What is Urban Fantasy?

Urban fantasy is a subgenre within the broader world of fantasy, where fantastical creatures are placed in a real-world urban setting, often in the present day. This subgenre may even include elements of science fiction or thrillers, but also overlap with fantasy subgenres like sword and sorcery, high fantasy, epic fantasy, dark fantasy, and more.

The subgenre often overlaps with another fantasy subgenre Paranormal Romance - combining romantic themes with fantasy elements like vampires, werewolves, shifters, faeries, goblins, and zombie armies. The terms, however, are not synonymous. Paranormal romances tend to emphasize a character seeking love, whilst in urban fantasy, featuring a romantic storyline is typical, it is not strictly required.

Basic Elements of Urban Fantasy

If you're asking yourself "what is urban fantasy?", think of it this way: Imagine a book that combines the dense worldbuilding of fantasy and science fiction with the gritty grounded reality of contemporary novels set in New York City, Chicago, or other iconic urban locations. That's the urban fantasy genre. Here are some key elements of urban fantasy:

1. Fantasy Tropes - Urban fantasy storylines combine the real-life grit of the modern world with fantastical worldbuilding.

2. An urban setting - Although small town urban fantasies do exist, most take place in larger cities. So to make your story stand out more among the rest, you can write your story in a small town setting.

3. Magic - Supernatural elements, sci-fi technologies, fairy tales, and folk mythologies are all found throughout urban fantasy novels.

4. A noir aesthetic - Urban fantasies lift genre conventions from noir and gritty police procedurals.

5. Mythical creatures - Urban fantasies are populated with supernatural creatures including, but not limited to, undead zombies, vampires, werewolves, druids, demons, shapeshifters, and perhaps a mage or wizard.

6. A protagonist with a foot in both worlds - The main character of an urban fantasy is typically savvy to the real-life ways of their urban environment yet can also wield or exploit magical powers.

7. A young protagonist - Relatively young characters who practice wizardry or witchcraft are common in urban fantasy series.

Below you can find some examples of urban fantasy movies and books.

Source:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-recognize-urban-fantasy#what-is-urban-fantasy