Canne — "Game of Thrones" may be about to take a final bow, but fans of the television series need not despair -- Game of Trolls is coming.

A madcap new fantasy show called "Magnus" featuring the lumbering fairytale monsters is the talk of the Canneseries festival in the French Riviera resort, where the world's top TV market MIPTV is also being held.

Funnier than anything in the Seven Kingdoms, it has been described as a hilarious fantasy mix of a Scandi noir cop show and Inspector Clouseau, with elements of Inspector Gadget and the deadpan surrealism of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki thrown in for good measure.

It creator, actor Vidar Magnussen told AFP that he has been "blown away" by the reaction to the series, already a huge hit in his homeland.

His "Sherlock" send-ups went viral in 2014 when one of the series' stars Amanda Abbington shared them on social media.

Yet the writer, who plays the bungling policeman himself, is not afraid to have fun with Scandinavian stereotypes.

"I feel that Nordic noir has done it's time," he said, even as he admitted that his show had borrowed some of their dark edge.

"The challenge was to do very silly comedy and yet ground in something quite real and hard that would have leave people wanting to know more," he told AFP in Cannes, where the show had its international premiere. — AFP