Sci-Fi & Fantasy is where Netflix leaves the familiar world behind and starts building entirely new ones. Science fiction films in this category explore advanced technology, artificial intelligence, space exploration, parallel realities, time travel, and futures shaped by choices humanity has not made yet. Fantasy films head in a different direction, filling their worlds with magic, mythical creatures, ancient prophecies, and kingdoms that exist only in imagination.
The line between the two genres is often thinner than it looks. Some stories use futuristic science to explain abilities that feel like magic. Others place fantasy style adventures inside science fiction settings. What connects them is scale. These are stories that ask viewers to accept a different version of reality and then fully commit to exploring it.
Netflix has invested heavily in both genres, producing original science fiction films alongside fantasy adaptations and acquiring major releases that might otherwise have been difficult to find on streaming. Whether you want a thoughtful story about artificial intelligence, an action heavy adventure across distant planets, or a fantasy quest involving ancient powers, this category offers some of the platform's most ambitious filmmaking.
Because Sci-Fi & Fantasy covers such a broad range of ideas, understanding the different subgenres can make it easier to find exactly the kind of escape you are looking for.
The subgenres inside Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Space Opera
Space opera takes science fiction to its largest scale, filling the screen with interstellar civilizations, galactic conflicts, distant planets, and high stakes adventures. The focus is often less on scientific realism and more on epic storytelling, memorable characters, and massive worlds that feel larger than life.
Dystopian Science Fiction
Dystopian stories imagine societies that have gone wrong. Governments become oppressive, technology controls daily life, resources disappear, or entire social systems collapse under their own weight. These films use imagined futures to explore fears and questions rooted in the present.
Time Travel Science Fiction
Time travel stories revolve around characters moving between different points in time, intentionally or otherwise. The appeal comes from paradoxes, alternate timelines, and the consequences of changing events that were never supposed to be altered.
Artificial Intelligence and Technology Sci-Fi
This lane focuses on advanced machines, intelligent software, robotics, and the relationship between humans and the technology they create. Some films approach these ideas with optimism, while others explore the possibility that innovation may eventually move beyond human control.
Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Post-apocalyptic stories take place after a civilization-changing disaster. The catastrophe may be environmental, technological, biological, or entirely unknown. What matters is how people survive and rebuild after the world they knew disappears.
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk combines advanced technology with social decay, often presenting futures where powerful corporations exert enormous influence and ordinary people struggle to maintain control over their lives. Neon cityscapes, digital identities, and blurred boundaries between human and machine frequently define the genre.
High Fantasy
High fantasy takes place in fully realized fictional worlds with their own histories, cultures, and systems of magic. These stories often feature heroes, ancient conflicts, and quests that determine the fate of entire kingdoms or civilizations.
Dark Fantasy
Dark fantasy blends fantasy elements with horror, mystery, or psychological tension. Magic exists, but it rarely feels safe or comforting. The worlds are often dangerous, morally complicated, and filled with forces that cannot be easily controlled.
Mythological Fantasy
Mythological fantasy draws inspiration from legends, folklore, and ancient belief systems. Gods, spirits, magical artifacts, and legendary creatures often play central roles, connecting modern storytelling to much older traditions.
Portal Fantasy
Portal fantasy begins in an ordinary world before transporting characters into an entirely different reality. The appeal comes from discovery, as both the audience and the protagonist learn the rules of the new world together.
Why this category keeps pulling viewers back
Sci-Fi & Fantasy offers something that few other genres can match: complete freedom. A crime film still needs recognizable laws. A drama still needs believable people. Science fiction and fantasy can reinvent almost everything, creating worlds that operate according to entirely different rules.
That freedom allows filmmakers to tackle enormous ideas. Questions about humanity, morality, technology, power, destiny, and survival often become easier to examine when placed inside fictional worlds rather than everyday settings. A story about artificial intelligence may really be asking what makes someone human. A fantasy kingdom at war may be exploring leadership, corruption, or sacrifice.
The category also rewards imagination in a way that encourages long term fandom. Viewers do not simply watch these worlds; they often want to spend more time inside them. Entire communities form around discussing timelines, theories, lore, hidden details, and alternate interpretations of events.
Netflix has embraced that appeal by investing in visually ambitious projects that would have been difficult to produce at streaming scale a decade ago. The result is a category filled with stories that range from intimate character studies to world ending conflicts, all united by the desire to show audiences something they have never seen before.
Perhaps most importantly, Sci-Fi & Fantasy provides a form of escapism that feels limitless. Whether the destination is a distant galaxy, a magical kingdom, or a future version of Earth, these films invite viewers to step outside the boundaries of ordinary life for a while and imagine something bigger.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy movies to watch on Netflix right now
This list reflects titles currently available in the category and gets updated as we confirm new additions and remove titles that rotate off the platform. Availability can vary by region, so always check whether a title is currently streaming in your country.
The Electric State (2025) follows a teenage girl crossing a retro futuristic version of America alongside a mysterious robot as she searches for her missing brother, combining science fiction adventure with a large scale alternate history setting.
The Adam Project (2022) follows a time traveling pilot who crashes into the past and teams up with his younger self to prevent a future catastrophe. The film mixes action, humor, and family drama with classic time travel concepts.
Atlas (2024) follows a brilliant but deeply distrustful analyst forced to rely on an advanced artificial intelligence during a mission to stop a rogue machine threatening humanity. Its focus on human and AI relationships places it firmly within modern science fiction territory.
Code 8 (2019) takes place in a world where people with extraordinary abilities live on the margins of society and face systematic discrimination. The film blends science fiction concepts with crime thriller elements.
Outside the Wire (2021) follows a drone pilot sent into a conflict zone alongside an advanced android officer whose true mission remains unclear. The story explores military technology, artificial intelligence, and the ethical limits of warfare.
Oxygen (2021) traps a woman inside a malfunctioning cryogenic chamber with no memory of how she arrived there. The film uses a confined setting to build tension while gradually revealing a larger science fiction mystery.
I Am Mother (2019) follows a teenage girl raised underground by a robot designed to repopulate humanity after an extinction event. Questions of trust, survival, and control drive the story from beginning to end.
The Midnight Sky (2020) follows a scientist racing to warn astronauts not to return to a devastated Earth after a global catastrophe. The film combines post apocalyptic science fiction with a quieter character driven story.
Damsel (2024) follows a young woman who discovers that her arranged royal marriage is actually part of a sacrificial ritual involving a dragon. The film reworks familiar fantasy tropes by placing its heroine at the center of her own survival story.
Troll (2022) begins when an ancient creature awakens in the Norwegian mountains, forcing authorities to confront a threat rooted in centuries of folklore. The film blends modern disaster storytelling with mythological fantasy.
Nimona (2023) follows a shape shifting outcast who becomes entangled in a conspiracy threatening an entire kingdom. The film combines fantasy, science fiction, and humor while exploring identity and belonging.
The Old Guard (2020) follows a group of immortal warriors who have secretly influenced human history for centuries. The story balances fantasy concepts with modern action and questions about the burden of living forever.
Bright (2017) takes place in a modern world where humans, elves, and orcs coexist uneasily. By combining fantasy races with a contemporary police thriller structure, it creates one of Netflix's most unusual genre hybrids.
Okja (2017) follows a young girl trying to save a genetically engineered creature from a powerful corporation. The film blends science fiction, adventure, and social commentary into a story that feels both imaginative and surprisingly emotional.
Spiderhead (2022) centers on a near future prison where inmates participate in experiments involving emotion altering technology. The story explores free will, ethics, and the dangers of scientific power without accountability.
We will keep updating this list
The Sci-Fi & Fantasy category changes regularly as Netflix adds new originals, acquires major genre releases, and rotates older titles out of its library. We will continue updating this guide as we confirm additions and removals, helping you find the next world worth exploring.
Looking for a different genre
If science fiction and fantasy are not quite the mood you are after tonight, head back to the complete guide to Netflix movie categories and explore everything from action and thriller to comedy, documentary, romance, and drama.
