2023 offered up some great TV: The Last of Us, a new season of The Wheel of Time, Netflix’s surprisingly good adaptation of One Piece, and much more. And all of those shows are coming back…eventually. These days, TV shows are often matching movies when it comes to scale and spectacle; that means huge budgets, enormous sets, and months of post-production. Because these shows are so complicated and take so much time to make, new seasons can be released years apart from each other. Quality takes time, and there’s a lot of quality out there.
If you want to get excited about what 2024 will offer, we have a guide to all the TV shows worth looking out for. But of the point of this article is to make you sad. Here are all the biggest sci-fi/fantasy show that (most likely) won’t be back until after 2024 is over:
1. The Last of Us season 2 (HBO)
The Last of Us was the first big genre hit of 2023, an adaptation of Naughty Dog’s zombie video game series done up with a coat of HBO polish. The acting was pristine, the budget was off the charts, and the drama crackling. Fans are eager to see this team tackle Naughty Dog’s lightning rod of a sequel, The Last of Us: Part 2.
There was never much chance of that happening in 2024, even after HBO renewed the show shortly after it premiered to impressive ratings. The Last of Us takes a long time to write, a long time to shoot, and a long time to finish. Chances of a quick turnaround dropped to zero after the writers of the WGA went on strike earlier this year, followed by the actors of SAG-AFTRA. The strikes shut down many productions in Hollywood, including The Last of Us. Now that both strikes are over, the plan is to start filming season 2 in February of 2024.
The cast and crew have a long road ahead of them. There’s no chance we’ll be seeing more of Joel and Ellie next year. See you in 2025.
2. The Witcher season 4 (Netflix)
The Witcher is a bit of a hot potato right now. The show, an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels about a professional monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia, debuted in 2019 on Netflix to accolades from fans and critics alike. It started to lose some people in season 2 as it went further afield of the novels. After fans heard that star Henry Cavill would no longer be playing Geralt after season 3, many seemed to write the show off completely.
We think some of those fans are missing out, but there’s no denying that The Witcher has some rebuilding ahead of it. That would take a while under normal circumstances — the show has always taken a gap year between seasons — and will take even longer after production was delayed by the Hollywood strikes.
Nevertheless, The Witcher season 4 is on the way, with Liam Hemsworth subbing in as Geralt. Will folks get over the loss of Henry Cavill? We’ll have to wait until 2025 to find out.
There are many more shows that wont return next year. Click the button below to read on:
3. Stranger Things season 5 (Netflix)
Netflix’s small sci-fi thriller Stranger Things has gotten more ambitious as it’s gone on, and as its scope has grown, so has the wait between new seasons. The fifth season will be the show’s last, and you know creators Matt and Ross Duffer will want to go out with an ’80s-themed bang.
And that will take time. As with a lot of shows on this list, the producers of Stranger Things were taking measures to make sure new episodes could come out sooner rather than later — after all, the longer we wait, the harder it becomes to pass off the young cast members as high schoolers — but then the strikes happened, things shut down, and we viewers are left checking out watches, wondering when the next bus to Hawkins arrives.
The cast and crew of Stranger Things have always turned out a quality season of television. Season 5 will be just as good if not better, but we’ll have to wait until 2025 to watch it.
4. The Mandalorian season 4 (Disney+)
If Disney put their mind to it, they could probably get us a new season of The Mandalorian each year. Fans loved the inaugural adventures of Mando and Baby Yoda when the show premiered on Disney+ back in 2019, and we got a follow-up season the year after.
But after that, things slowed down. Part of that is beyond Disney’s control. As with many other series, production on The Mandalorian season 4 has been delayed by the writers and actors strikes. But part of it is due to Disney’s strategy with its Star Wars TV shows. Rather than produce new episodes of The Mandalorian year after year, Disney hit us with lots of new series, including Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka. It doesn’t want to overload us, so even if they strikes hadn’t happened, the plan was probably always for The Mandalorian to take a gap year.
We’ll have Star Wars shows to watch next year — in fact, we may have more than we can handle — but we won’t see more of Din Djarin and Grogu until 2025. Personally, I think I’d have preferred it if Disney had just concentrated on The Mandalorian from the start, but your mileage may vary.
5. Foundation season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)
This one’s easy. The second season of Foundation, an ambitious adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s high-minded book series, aired on Apple TV+ this year. Apple renewed the show, but not until near the end of the year. That means the cast and crew have to write a new season, shoot the episodes, and do post-production. There’s no way that’ll all get done by the end of 2024. Foundation season 3 will air in 2025, and if there are obstacle I could even see it getting pushed past that, but we’ll hope for the best.
6. Upload season 4 (Amazon Prime Video)
Upload is a sci-fi comedy from Greg Daniels, the guy behind The Office and Parks and Recreation. Those are some serious comedy credentials. It’s about a programmer (Robbie Amell) who dies prematurely and gets uploaded into a digital afterlife. It’s gone for three seasons, but we don’t have an official renewal announcement yet. Daniels was hopeful as of October 2023, but if it hasn’t been renewed already, we can’t imagine it will air in 2024.
7. The Sandman season 2 (Netflix)
The Sandman is a Netflix show based on Neil Gaiman’s comic of the same name, which follows an anthropomorphic being named Dream as he travels to wondrous places like Hell, the Greece of ancient myth, the fairy realm, and Florida. Gaiman’s comic is sprawling and emotionally rich. The first season did an excellent of adapting this seemingly un-adaptable comic for the small screen. Unfortunately, we’ll be waiting a while for the follow-up.
I think you know the story by now: the second season of The Sandman started filming, but had to shut down due to the strikes. Production resume late in the year, but not soon enough for a 2024 release to be practicable.
That said, with The Sandman specifically, there is a little bit of wiggle room. Netflix released a couple new episodes of the show a week after the first season dropped. They were only tangentially related to the main narrative and stood on their own. There are a lot of stories like that in the comic, so in theory Netflix could drop a standalone episode or two before the end of 2024. But the main course won’t be served until 2025.
8. One Piece season 2 (Netflix)
One Piece, the Netflix show based on Eiichiro Oda phenomenally popular manga series, shouldn’t have worked. Netflix has a pretty spotty track record when it coms to turning anime series into live-action TV shows. But this One Piece series retained retained the zippy bounce of the original, all while bringing the story to a whole new audience. Netflix renewed it weeks after the premiere.
However, that renewal came in the midst of the strikes, so the cast and crew couldn’t get moving immediately on a second season. One is coming, but we’ll have to wait until 2025 to see it.
9. Gen V season 2 (Amazon Prime Video)
Finally, we get to a show that aired after the strikes were over. This spinoff of The Boys is set at a superhero college where suspicious goings-on have been noted. The series is every bit as brutal and vulgar as its progenitor, but with a whole new perspectives on the morally bankrupt world of professional superhero-ing. Amazon renewed it in the middle of its season 1 run. It should film in 2024 and premiere in 2025.
10. Wednesday season 2 (Netflix)
Netflix renewed Wednesday way back in January of 2023, and no wonder: the first season of the show was a monster success that had everyone doing Jenna Ortega’s herky-jerky dance and practicing their stone-faced stares. Netflix wanted to get working on a second season of his Addams Family riff as soon as possible.
I’ll bet you can guess what happened: Hollywood shut down from May through September during the strikes, and things were put on hold. Last we checked, they were trying to get production going in the spring of 2024. That likely means a 2025 release date.
11. Twisted Metal season 2 (Peacock)
The first season of Twisted Metal was a pleasantly irreverent riff on the long-running car combat video game series of the same name. Not every video game adaptation needs to have the class and polish of The Last of Us. Sometimes a murderous clown with a secret dream to be a stand-up comedian is enough.
Star Anthony Mackie announced that Twisted Metal will be back for a second season at The Game Awards. That aired late in the year, so we won’t expect more episodes until 2025.
12. The Wheel of Time season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)
The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan stand as one of the most iconic fantasy series written in the past half-century. It was long past time someone adapted them to the screen. Amazon Prime Video is in the middle of taking a good honest swing. The show is bold, bright, and only getting better. Season 2 was an improvement on season 1 in pretty much every way, and buzz is already building for season 3.
Unfortunately, we’ll probably have to wait a while to see the continuing adventures of Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn. The good news is that season 3 is already finished filming. If the post-production team works like the wind, they could, in theory, get new episodes ready for the end of 2024. Sure, The Wheel of Time is a complicated show with lots of special effects, but if filming is in the can, a year should be enough time.
However, we know that Amazon will also release the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in 2024. We doubt they would bring out both of their big high fantasy guns in one year. Our bet is that they’ll save The Wheel of Time season 3 for 2025, whether it’s ready to go beforehand or not. Still, it’s not impossible that we’ll be seeing this one earlier than anticipa
13. Dune: Prophecy (Fall 2024, Max)
Dune: Prophecy is set thousands of years before Frank Herbert’s Dune, recently adapted to film by Denis Villeneuve. This show will explore the origins of the Bene Gesserit, a sisterhood of women able to use advanced mental powers to pull strings at the highest levels of interstellar government. The series will star top-tier talent like Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen, Travis Fimmel as a soldier named Desmond Hart, and Mark Strong as the Emperor of the freaking universe.
Recently, HBO released a sizzle reel highlighting series on deck for 2024, as well as some they had in mind for 2025. Dune: Prophecy didn’t appear in the video at all, suggesting HBO neither has any footage to show off nor is comfortable giving a ballpark at all. With the series in this early state, we don’t think it’ll make it on the 2024 schedule.
14. Good Omens season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)
The Wheel of Time is on the bubble. There’s even less certainly about Good Omens, because Amazon hasn’t yet ordered a new season. In a different world where the strikes never happened, work might have already begun on Good Omens season 3. But you know by now we don’t live in that world.
The first season of Good Omens adapted the satiric fantasy book of the same name by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, who shows up on our list for the second time. The second went beyond the pages of the book to focus on the relationship between the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and the demon Crowley (David Tennant). Season 3 will close out the series with a final arc dreamt up by Gaiman.
Back in October, we heard that Amazon had retained Sheen and Tennant for another season, and writer Nellie Andreeva said that season 3 now seemed “very likely.” So the odds that we’ll get Good Omens season 3 are looking good, but the odds that we get it in 2024 are basically nil.
15. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+)
The newest show on our list may still be airing its first season as you read this. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is all about Godzilla, his huge friends, and the people who try to understand them. Apple has poured a lot of money into this show, and hired stars like Kurt and Wyatt Russell to star in it. There’s been no official renewal announcement yet, but creators Matt Fraction and Chris Black are hopeful. Plus, it seems unlikely that Apple would make this significant an investment without giving the show a chance. It’s renewed Foundation and that show arguably has less buzz. But if Apple does bring back Monarch, there won’t be another season ready by 2025.
