The Most Anticipated TV and Streaming Shows of 2024: New and Returning Shows We Can’t Wait to See (original) (raw)
Just when things were getting back to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic-caused shutdown, Hollywood was derailed by drawn-out strikes from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA guilds. This shifted a lot of production schedules, particularly among broadcast shows that saw new (CBS’s Elsbeth) and returning programing (ABC’s Abbott Elementary) bumped to early 2024. Streamers also saw upsets, such as the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things shifting to 2025 and, with its production not starting until spring 2024, the same might also be true for the second season of its Wednesday.
But this news is not as ominous as it sounds. Hollywood is a resilient industry and a year is a long time (especially since 2024 is a leap year). There are plans for several highly anticipated new and returning programs; some even have official premiere dates. We’ve listed some of our favorites below, including Disney+’s Kathryn Hahn-starring WandaVision spin-off, Agatha All Along, and the return of Interview with the Vampire on AMC+, as well as Emmy-bait shows like HBO’s The Regime starring Kate Winslet and The Sympathizer on Max.
We’ll update this list as new titles and more details become available. Did we forget your favorite program? Sound off in the comments.
[Updated 9/26/2024]
September
100% Matlock: Season 1 (2024) (CBS)
Starring: Kathy Bates, Skye P. Marshall
Premiere Date: September 1, 2024
Kathy Bates plays a septuagenarian who comes out of retirement to return to the law. The trailer for the series references both the first version of Matlock, which starred Andy Griffith as the titular criminal defense attorney, and Perry Mason, another legendary justice-seeker from the past who recently saw a revival. (That one starred Matthew Rhys).
My Brilliant Friend: The Story of the Lost Child (HBO)
Starring: Alba Rohrwacher, Irene Maiorino, Fabrizio Gifuni
Premiere Date: September 9, 2024
The fourth, and final, book adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s hypnotic Neapolitan Novels series checks in one last time with narrator Elena Greco (now played by Alba Rohrwacher) and her 60+-year kinship with childhood bestie (or maybe worst enemy?) Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo (now played by Irene Maiorino).
High Potential: Season 1 (ABC)
Starring: Kaitlin Olson, Judy Reyes, Daniel Sunjata, Maia Jae Bastidas
Premiere Date: September 17, 2024
A new series that was booted to the 2024-25 season due to the WGA and SAG-AFtRA strikes, it stars Kaitlin Olson as a single mother of three who accidentally helps solve a case when she rearranges evidence during her shift as a cleaner for the police department. The series is created by Lost and Daredevil’s Drew Goddard.
Agatha All Along (Disney+)
Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, Joe Locke, Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata
Premiere Date: September 18, 2024
Hide your dogs. Kathryn Hahn will return as her WandaVision breakout character, Agatha Harkness, to star in this Marvel limited series. This show finds the powerful witch, who had masqueraded as nosey neighbor “Agnes” on the first show, free from her confines of a New Jersey suburb but also powerless. So she relies on a few friends for help.
New cast members include Patti LuPone as the 450-year-old Sicilian witch Lilia Calderu, Aubrey Plaza as the witch Rio Vidal, Joe Locke as familiar Billy Kaplan and Sasheer Zamata as sorceress Jennifer Kale.
The Penguin (Max)
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Michael Kelly
Premiere Date: September 19, 2024
This eight-episode DC Studios show is set one week after the events of Matt Reeves’ film The Batman and looks at Oswald “Oz” Cobb / Penguin’s (Colin Farrell) rise to power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld. Created by Impulse’s Lauren LeFranc, the series also stars Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, the daughter of Gotham’s late and former crime boss, Carmine Falcone, and Michael Zegen as her brother Alberto Falcone. Michael Kelly also stars as Johnny Vitti, an underboss of the Falcone crime family.
Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
Starring: Kristen Bell, Adam Brody
Premiere Date: September 26, 2024
Created by Erin Foster, this is a romantic comedy about what happens when an agnostic woman and a rabbi fall for each other. Justine Lupe and Timothy Simons also star.
October
98% Heartstopper Season 3 (Netflix)
Starring: Kit Connor, Joe Locke
Premiere Date: October 3, 2024
The British coming-of-age drama based on Alice Oseman’s webcomic and graphic novel returns for a third season and with a big question: Can Joe Locke’s Charlie Spring get up the nerve to tell Kit Connor’s Nick Nelson that he loves him?
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (Netflix)
Starring: Hayley Atwell, Allen Maldonado
Premiere Date: October 10, 2024
Hayley Atwell voices titular tomb raider Lara Croft in this animated series that’s meant to be a connecter between the events of 2018 video game Shadow of the Tomb Raider and more recent iterations of the franchise.
Disclaimer (Apple TV+)
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen
Premiere Date: October 11, 2024
Acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.
Rivals (Hulu)
Starring: David Tennant, Alex Hassell, Aidan Turner
Premiere Date: October 18, 2024
Set against the backdrop of power-grabbing social elites, Rivals dives headfirst into the ruthless world of independent television in 1986, where hair-dos are big and ambitions are even bigger. Deals are brokered in boardrooms, as well as bedrooms. Nobody can be sure who will come out on top. With every man and woman out only for themselves, can true love really blossom?
November
100% Outlander: Season 7 (2023) Part 2 (Starz)
Starring: Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin
Premiere Date: November 22, 2024
The second half of historical drama _Outlander_‘s penultimate season comes in late 2024, meaning we’re getting even so closer to the final days of Caitriona Balfe’s time-traveling doctor Claire and her Scottish soldier, Sam Heughan’s Jamie. Set during the Revolutionary War, the duo must decide which side is truly an ally (and maybe they can also stay out of trouble). Meanwhile, in the more recent past of the 1980s, their daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and her family face their own dangers.
Outlander will end with its eighth season. But a prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, is already in the works.
Cross (Prime Video)
Starring: Aldis Hodge, Isaiah Mustafa, Juanita Jennings
Premiere Date: November 14, 2024
Alex Cross is a detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, in order to identify—and ultimately capture—the murderers.
84% Yellowstone: Season 5 (2022) Part 2 (Paramount Network)
Starring: Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille
Premiere Date: November 2024
After delays due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the final episodes of Paramount Network’s blockbuster hit will air in November 2024. Other shows in the Yellowstone orbit, titled 1944 and 2024, are also in the works.
DECEMBER
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Disney+)
Starring: Jude Law, Ryan Keira Armstrong, Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, Jaleel White
Premiere Date: December 3, 2024
Another live-action Star Wars series without a definite release date, Skeleton Crew is a coming-of-age story that takes place during the same time period as The Mandalorian, following four lost kids trying to make their way home across the galaxy. It was co-created by Christopher Ford and Jon Watts, who worked together on Spider-Man: Homecoming before Watts went on also to direct Spider-Man: Far from Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Fall
Big Mouth will end with its eighth season. (Photo by Netflix)
Big Mouth: Season 8 (Netflix)
Starring: Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein
Premiere Date: Fall 2024
Just like puberty, eventually Big Mouth will come to an end. The upcoming eighth season of the raunchy (and horny) animated comedy will be its last.
The Librarians: The Next Chapter
Starring: Jake Stormoen, Anand Desai-Barochia
Premiere Date: Fall 2024
A spin-off of the TNT series that starred Rebecca Romijn and Noah Wyle and was about custodians of the world’s most powerful and dangerous supernatural artifacts, the official logline for this show is that it “centers on a Librarian from the past who time-traveled to the present and now finds himself stuck here.”
TBD 2024
The Joe Schmo Show (TBS)
Starring: Cat Deeley
Premiere Date: 2024
One of the first reality shows to make fun of reality shows, the original The Joe Schmo Show aired on Spike TV in the aughts and followed a group of people who came together to appear on a reality TV show. The twist? Only one of them wasn’t an actor playing a stereotype of a reality TV contestant. Now with the success of shows like Amazon Freevee’s Jury Duty, which follows a fake trial with a fake jury where everyone is in on the gag except one guy, and the reality-dating-show-that-just-won’t-die, F-Boy Island, TBS has decided to revive this program and has tapped So You Think You Can Dance’s Cat Deeley as its host.
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! (Max)
Starring: Matt Oberg, Kaley Cuoco
Premiere Date: 2024
The spin-off no one asked for but also maybe wanted? This show focuses on one of the break-outs of Max’s Harley Quinn animated series: Matt Oberg’s Kite Man, a supervillain struggling for respect from his peers thanks to his less-than-scary (or useful) super power of using kite-based weapons to commit crimes.
Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel. (Photo by Daniel McFadden / Marvel Studios)
Marvel Zombies (Disney+)
Starring: Iman Vellani
Premiere Date: 2024
Growing increasingly more meta by the day, this Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series is a spin-off of an episode of the producers’ What If? animated series. That anthology program, which also airs on Disney+, posits theoretical situations involving various Marvel characters in alternate time lines. (So, in this instance, what if … zombies?).
The series will, reportedly, focus on Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel lead, Kamala Khan.
Gabriel Basso stars in The Night Agent on Netflix. (Photo by Dan Power / Netflix)
The Night Agent: Season 2 (Netflix)
Starring: Gabriel Basso, Amanda Warren
Premiere Date: 2024
The Burial star Amanda Warren joins the second season of creator Shawn Ryan’s popular action thriller. The series, which is based on the books by Matthew Quirk, stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland. An FBI agent stationed to work the night shift at the White House, Peter discovered (and then thwarted) a major terrorist conspiracy last season. This lead to a big promotion for Peter. But does it also mean more danger?
Noah Centineo stars in The Recruit on Netflix. (Photo by Netflix)
The Recruit: Season 2 (Netflix)
Starring: Noah Centineo
Premiere Date: 2024
The espionage drama, which is created by The Rookie’s Alexi Hawley, stars Noah Centineo as a recent hire to the CIA who very quickly becomes immersed in a major case of international politics. He managed to survive the first season, which was released in 2022. Can he do it again?
*Editor’s note: Alexander Woo is married to the author of this article.
Thumbnail images by ©Max