You'll soon get over The Magicians once you hit the play button on this supernatural drama by Freeform

When The Magicians wrapped up its run in 2020, viewers were left with a peculiar type of loss — the kind that only accompanies a show that's bold enough to venture into the dark alleys of magic, trauma, and identity. Adapted from Lev Grossman's books, the show took what might have been another Harry Potter-inspired fantasy and remade it as something profoundly adult, transgressive, and emotional.

It didn't only display magic — it asked if having power made things better or infinitely worse. For some, that turned The Magicians into more than a show; it was a cathartic event. But if you've been trapped in post-finale purgatory, wondering what show could possibly clean up the pieces, you're not alone. As one Freeform supernatural drama — Shadowhunters — is quietly and successfully becoming that surprising follow-up.

Even though the two shows are stylistically different, viewers who give them a shot tend to discover a surprising amount of crossovers in the emotional depth, character development, and grand themes. That's why many have come to regard Shadowhunters as a spiritual successor, rather than a replacement, to the world that The Magicians left.

The core of the story: Fantasy worlds with real emotional stakes

From the outside, Shadowhunters and The Magicians seem to operate in drastically disparate fantasy universes. The former draws from Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments novel series — an urban fantasy universe where demon slayers, vampires, warlocks, and werewolves move through a secret war disguised beneath the fabric of normal New York life. The latter plunges viewers into Brakebills College and the alternate world of Fillory, where magic is as deadly as it is seductive.

But when you look past the surface level differences, both shows are basically about young adults grappling with power, identity, trauma, and sacrifice. Both put their characters in fantastical situations where they expose very human weaknesses. Whether it's Quentin Coldwater's existential breakdown in The Magicians or Clary Fray's unwilling entry into an ancient conflict in Shadowhunters, the core of both shows is the same: how do you exist in a world that repeatedly tests who you are?

Ensemble casts that get more complicated

Another common strength is character development. The Magicians was in the headlines for its rich cast — from Quentin's neurodivergent path to Alice's ethical collapse, Eliot's concealed sadness, and Julia's extended trajectory of agency and anger. Each character was a rich compaction of both suffering and love.

Similarly, Shadowhunters also focuses a lot on character development. Clary, Alec, Isabelle, Simon, and Magnus all change profoundly throughout the series. Alec's journey from being closeted to becoming a leader who can find the middle ground between duty and self-acceptance is the same sort of inner exploration that The Magicians undertook.

Magnus Bane, a warlock who is centuries old, is the sort of wild, magical energy that fans of Eliot or Margo would enjoy — wise, melodramatic, and very much scarred. Both series eschew static narrative; characters break, repair, and screw up. That is, the emotional landscape is every bit as important as the fantasy landscape.

Negotiating queerness and relationships with gravity

One of The Magicians' strongest genre TV contributions was the way it handled queer representation. The romance — and profound tragedy — of Quentin and Eliot was stealthily revolutionary in being emotionally grounded. It was messy, imperfect, and never once based on tokenism.

Shadowhunters also provided substantial representation with the way it approached the "Malec" (Magnus and Alec) relationship, one of the show's emotional backbones. It wasn't relegated to the sidelines or dumped in as fan service — it was permitted to evolve and encounter strife like any other relationship. Even when the plot became melodramatic, the emotional arcs were handled with earnestness.

For viewers who appreciated The Magicians for their realistic (if sometimes brutal) depictions of relationships, this element of Shadowhunters resonates. Tone may be different between the two shows, but their shared respect for character integrity and emotional honesty binds them in spirit.

Narrative pacing and genre execution

There is no arguing that The Magicians was formally ambitious. It tended to stack up several timelines, genres, and character POVs per season. Shadowhunters, on the other hand, has a more typical episodic structure, particularly in its early seasons. It eventually does become more serialized and explores more of its mythology, going into deep lore, bloodline secrets, forbidden magic, and political intrigue in the Shadow World.

What they have in common is a desire to change. The Magicians radically changed from the tone of its initial season to the more profound philosophical ground of subsequent seasons. Shadowhunters also flips — its third season delves deeper into world-building, brings in morally ambiguous characters, and starts addressing the dangers of unregulated magical power.

Viewers seeking ongoing character development and plot evolution over seasons will appreciate that Shadowhunters develops into itself, similar to the way that The Magicians did.

Fan impact and cultural footprint

Although The Magicians was never a huge mainstream success, it became a cult hit because it wasn't afraid to make its audience uncomfortable. Its finale ignited controversies, speculations, and emotional accounting on social media. It's a series people didn't just view — they dissected it.

Shadowhunters, though more saturated in YA clichés, garnered an equally devoted fan base. Although it fared poorly initially, the series built steam once it committed more to darker fare and allowed its characters some space to grow. The #SaveShadowhunters campaign was a prominent online movement following the series' cancellation — a reflection of the emotional investment fans had in its narrative and cast.

In both instances, the fan bases were central to keeping the shows popular long after their last episodes had been shown. For a viewer looking for the next emotionally substantial and community-supported show, this crossover is significant.

So, what really connects them?

It's not the magic system or the monsters or the apocalypse-level stakes. What The Magicians and Shadowhunters have in common is their power to balance supernatural spectacle with human fallibility. They get at trauma, power, and identity without reducing the outcomes to simplicity. Where The Magicians pushed harder toward existentialism and Shadowhunters toward mythic structure, both find middle ground when it comes to emotional storytelling.

And that's what most of us crave — a show that allows its characters to grow, screw up, love hard, and reap the consequences. If that's what kept you glued to The Magicians, then you're probably in luck because Shadowhunters has all the elements of that wrapped up for you.

The Magicians will always have a place in their hearts for taking big risks and telling stories with fearlessness. Shadowhunters, though, is something more than a fall-back option — it's a narrative in its own right, with distinct rhythms and stakes, but the same emotional beat. It doesn't attempt to copy the shows that preceded it; rather, it constructs its own universe, painstakingly and with devotion.

So yes, maybe it is time to press play. You won't forget The Magicians — but you might just find something else worth sticking around for.