The Daily Wire Is Now Making Fantasy Shows — And They Aren’t Very Good
(REVIEW) The faith-based film industry is going through major changes. It’s starting to break into the mainstream, with critical and box office success.
At the same time, it’s going through a change in audience. Dropping marriage rates and an exodus of women from the church in America are undercutting its traditional audience of Christian moms.
Meanwhile, church is becoming cool to growing numbers of men, with figures like Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan and conservative media company The Daily Wire encouraging faith to their overwhelmingly male audience. This is why churchgoing Gen Z men outnumber women in a seismic reversal of the traditional gender split.
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Enter The Daily Wire’s “The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin”. Based on the “The Pendragon Cycle” books by Stephen Lawhead, the show is a faith-based fantasy adventure miniseries designed to appeal to the Daily Wire’s conservative Christian male audience. It’s part of a new trend its creators call “based faith” films.
“Based faith” is the first (as far as I know) label coined to refer to the growing shift in audiences. Faith-based films traditionally made mom-appealing content like feel-good inspirational dramas (“War Room” and “I Can Only Imagine”). The beginnings of “Based faith” films have thus far leaned into horror (“Nefarious”), action-adventure stories (“Shut In”, “House of David”) and anti-woke comedies (“Am I a Racist?” and “Lady Ballers”).
Different sub-genres suggest different possible futures for “based faith” films, depending on what the audience rewards. In the same way that Biblical dramas, political dramas, and family dramas all initially vied for the faith-based mom audience’s loyalty. Faith-based adventure so far has the most “faith” in the “based faith” films while being conservative-coded. While anti-woke comedies are more “faith-coded”, but explicitly conservative.
But if “The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin” premiere is any indication, this new direction for the genre may have a rocky road ahead.
A re-imagining of the story of King Arthur, “Pendragon” follows Merlin, from his parentage to his rise and his attempts to mentor kings who might be able to rule the land with justice and mercy. The two-episode premiere follows Merlin’s parents, Taliesin and Charis, who overcome tragedy and betrayal to forge a love that can bring about Taliesin’s dreams of a kingdom of eternal summer. The show is written and directed by Jeremy Boering and Ryan Whittaker, produced by Dallas Sonier of Bonfire Legends, and stars named talent like Rose Reid and Brett Cooper.
The Daily Wire’s “The Pendragon Cycle” had a long and rocky road to release. The company announced the upcoming adaptation of the Lawhead novels back in November 2022, during the company’s aggressive push to enter the entertainment space, releasing original films like “Shut In,” “Terror on the Prairie,” and “What is a Woman.”
Since then, there have been quite a few shakeups. Daily Wire and “Pendragon” star Brett Cooper abruptly left the company, and “Pendragon” showrunner Jeremy Boering also stepped down from his role as CEO of the Daily Wire under similarly abrupt circumstances. Both departures — and the lack of much original film content from the company since — fueled speculation from fans and onlookers alike that the Daily Wire and “Pendragon” show were in trouble.
But in November 2025, the Daily Wire announced that the series would premiere on their platform on January 21st, 2026, with the first two episodes available for some members on December 25th.
Jeremy Boering described “Pendragon” as “the culmination of a 10-year vision to create culture, not just to criticize it. Lawhead’s novels present a visceral, masculine Christianity in a world of conflict and mystery. It isn’t saccharine or clean. In short, it is very much like our world. I’m so happy to share our adaptation, and the work of our remarkable cast and crew, with the Daily Wire audience.”
This conservative-Christian alliance in entertainment is inevitable. As Ryan Burge notes in his new book “The Vanishing Church”, liberal Christians are increasingly becoming secular, and conservatives are increasingly friendly toward Christianity. The question is, which ratio will be dominant? Upcoming films like “Young Washington” and “The Resurrection of the Christ” will likely tell the tale. As well as the reception of shows like “The Pendragon Cycle.”
There’s a lot I enjoyed about two episode premiere of “Pendragon”. Like I said with the “House of David” TV series, “Pendragon” is a show that was basically made for me. I grew up loving Narnia, superheroes, and action movies. So I long wished there were more stories of heroic men fighting evil and saving the girl who loved Jesus, made from a Christian worldview. This show has that in spades.
Along with these elements, one of the most unique aspects of Lawhead’s novels – the first two of which I read — is their strong mix of intergenerational tragedy and hope. The story is not about a hero being born and saving the world. It’s about a group of heroes who do their small part in beating back the darkness, but who fail to complete the task, so they then have to pass the baton on to the next generation.
“Pendragon” understands these are the elements of Lawhead’s long – and sometimes meandering – books that are strongest. So these are what they focused on. The heroic men, wise and beautiful women, the war between the Christian god and the idols, the love story, and the tragedy that puts off the consummation of the victory over darkness, always just out of reach.
The violence is gritty but kept PG-13. There is lovemaking, but it’s modestly depicted and only after the characters are married. As an experiment in creating a “based faith” vision of Christian media, it’s cool to see how these filmmakers are navigating putting these elements together.
Unfortunately, the execution of these elements is often weak. The dialogue is usually dry and on-the-nose. The acting is typically wooden. The filmmaking is, for the most part, basic and uninteresting. While shows like “House of David” bathe their shots (particularly their lavish season two opening battle) in deep oranges and reds to amp up intensity, “Pendragon” largely keeps its shots, blocking, color, and everything else fairly standard. This is a mistake for a show that can’t afford the lavish effects and production design of “Rings of Power.”
The biggest storytelling problem is that the order of exposition is so often backwards. People need to understand what’s going on in order to care. But the “Pendragon” show will typically show a supposedly exciting and emotional event with no context, and then explain it afterward.
Hopefully, the series will get better as it goes on. I like what it’s trying to do, and I’m rooting for it to succeed. In many ways, I’m in the position of a lot of the Christian moms who were the target audience of films like “Fireproof” back in 2008. They knew it wasn’t “good,” but they liked it anyway because it was the kind of film they always wished existed.
I think a lot of people who like “Pendragon” fall into this category. Hopefully, it won’t take 20 years for based faith films to come into their own as well. But at last, half the reason faith-based films got there is because of how many tough critiques they got.
“Based faith” films deserve no less.
“The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin” premieres on DailyWire+ starting Jan. 22.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.