In Hollywood, 2023 will forever be known as the year of Hot Strike Summer. With both the writers and actors guilds on the picket lines, film and television production—and publicity—as we know it (mostly) came to a halt. The work stoppage inevitably wreaked havoc on every network, studio, and streamer’s planned release schedules, which is why there won’t be new episodes of Stranger Things, The White Lotus, or The Last of Us until 2025. But there was enough content in the can, or close enough to it, to make a lot of great television to look forward to next year—even if hotly anticipated titles like Daredevil: Born Again and Blade Runner 2099 aren’t on the list. Here are 15 of the shows, both new and returning, that we can’t wait to watch in 2024.
The Penguin
While there was a lot to like about Matt Reeves’ The Batman, it’s hard to deny that Colin Farrell’s villainous Oz Cobblepot, aka Penguin, stole the show. There’s no greater proof of that than the fact that the actor, who is virtually unrecognizable as one of Batman’s most notable nemeses, got his own spinoff. The limited series, which is set to run for eight episodes, takes place over the span of just one week in which Cobblepot violently climbs his way to the top of Gotham City’s underworld.
US release date: 2024, Max
Echo
Much like Star Wars, Marvel’s slate of television series is getting pretty crowded. But this Hawkeye spinoff is daring to be different (OK, you’ve heard that before). Audiences mainly know Maya Lopez—one of Marvel’s only deaf characters—as a ruthless enforcer for the Tracksuit Mafia, so Echo will serve as an origin story laying out what led the character to where she is. It will also see her revisiting the traumas of her past in order to move forward in her present and reconnect the character to her Native American heritage. Alaqua Cox, who made her acting debut in Hawkeye, will reprise her role as Echo, with Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) coming along for the ride.
US release date: January 10, Disney+
True Detective: Night Country
Could True Detective finally be going back to its creepy, weird, Spaghetti Monster roots? If the early footage is any indication, it sure seems that way. In two creative departures, True Detective’s fourth season will be the first to have its own subtitle and the only season (so far) where Nic Pizzolatto didn’t serve as writer/showrunner. For anyone who’s been following the anthology series, which saw a pretty astounding quality drop between its first and second seasons, these changes could be significant. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis lead the cast as two detectives tasked with investigating the mysterious disappearance of a group of men from a research station in Alaska. Which feels like what might happen if John Carpenter directed an episode of The X-Files (that’s a good thing). Fiona Shaw, Christopher Eccleston, and John Hawkes round out the stellar cast.
US release date: January 14, Max
Death and Other Details
Mandy Patinkin goes full Hercule Poirot (minus the pristine mustache) as Rufus Cotesworth, the world’s greatest detective. He’s trapped on a luxury ocean liner with some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, one of whom may be a murderer. It’s up to Cotesworth and his sidekick to figure it all out.
US release date: January 16, Hulu
Expats
Nicole Kidman’s first big move to the small screen, in Big Little Lies, was an impressive feat for the Oscar winner. Her more recent television output, including the second season of Big Little Lies, The Undoing, Nine Perfect Strangers, Roar, and the utterly baffling Faraway Downs, has been more miss than hit. Could this Prime series, based on Janice Y. K. Lee’s bestselling novel, turn it around? Kidman stars as Margaret, part of a close-knit group of expatriates living and loving in Hong Kong.
US release date: January 26, Prime Video
Masters of the Air
More than a dozen years after The Pacific, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman are returning to World War II with Masters of the Air, the third miniseries in their war trilogy (which began with Band of Brothers in 2001). This time, they’re following the 100th Bomb Group, a group that flew more than 300 combat missions during the war and lost more than half that number of aircraft, earning them the nickname the “Bloody Hundredth.” The miniseries has been a long time coming, with development first announced by HBO back in 2012. One network switch (it’s now an Apple TV+ production) and several Covid-19 delays later, the massive 10-part production is finally almost here with an equally massive roster of big names, including Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, Raff Law, and new Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa.
US release date: January 26, Apple TV+
Avatar: The Last Airbender
“Critically reviled” would be a nice way of describing M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 live-action feature adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the animated Nickelodeon series which was beloved by millions and continues to gain fans thanks to being part of the Netflix library. So this upcoming live-action adaptation might just be Netflix’s way of apologizing for that earlier misstep. The series follows Aang, one of the last living Airbenders (humans who have the power to “bend” one of the four elements: water, air, fire, or earth) and the only one who can “bend” all four elements, which makes him a natural target for evildoers who want to harness his powers.
US release date: February 22, Netflix
Nolly
Helena Bonham Carter looks mesmerizing as Noele “Nolly” Gordon, the star of the long-running British soap opera Crossroads who, at the height of her fame in 1981, is fired from the show. This three-part limited series, created by Russell T. Davies, is a fun, campy look at Nolly’s sudden fall from grace, and the lengths to which she’d go to remain relevant and prove her naysayers wrong. Though it’s set 40 years ago, Nolly’s story of the treatment of aging actresses in the show business machine is still very much of the moment.
US release date: March 17, PBS
3 Body Problem
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are trading dragons for … astrophysics. The Game of Thrones cocreators are back with this adaptation of Liu Cixin’s Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel about how the traumatic past and decisions of an astrophysicist (Rosalind Chao) in the 1960s come back to haunt a team of modern-day scientists and threaten the future of humanity. While the creators are keeping pretty mum on the details, Game of Thrones fans will undoubtedly be tuning in.
US release date: March 21, Netflix
Disclaimer
“Starring Cate Blanchett” would already give us a reason to be excited about Disclaimer, but this adaptation of Renée Knight’s 2015 novel—about a famed television journalist who learns that her deepest secret is about to be revealed in a new book—gets much better. It’s written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón and also features Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lesley Manville, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. You’re welcome.
US release date: 2024, Apple TV+
The Acolyte
With each passing year, it becomes more difficult to keep track of all the TV shows that populate the Star Wars universe. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a little excited when a new story is promised. While The Acolyte involves a former Padawan (Amandla Stenberg) who reunites with her Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae), it’s not to get a refresher course on using the Force. These two are teaming up to investigate a series of odd crimes, making The Acolyte more of a crime-thriller—and what could be a fascinating departure for the franchise.
US release date: 2024, Disney+
Mary & George
Do we need another royal drama? Not really. Would we ever say no to one? Absolutely not—especially one that recounts the wild antics of one of the 17th century’s most memorable schemers. Julianne Moore is bringing her A-game as Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham, a masterful manipulator who carefully plotted and schemed her way into the good graces of the most powerful members of the royal family. In Mary’s case, this meant encouraging her son, George (Nicholas Galitzine), to seduce King James VI of Scotland and I of England (Tony Curran).
US release date: 2024, Starz
The Regime
If you’re still lamenting the loss of Succession, The Regime might help to scratch that itch. The limited series will reunite Frank Rich and Will Tracy, who served as executive producers on Succession (Tracy also wrote a handful of episodes, as well as The Menu) and will do the same here. The film stars Kate Winslet as the chancellor of an oligarchy that seems to be in its final moments of power—a development that doesn’t sit well with the chancellor. The same jet-black humor that was in Succession’s creative DNA is on full display.
US release date: 2024, Max
Rivals
Not-so-friendly neighbors are something a lot of people can relate to. In the case of Rivals, an adaptation of one of the books in Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles, that rivalry doesn’t stay confined to the lavish neighborhood that Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) share. Unfortunately for both men, their bad blood has the power to threaten both their careers and reputations. Ultimately, it comes down to who has more to lose: high-powered television executive Baddingham or Olympian turned MP (and notorious womanizer) Campbell-Black?
US release date: 2024, Disney+
The Sympathizer
What’s better than one Robert Downey Jr.? Multiple Robert Downey Jr.s! The Iron Man star does the multiple-role thing in this spy thriller/satire based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Celebrated filmmakers Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar serve as co-showrunners on the series, which chronicles the challenges facing a French-Vietnamese communist spy in the final days of the Vietnam War.
US release date: 2024, Max