bow. Yeoh’s Morrible is the adult in the room who understands that talent is a resource. It is the 2024 fantasy that filled theaters with people who already knew every lyric and still leaned forward when the broom left the ground.
The 2020s gave fantasy a suburban spell, a singing house, a green knight, a multiverse in an IRS office, a Viking oath, a cat with one life left, a wooden boy in a dictatorship, and an Oz that starts at school. If this list sent you toward a quest, a musical, or a movie that treats magic as a family problem, stay on thebestmovielists.com — the crime, comedy, sci-fi, and horror 2020s lists are already live, and the next genre-and-decade pile is never far from the one you just finished.
