Battlestar Galactica, Brave New World, and film classics: All the genre content coming to Peacock

Rather than a specialized streamer focused on anime, horror, or quick bites of content, NBCUniversal's new streaming service, Peacock, is looking to be a large-scale, broad-audience platform. That means a ton of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror content is coming to the service from a bounty of sources including NBC, USA Network, SYFY, A&E, ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX, HISTORY, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, Focus Features, Illumination, ViacomCBS, Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. and Blumhouse. Phew.

The Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max, and Hulu competitor first rolled out in a special preview edition for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers on April 15. Everyone else had to wait for the full-scale U.S. launch a few months later, on July 15. Peacock will then drop its three pricing tiers: Peacock Free, which has limited programming (13,000+ hours of content) and ads; a $5/month full version (boasting the entire 20,000+ hour library) with ads that's free to Comcast customers; and Peacock Premium, a $10/month ad-free version. For context, an ad-free streaming library for $10 a month is a little cheaper than Netflix's popular $12.99 plan.

The premium version also boasts "next-day access to new episodes of current season NBC shows," according to a release. The service is launching with availability on Apple devices (including the Apple TV), Google devices (including the Chromecast), Xbox One, and — starting July 20 — PlayStation 4.

Peacock's full library will launch with tons of genre classics, both from film and TV. The service will also include plenty of originals, with genre front and center. In fact, a few of its "virtual channels" cater exclusively to genre content: "Get Spooked" and "Out of This World" will focus on horror and sci-fi/fantasy, respectively.

Check out some of our most-anticipated originals below:

Highlights

The Adventure Zone: An animated adaptation of the actual-play Dungeons & Dragons podcast from funny brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy (and their dad, Clint), The Adventure Zone became a cult hit online and a smash graphic novel series that ended up a NYT best-seller. Expect comedy, fantasy, and lots of silly riffing over the course of this epic story.

Battlestar Galactica: Yes, the already-rebooted sci-fi classic is getting a new reboot beyond its awesome SYFY series. This time around its led by Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail, but by now, fans know the drill: a ragtag group of humans is fleeing from killer robots and the themes are going to get serious fast. Militarism, racism, and scarcity are all on the table — though, of course, details are scarce for now.

Brave New World: This Aldous Huxley adaptation is situating Solo: A Star Wars Story's Alden Ehrenreich front-and-center of its high-concept sci-fi series. He'll join Harry Lloyd, Hannah John-Kamen, and more as the series digs into one of the most famous literary dystopias of all time. The show will also be Peacock's first foray into the prestige TV arena, as it's the first genre launch series from the service aimed at adults.

Now, Peacock's content library is going to be massive, and so varied with ownership and rights issues that it all won't be rolling out at launch. Many shows and movies will premiere during the 2020 launch, but some will necessarily be held until 2021 thanks to production halts or previous streaming deals. Peacock has confirmed its original launch titles, which we've curated down to the genre content listed below:

Launch Originals

Films

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (aka Psych: The Movie 2)

TV Shows

Brave New World

Cleopatra in Space

Curious George

Where's Waldo?

Launch Classics

Films

The Birds

The Blair Witch Project

The Bourne Trilogy

Children of Men

The Croods franchise

The Despicable Me franchise 

Dracula

Fievel's American Tail

Frankenstein

The Hitcher

Howard the Duck

The Jurassic Park franchise

The Last House On The Left

The Matrix franchise

Meet Joe Black

The Mummy franchise

Psycho 

Robin Hood

Shrek

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron 

Trolls World Tour

You Should Have Left

TV Series

Battlestar Galactica

Care Bears

Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot

DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk

Face Off

Fievel’s American Tails

Ghost Hunters International

Heroes

Highlander

Kong, The Animated Series

Munsters

New Adventures of He-Man 

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Psych

The Purge

Sabrina: The Animated Series

TrollsTopia 

Woody Woodpecker

And here's the rest of what fans can expect from the service's gigantic collection of media (eventually):

Upcoming Originals

TV Series

The Adventure Zone

Battlestar Galactica

Dragon Rescue Riders

Upcoming Classics

Movies

ANTZ

Beetlejuice

The Conjuring

The Dark Knight

Dawn of the Dead

Evan Almighty

The Fast & Furious franchise

Hostel

It Follows

Mama

Open Water

Pitch Black

The Purge

Riddick

Sinister

TV Series

Ancient Aliens

Bates Motel

Charmed

3rd Rock from the Sun

Peacock launches in full on July 15.

SYFY WIRE is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of Peacock.