Starring: Tom Sharp, Rose Reid, Alex Laurence-Philips
Creator: Jeremy Boreing
Rating: NR
Genre: Fantasy, Action,
Release date: Jan 22, 2026
Where to watch: DailyWire+

Overall Score

Rating Overview

Story/Plot/Script

Visuals/Cinematography

Performance

Direction

Non-Wokeness

Rating Summary

The Daily Wire’s Rise of the Merlin is an ambitious attempt at epic fantasy that gets several important things right — particularly its mythic tone, strong production design, and Tom Sharp’s quietly commanding performance as the legendary wizard. But uneven pacing, underdeveloped villains, and rushed political intrigue prevent the first season from fully realizing its potential. Even so, the foundation is solid, and when the show slows down long enough to let its characters and conflicts breathe, it reveals a series that could grow into something genuinely compelling in a second season.

The Daily Wire’s The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin attempts something few modern streaming projects even try anymore: a sincere, mythic retelling of the origins of Arthurian Britain.

In the twilight of a crumbling Roman empire, as barbarian hordes press upon the shores of ancient Britain and the old pagan ways clash with emerging truths, a young man of extraordinary gifts emerges from the mists of legend. Gifted with prophetic visions and bound by a profound spiritual awakening, he navigates treacherous courts, forbidden romances, and epic conflicts, forging a path that will ignite the rebirth of a nation and lay the foundations for the age of Camelot.

Before the Sword in the Stone, before the Round Table, one enigmatic figure’s destiny intertwines with the dawn of a new faith and the rise of kings. This is The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin.

For a company better known for political commentary than epic storytelling, it’s an audacious first swing.

THE PENDRAGON CYCLE: RISE OF THE MERLIN REVIEW

Episodes 1 & 2Island of the Mighty / The Vision of Taliesin

While the rest of us complain about the woke, flavorless programming being foisted upon us by streaming services and movie studios, The Daily Wire is at least putting its money where its mouth is. Although no official budget has been disclosed for Rise of the Merlin, online estimates suggest tens of millions were spent bringing the first installment of The Pendragon Cycle to life, and it's easy to see where the money was spent.

Rise of Merlin throne scene: ancient antler-crowned figure enthroned in twisted roots with flaming torches and dark forest – Daily Wire's The Pendragon Cycle fantasy epic – Christian values vs woke Hollywood magic? Full conservative review and parental guide at WorthItOrWoke.com" — Evil druidic god from Rise of the Merlin

The production quality is easily on par with the vast majority of today's other fantasy offerings, and better than a lot of them. Obviously, DW+ cannot compete with shows like Rings of Power, which spent $60 million per episode. On the other hand, they're not desecrating a legendary, genre-defining masterpiece either. Arguably, the visuals are the aspect of Rise of Merlin that is most consistently excellent. The sets and costumes are detailed and coherent, with garments and locales that look worn rather than costumed—peasant clothing and domiciles are appropriately shabby, royal finery and castles appear suitably lived-in—lending the series a material authenticity many other higher-budget productions would do well to emulate.

In March of last year, the co-founder and erstwhile CEO—and god-king—of the conservative platform The Daily Wire, Jeremy Boreing, stepped down from day-to-day leadership to focus on the company’s growing entertainment division. A small-town Texas native with a notably thin filmmaking résumé, Boreing spent a handful of years in Los Angeles as a producer and writer and has exactly one feature-length directing credit to his name: a screwball comedy best described as a spiritual 3rd cousin to Revenge of the Nerds.

With little overall experience and absolutely none working on an epic-level saga featuring thousands of moving parts, large-scale battles, special effects, etc., fans of The Pendragon Cycle, as well as those of us simply rooting for conservative filmmaking in general, could be forgiven for any trepidation that we might have harbored upon learning that Boreing was helming this audacious project. Happily, most of those fears seem to be misplaced.

Ynis Avallach Avalon scene from The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of Merlin – robed figures ascending grand stone stairs to ancient arched towers and gateway in mystical landscape – Daily Wire's Christian fantasy epic – wholesome Arthurian legend or anti-woke triumph over Hollywood? Full conservative review and parental guide at WorthItOrWoke.com — Avalon in Rise of the Merlin

Overall, these first two episodes of Rise of the Merlin are competently directed and well performed. That's not to say that there aren't a few rough edges that could be smoothed. On occasion, some of the smaller action set pieces lack precision, resulting in mildly immersion-breaking moments. In one scene, the co-lead who plays Taliesin is tasked with lifting a fallen obelisk to a standing position, so he runs a rope around some trees and branches and begins to pull. The actor does a credible job of selling that the 800-8000 lbs of force needed to accomplish this task is appropriately daunting; however, the mechanics of the lift feel wrong, and the amount of tension in the rope is fairly inconsistent. It's a small thing, but moments like this, or a nervous actor uncomfortably shifting from foot to foot, even though his character is supposed to be supremely confident, can easily add up over time and seriously damage a program's vibe.

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That said, what troubles Rise of the Merlin most is two-fold: one seems unlikely to persist as an issue once things start rolling, while the other has more potential to sink the series. The former is that these two episodes, though generally entertaining, are incredibly rushed. Decades of backstory fly by in chunks with disorienting rapidity. Subsequently, little time is given for the audience to bond with the characters or events. What's worse is that there's a very strong sense that these elements, while potentially intriguing and almost certainly receiving significant time in the book series, could be explained away with a little dialogue and a flashback or two. More experienced filmmakers may have chosen a more narratively economical route, leaving more time for future character and plot development. Less can very often be more, especially when translating a book into a film or series.

The next problem may or may not be related to the first, but if it isn’t—and if it proves persistent—this entry in The Pendragon Cycle could find itself in real trouble. High-concept series like this are often carried through their weaker stretches by sharply drawn characters with clear, internal logic. In these opening episodes, the characters’ goals are communicated plainly enough through dialogue and plot mechanics, but their personalities remain frustratingly indistinct.

Rise of Merlin Daily Wire 2026 Charis bull ride scene: heroic figure in minimal garb atop raging bull in grand stone arena with columns, garlands, and film crane – Jeremy Boreing directed Arthurian origin – biblical values fantasy, anti-woke alternative to Hollywood, violence warnings, and Christian family rating on WorthItOrWoke.com — Charis riding a bull in Atlantis

This isn’t a matter of blandness so much as opacity. We’re told what these characters want and who they are, but their outward expressions don't always match. Even characters designed to unsettle or remain unpredictable require a kind of narrative clarity—a sense that their behavior is grounded in a fully realized inner life. That comfort comes from subtext, from specificity, and from the unmistakable impression that the actors understand their characters at a level deeper than what’s being spoken. At present, Rise of Merlin gestures toward that depth without quite arriving there.

However, as these two episodes seem likely to serve as a prologue, episode 3 will ostensibly introduce us to an almost entirely new cast. So, it's impossible to say with any certainty.

Taken on its own terms, Rise of the Merlin is an ambitious and largely competent opening salvo—one that stumbles occasionally, but never collapses under its own weight. Its shortcomings feel less like fatal flaws than the growing pains of a production reaching for something larger than its experience would normally allow. That matters. Ambition, especially in modern genre television, is no small virtue.

If nothing else, these first two episodes demonstrate that The Daily Wire is serious about competing in a space long dominated by ideologically hostile studios—and serious about doing so with craft, scale, and respect for the audience. Should the series slow its pace, allow its characters room to breathe, and trust subtext as much as spectacle, The Pendragon Cycle could yet grow into something genuinely distinctive. For now, Rise of the Merlin earns cautious optimism—and, more importantly, another episode’s worth of patience.

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