Future Cult Sci-fi

I have a huge feeling that The Expanse, one of my favorite new basic sci-fi shows is going to be a huge hit in the future and will become a cult classic (if not like Firefly) like Star Trek. Remember the original series only lasted three seasons but spawned a bunch of remakes and rivals star wars as one of the best expanded universes before expanded universe became a thing!

I also think Doctor Who will maintain it's cult status in the future even after Davies eventually stops making this show.

What other shows could become classic cult hits in the future?

It's really hard to tell. Star Trek and Doctor Who are the only real shows who can back-up a viable long term cult status as they have both been running along at a good clip for DECADES (each of them clock in at around 800 total episodes) You could make the case for Battlestar Gallactic which had a large following and saw a couple spin-off/revivals, but all together that only comes in at about 150 episodes all lumped together. (original, revival, caprica & webisodes)

If I was to take a shot in the dark it would have to be The Walking Dead. The Graphic Novel is still in production, show runners claim they have the show plotted through to season 12 (should it go that far), and people have calculated it would take 22 seasons for AMC's Walking Dead to arrive at the same point of the comic.

Babylon 5?

I begun to see “The Expanse” recently and I must consider it one of the best science fiction TV shows that I saw in the last couple of years. I try to follow Dark Matter but sometimes its low budget it is not compensated with better dialogs and coherent script.


I am talking about recent shows, since the OP is talking about future cult shows.


Oh… maybe also “The 100”. It started like a teen show but it went in a reasonable more mature path.


I am just tired of Werewolfs, Vampires and Superheroes shows. Never saw one in my life… but when I press the button in the remote control sometimes I don’t have many options besides those themes.

I thought that something with a "cult" following was, by definition, something that was popular or fashionable among only a particular group or section of society; something unorthodox; spread by word-of-mouth rather than advertising. So, many of the examples given may have been cult TV to begin with, but when they became more popular and mainstream, they can no longer be considered "cult." Star Trek might be considered cult when fans were letter writing, following the first season, to keep it, but can hardly be considered cult now. X-Files was cult in season one, but after 10 series it cannot be cult anymore. Firefly I would agree is still cult. Doctor Who might be cult in the US, but never was in the UK.

So, the question was, what is the next cult classic? It would need to be something that is not on the main channels, so unseen by many, but has a popularity which is being spread by word-of-mouth. The Expanse does fit this. The Walking Dead fits this. Lots of shows on Netflix would fit. What will be next? I have no idea or else I would try to pitch it to a studio myself. If you are asking, what is the next cult show to go popular mainstream then I have even less idea. I think that TV audiences are so fractured now that very few drama shows will get the mass audiences possible in the past. Those that do will more likely do it by the more normal methods than by building a cult following first, though I accept that I may well be wrong on that.

The Strain is a good candidate.

On Cli-fi's good review I decided to watch the expanse and whilst I am really enjoying it I don't think it will become anywhere near as loved as Star trek or Dr Who (or even Firefly) the reason is that it is not individual episodes, Star trek and Dr Who have the ability to follow boring episodes with exciting completely different ones and I think this is what made them so popular, whilst drama series such as the wire, sopranos, breaking bad, have long flowing narratives that span an entire series, the really popular Sci-fi shows only loosely did this and each episode (mostly) would be fine as a stand alone one. The expanse, however, isn't in this vein, so I don't see it gaining that kind of popularity.