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101 Fantastical Fantasy Story Prompts

Want to write the next great fantasy film? Try these story prompts to get started.
by Ken Miyamoto on March 28, 2022

Do you want to write in the fantasy genre but need help conjuring compelling stories and concepts? Sometimes reading simple story prompts is the easiest way to get those creative juices flowing.

We get our ideas from many sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. They can come from a scene or moment in a film that wasn’t fully explored. They can come from a single visual that entices the creative mind — a seed that continues to grow and grow until the writer is forced to finally put it to paper or screen.

They may inspire screenplays, novels, short stories, or even smaller moments that you can include in what stories you are already writing.

Common Elements in the Fantasy Genre

The fantasy genre typically involves magical or supernatural elements (sometimes in conjunction with speculative science) within fictional worlds — or realistic worlds enhanced by magic and the supernatural.

  • Mythology and folklore can come into play as starting points.
  • History and natural laws of reality are often not needed for the story to be coherent.
  • Fantasy story and character elements do not need to be scientifically possible.

Perfect examples of the fantasy genre and its various subgenres include:

  • Lords of the Rings
  • Star Wars
  • Big
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Marry Poppins
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  • Enchanted
  • The Chronicles of Narnia
  • Excalibur
  • Legend
  • Back to the Future
  • Highlander
  • Toy Story
  • Groundhog Day
  • Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
  • Harry Potter
  • Twilight
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • MCU and DC movies

In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived fantasy story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next fantasy story.

Note: Because we’re all connected to the same pop culture, news headlines, and inspirations, any similarity to any past, present, or future screenplays, novels, short stories, television pilots, television series, plays, or any other creative works is purely coincidence. These story writing prompts were conceived on the fly without any research or Google search for inspiration.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'

101 Fantastical Fantasy Story Prompts

1. What if a portal was opened that led to a mirror-opposite version of our world? 

2. A young brother and sister find an old door in their basement that wasn't there before.

3. A man reads a novel, soon realizing that the story is his very own — and according to the book, a killer is looming.

4. A gamer realizes that the shooter game he plays is actually controlling real people in another world.

5. A gamer learns that the soldier he is controlling is actually a real soldier in a real war.  

6. An astronaut jettisoned into the cold of space in a mission gone wrong suddenly appears at the doorstep of his family.

7. The world's population is overtaken by vampires — all except one little child.

8. The Greek Gods have returned to claim Earth as their own.

9. A brother and sister new to the neighborhood realize that their parents have moved them to a town of witches.

10. An angel decides to walk the Earth as a human for a single week.

11. A demon and an angel challenge each other to walk in the other's shows for a single week. 

12. A family moves into a suburb inhabited solely by ghosts.

13. While on a hike, a group of friends discovers a tunnel that leads into another world.

14. A child makes a wish that their recently deceased parents return from the dead.

15. During a bout of road rage, a woman puts a curse on a man that upends his life. 

16. Characters from a little girl's short story she was forced to write for school begin to manifest in her town. 

17. A little boy wishes Christmas could be every day — and his wish comes true. 

18. An app developer discovers a way to email people from the past. 

19. The world as we know it is actually the scary bedtime stories of a fairytale-like place. 

20. Wizards exist in hiding in every town and are tasked with protecting us from Dark Lords. 

The Chronicles of Narnia

'The Chronicles of Narnia'

21. A monster is terrified by the scary child who lives above his bed. 

22. Humans on Earth are actually the giants of the world, with ant-sized humans living underground.

23. One day, dogs begin to speak English while humans are forced to bark to communicate.

24. An heir to a recently deceased man inherits a magical castle.

25. A giant human suddenly emerges from underneath the ocean.

26. Time is frozen — all but for 100 people throughout the world.

27. A Star Wars fan discovers that the Star Wars universe was not a figment of George Lucas's imagination. 

28. During a family vacation, the worlds and characters of Disneyland come to life.

29. A theme park ride breaks down, stranding the people in the world of the ride. 

30. A stay-at-home mother makes a wish that she could have four versions of herself to share the work — it comes true. 

31. A boy is transported into the body of the boyhood version of his father. 

32. A mother and father are transported into the bodies of their teenage twins. 

33. Santa's grandchild returns to the North Pole for Christmas vacation, oblivious to her family history. 

34. Siblings discover that their nanny is a witch. 

35. Siblings discover that their nanny is actually the tooth fairy. 

36. A boy on vacation with his family finds Excalibur stuck in the rock floor of a castle. 

37. A naughty boy hiding from his parents under the water of their pool, resurfaces to find himself in the ocean waters amidst a deserted island. 

38. The ceramic garden gnomes of a neighborhood come to life to terrorize the town. 

39. A man discovers that his life is actually the dream of another. 

40. A woman discovers that her life is actually the dream of her dream self. 

Back to the Future

'Back to the Future'

41. A man and woman share the same dream world — they eventually meet in person, shocked to see their dreams coming true. 

42. When friends play Dungeons and Dragons, their campaign comes to life around them. 

43. A woman discovers that our reality is actually a simulated game like The Sims. 

44. A Viking warrior washes up on the shore of a New England town. 

45. A man obsessed with the cartoons of his youth is whisked away into their worlds after his wife begrudgingly says he spends too much time watching them. 

46. A successful stockbroker accused of insider trading claims to be from the future. 

47. A boy that wishes he could be the strongest person alive turns into a towering giant. 

48. A high school student believes that his classmates are vampires. 

49. A high school student can suddenly read the minds of his peers. 

50. Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes.

51. An 400-year-old shipwreck washes ashore in perfect condition.

52. An outcast nerd discovers that he's actually a revered prince from another planet, hidden by his royal family to escape an evil space lord. 

53. A little girl has the power to make any wish she wants to come true — and her choices are terrorizing the neighborhood. 

54. A history teacher has the power to take his students to any time and place in history.  

55. A boy who wishes he could fly wakes up as a baby hawk. 

56. A boy on a farm makes a scarecrow that comes alive.

57. The Peter Pan story is true. 

58. When Dorothy was wisked away to Oz, someone from Oz was left in her place back in Kansas for her Aunt and Uncle to deal with.   

59. When children die young, their spirits attend a boarding school that decides whether they become angels or demons. 

60. Area 51 protects a gateway into hell. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

61. Area 51 hides a portal into another world. 

62. A famous classic cartoon character finds a portal into our world. 

63.  A brother and sister fighting over who gets to play Fortnite are sucked into the game. 

64. The biggest earthquake in history opens up an underground world of humanoids. 

65. The Titanic suddenly reaches New York with all of the original passengers and crew members on board. 

66. A family visiting a cabin are stuck inside during a terrible storm. To pass the time, they play classic board games and find themselves sucked into those worlds trying to win the games to survive. 

67. A boy that torments the neighborhood pets wakes up in the body of a dog. 

68. A single father and his son are sucked into the worlds of Dr. Seuss. 

69. A disabled boy and an egotistical professional athlete switch bodies.  

70. A prince in a fantasy land struggles to find his princess, only to fall in love with a wicked witch that lives in the haunted forest. 

71.  Dragons return to Earth after a prophecy is fulfilled.  

72. A hunter discovers a unicorn deep within the woods. 

73. A scientist discovers that magic is real. 

74. After a night of creating Dungeons and Dragons characters, a group of friends awakens as the very characters they've created. 

75. A runaway boy discovers a group of real-life trolls living under his town's bridge. 

76. A teenage girl is told by a visiting elf that she is the heir to a magical kingdom. 

77. A family vacationing on a yacht is saved by mermaids when it capsizes. 

78. At a sleepover, a deck of tarot cards predicts the future of a group of friends, and everything comes true.  

79. An artist has the ability to escape into the world of classic paintings. 

80. Wax museum guests are sucked into the worlds of the displays. 

Enchanted

'Enchanted'

81. A boy living in the inner city and fleeing its crime-riddled streets escapes into a library where the books are literal portals into fantastical worlds. 

82. After moving into an old mansion, a young boy is the only one in his family that can see the ghosts that live there. 

83. A man begins to read a book that tells his life story. 

84. A woman sees a unicorn in the woods and becomes obsessed with finding it, even when her hometown ridicules her. 

85. A woman whose son was kidnapped years ago is visited by a ghost that helps her find him alive and well.  

86. A strange old man that has moved next door to a kid's family is actually that kid's older self that has time-traveled back in time to revisit his childhood before his death. 

87. A teenager receives a new superpower every day, with the previous superpowers disappearing as each new one manifests.

88. An angel knows that the human boy he was assigned to protect is due to be a victim of a travesty, and they decide to do whatever they can to keep him safe — even if it means going against the boy's destiny. 

89. A group of high school friends discovers portals to the past and future and uses them to ace their history and science exams. 

90. Two versions of the same high school student from different parallel universes discover each other through a portal and decide to swap lives for one week before the portal closes for good. 

91. The ghost of a father helps his son through difficult times.  

92. A ghost searches a suburban neighborhood for the perfect house to haunt. 

93. A writer discovers that God is actually a writer like himself. 

94. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are magically transferred into the bodies of high school students. 

95. An archeologist discovers ancient DNA samples that prove mythical creatures did exist.  

96.  A fallen angel falls from the heavens into the backyard of a young girl's house. 

97. A Wall Street broker discovers that he's the heir of the real Robin Hood. 

98. During a classic Universal Monster movie film festival, a young cinephile is transported into the worlds of those movies. 

99. A woman falls in love with a historical figure and wills herself back in time to meet him. 

100. A group of middle school friends ventures into the underground drainage tunnels of their town, only to discover a race of blind beings within the darkness. 

101. A screenwriter reads a list of writing prompts and discovers that what they've read begins to come true in the real world. 

Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good fantasy story. Have some prompts of your own? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!

Want More Prompts? Read 131 Sci-Fi Scripts That Screenwriters Can Download and Study!


Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, and the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed starring Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman, Wesley Truman Daniel, Mickey O’Sullivan, John Victor Allen, and James Errico. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies


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