The Pendragon Cycle Tops UK Charts!

A new series that takes inspiration from Arthurian legend has become a surprise hit on Prime Video, soaring up the charts on worth of mouth alone.

The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin was created by The Daily Wire's co-founder Jeremy Boreing and it's currently the number one fantasy series in the UK on Amazon Prime. 

The series follows Merlin, the immortal son of the bard Taliesin and Atlantean Princess Charis, chronicling his tragic upbringing, descent into madness and shocking disappearance that lead to the legend that surrounds him. 

Set before King Arthur's birth, Merlin, assumed dead or a myth, reemerges in Sub-Roman Britain to unite the fractured kingdoms under threat from Saxon invaders 

The show is adapted from Stephen Lawhead's novels, and has built a slow and steady audience since its release in January.

British fans have taken to the show, no doubt relating to the famous Christian legend about a king holding a civilisation together, showing an area of the country's mythology that has barely been explored.

Jeremy, who acted as a producer on the show, released the series in the US through his streaming platform DailyWire+. 

It's debuted among the top three series overall on Amazon Prime in the UK and it's among the top 10 of all movies and series in the UK, finding similar success in Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.

He told Daily Mail on Thursday: 'Britain’s greatness was never something to apologize for, and this legend has always been at the heart of it. 

'The myth is so deeply rooted that before the monarch opens Parliament, he waits in a robing room lined with carvings of King Arthur.

'The people, the culture, and the faith that gave rise to that legend are the cultural patrimony of the English-speaking world. 

'It has been an honor to bring that to the screen with our wonderful cast and crew, and we are thrilled to see so many Britons embrace it.'

Speaking about the series, he previously shared how he had shopped The Pendragon Cycle to various streaming platforms, having kept previous shows he'd worked on in-house.

He told Deadline: 'We were trying to build our own streamer, so it wasn’t part of our model to solicit distribution. The Pendragon Cycle was the first time we considered it.

'It was a completely different scale to things we had done before so we wanted maximum eyeballs on it. 

'We went out with it and we got a lot of really great feedback from a lot of places that probably don’t care much for our politics. In the end, we weren’t able to make a deal on the show, but having read a lot of the feedback from various streamers, there were a lot of compliments for what we accomplished.'

Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary has also praised the show on The Joe Rogan Experience, as being much better than competition like Lord Of The Rings: Rings of Power or the Game of Thrones spin-offs.

Actor Colin Cunningham, who played King Vortigern in the episode A Fatherless Child, has been nominated for a British Columbia Leo Award for Best Lead Performance in a Dramatic Series. 

Jeremy said his move to cast primarily unknown actors was an intentional one, saying: 'Yes. One of my strong opinions is that you never want to get an actor who’s bigger than your project.... I didn’t want to build the show around actors for whom this was not the biggest thing they had ever done, because I wanted people to bring the best they had ever brought. 

'I don’t believe a greater cast of relative unknown actors has ever been assembled. I think God’s hand was on the casting of the show.'

Jeremy also reflected on comparisons that the show is a 'Christian Game Of Thrones,' sharing that the show is 'subversive because of its rejection of nihilism.'

In March 2025, Boreing stepped away from his role at the Daily Wire, which he launched alongside conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, helping build the start-up brand into media behemoth valued at $1 billion.

He has since focused on creative projects like production of the fantasy series The Pendragon Cycle: Rise Of The Merlin, and his independant podcast The Jeremy Boreing Show.

Earlier this year, in a piece for The Daily Mail, Jeremy also criticised competitor figures in right-wing media.

He said: 'There are two ways to build an audience: give people something worth believing in, or give them something worth being angry about.

'The latter is faster, cheaper and far more addictive.

'Outrage triggers the same dopamine pathways as does reward. But like any easy high, the thrill dissipates and becomes more difficult to recreate, leaving the user chasing.

'Soon, mild outrage stops scratching the itch. The content must get darker. The stakes must be made to feel bigger. The enemies, more menacing. And over time, the audience is poisoned, slowly but thoroughly.

'As a result, Americans' ability to feel proud has atrophied.'