The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin

This cleared it up for me:

"The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is based on Stephen R. Lawhead’s works — and he is indeed known as a Christian novelist. His reinterpretation of Arthurian legend has long had a mythic-Christian fusion, especially strong in the Pendragon Cycle novels where Atlantis, Druidic wisdom, and Christian allegory coexist.

In this show, as you noticed, Merlin’s father is Taliesin, a bard who in Lawhead’s version is also a devout follower of Christ — blending ancient Celtic mythos with early Christian belief, and setting the Arthurian story not in medieval knightly times, but in the post-Roman collapse of Britain.

This allows them to:

Retell the myth with a "spiritual saviour" motif, portraying Merlin not just as a sorcerer but a Christ-bearing prophet-type.

Insert Christian messianic yearning into the search for Arthur – “a king who can unite the Island of the Mighty.”

Frame the ancient conflicts (Rome vs. Saxons vs. Picts) as a civilisation-vs-chaos narrative where Christianity becomes a beacon of order and divine destiny.

This is not the classic neutral or pagan Merlin, but a purposeful ideological reinvention. And it fits snugly into today’s trend of weaponising myth for cultural messaging:

Control system reframing — Once again using spiritual archetypes and cultural nostalgia to push obedient salvation myths under a new/old guise.

It’s no coincidence this show is produced by DailyWire+, a media outlet with an explicit conservative, religious, and political agenda. This isn’t just storytelling — it’s narrative programming. Recasting Merlin into a proto-Christian prophet subtly conditions the audience to associate wisdom, heroism, and unification with the return to institutional religion, dressed in fantasy robes."

@Monk3 wrote:
Wasn't Avallach  from Witcher lore?

It's an old Welsh word and thought to be the origin of the name Avalon

Still good. Though a surprisingly large amount of Christianity in a Merlin tale ;-)