Release schedules are in flux following Hollywood’s historic dual strikes. Here’s a platform-by-platform guide to what might actually make it to air in the new year.
Every broadcast network and streaming platform is focused on the same thing heading into 2024: trying to get back up and running following a year in which Hollywood’s historic dual strikes shut down production for months.
In the wake of the writers and performers strikes, streamers and networks are attempting to solidify their programming pipelines as several scripted comedies and dramas have been hampered by the work stoppage. HBO, for example, was quick to announce that the third seasons of Euphoria and The White Lotus as well as the sophomore run of The Last of Us will now arrive in 2025. Other platforms, like Amazon, have scrapped programming because delayed production is now affecting their marketing plans for 2025, when the streamer already has a heavy spend planned.
With all that in mind, The Hollywood Reporter has surveyed the TV landscape to see what new scripted (and U.S.-produced) comedies and dramas may actually make their debuts in the year ahead. Below is a look at each of the major platforms and what to expect as the calendar turns to 2024. Remember, as in the past, there is no guarantee at play here as we’ve seen global pandemics and labor strife delay even the biggest of shows. (Premiere dates indicated when available. Keep track of all the new and returning show launch dates with THR’s handy guide.)
The Jennifer Salke-led streamer has high hopes for its adaptation of best-selling video game franchise Fallout, from genre producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan (Westworld). The big-budget drama (due April 12) stars Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets) opposite Walton Goggins as Amazon hopes for success comparable to HBO’s The Last of Us. Elsewhere, Donald Glover returns to the screen opposite Maya Erskine (PEN15) instead of Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the tweaked reboot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Feb. 2) that also features Sarah Paulson and Sharon Horgan among its guest cast. Rounding out the high-profile expectations for Amazon is Expats (Jan. 26), the Nicole Kidman drama from Lulu Wang that Salke picked up all the way back in 2018.
While we’re all waiting to hear about the future of Ted Lasso, the iPhone maker and streamer continues make a splash with compelling originals featuring high-profile talent. Among them is the star-studded comedy Palm Royale (spring), a look at high society featuring the likes of Kristen Wiig, Ricky Martin, Laura Dern and none other than Carol Burnett. Also expected in the spring is The Big Cigar, a limited series based on the 2012 Playboy article that chronicles the manhunt for the founder of the Black Panther party who, with the help of a film producer, tries to flee to Cuba. Andre Holland stars. In the first quarter, meanwhile, the streamer overseen by Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht debuts The New Look (Feb. 14), a Paris-set historical fashion drama featuring Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior, Juliette Binoche as Coco Chanel and Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior. And in January, Apple — not HBO — takes flight with Masters of the Air, the Steven Spielberg- and Tom Hanks-produced follow-up to Band of Brothers and The Pacific starring Austin Butler and Callum Turner.
What is Disney+ without Marvel and Star Wars fare? After a year in which the streamer watched TV takes on legacy titles fizzle (RIP, Muppets Mayhem, National Treasure, Willow, Mighty Ducks), Disney+ is hoping Marvel fatigue won’t impact Hawkeye spinoff Echo, starring Alaqua Cox alongside Daredevil’s Charlie Cox and Vincent D’ONofrio, when it arrives Jan. 10, or WandaVision offshoot Agatha: Darkhold Diaries with Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza (Q4). On the animated front, X-Men ’97 is likely to be a slam dunk when it arrives early in the new year. Over at Lucasfilm, expect Leslye Headland’s Star Wars: The Acolyte starring Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith and Squid Game breakout Lee Jung-jae, as well as the Jude Law-led Skeleton Crew.
FX is a prime example of the scheduling challenges that everyone across the film and TV spectrum is facing. Shogun, the biggest-budgeted show the John Landgraf-led cable network has ever mounted, was originally poised to bow in 2023 but is now firmly on the schedule to launch Feb. 27 on Hulu, FX’s streaming home. As I wrote this time a year ago, the limited series based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel promises to be the cable network’s largest international-scale production to date. Elsewhere, the cable network known for quality bows The Veil, starring Elisabeth Moss in a performance that industry observers are calling one of the Emmy-winner’s best yet. And what is a most-anticipated list without a helping of Ryan Murphy, who returns to FX after a seven-year break with the second season of Feud. The new season of the anthology, Capote vs. The Swans (Jan. 31, the next day on Hulu) featuring Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Tom Hollander and the late Treat Williams.
The Casey Bloys-led premium cable network may have had one of the worst shows of 2023 with since canceled The Idol, but its 2024 looks stacked. How’s this for a combo: Sam Mendes and Veep’s Armando Iannucci with a showrunner, Jon Brown, who counts both Veep and Succession among his credits taking on the beleaguered superhero genre in a half-hour comedy about the behind-the-scenes of a fictional struggling superhero movie with Aya Cash (You’re the Worst) and Himesh Patel (Yesterday) leading the cast of The Franchise (fall). Then there’s The Regime (spring), which will fill The Crown thirst and features a cast that includes Kate Winslet, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Grant and Martha Plimpton. Not to be outdone, the cabler has the A24 mini The Sympathizer, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, that features Robert Downey Jr. playing multiple roles opposite Sandra Oh.
Showtime may have passed on Mandy Patinkin’s family comedy, but Hulu has the beloved star on the case in Death and Other Details, a White Lotus-like murder-mystery drama set aboard a cruise liner due Jan. 16. Elsewhere, limited series We Were the Lucky Ones brings The Act grad Joey King back to the streamer for the Holocaust survival drama. Then there’s Interior Chinatown, a crime drama that sounds like a show within a show meets Jury Duty, starring Jimmy O. Yang and directed by Taika Waititi. Rounding out Hulu’s high-profile bows is Under the Bridge, a true-crime series starring Riley Keough, Lily Gladstone and Archie Panjabi and exec produced by Hulu’s go-to hitmaker, Liz Tigelaar.
Yes, Max is still the easiest way to watch HBO originals without cable, but its originals still have a prominent place on the platform. Timed to election year, the Bloys-led streamer will get political with Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec’s The Girls on the Bus, based on a chapter in author Amy Chozick’s memoir, Chasing Hilary. The series stars Supergirl grad Melissa Benoist and marks a new chapter in Berlanti’s prolific TV career. Max will also lean hard into parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s trove of IP with Dune: Prophecy, the long-gestating prequel series starring Emily Watson, Olivia Williams and Travis Fimmel, as DC’s James Gunn TV era officially begins with The Batman offshoot The Penguin starring Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti.
Like FX, one of the streamer’s highest-profile new shows was bumped out of 2023 and into 2024 was 3 Body Problem — the first post-Game of Thrones show from creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss — finally arrives March 21. In the works since 2020, the drama that counts Alexander Woo as co-showrunner on the sci-fi epic stars Eiza González (Baby Driver), Game of Thrones grads John Bradley, Liam Cunningham and Jonathan Pryce, among others. Elsewhere, to say the interest in the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender (Feb. 22) is high would be an understatement as Netflix started the marketing push for the drama featuring Daniel Dae Kim, Amber Midthunder and Utkarsh Ambudkar in November, tied to the 100-day marker. On the comedy front, The Good Place creator Mike Schur reteams with Ted Danson for a new take on The Mole Agent and Dead to Me’s Liz Feldman has lined up an all-star cast for No Good Deed with Ray Romano, Lisa Kudrow, Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson and Abbi Jacobson.
Billy Bob Thornton heads to West Texas for Taylor Sheridan’s newest series, Land Man, based on the Boomtown podcast about the oil industry. The streamer is also expected to see Showtime’s George Clooney-directed The Department bow in 2024.
A remnant from the Susan Rovner era at the streamer, Seth MacFarlane’s live-action Ted (Jan. 11) prequel series takes the talking teddy back to 1993 with Parenthood’s Max Burkholder taking on the role previously played by Mark Wahlberg in the films. Elsewhere, the streamer brings Annette Bening back to television in Apples Never Fall, based on the novel by Big Little Lies’ Liane Moriarty. Sam Neill and Alison Brie co-star in the family/mystery drama. Also coming is Those About to Die, inspired by Daniel Mannix’s acclaimed novel, a multi-season drama set in the world of ancient Rome’s gladiatorial sports, from director and exec producer Roland Emmerich and starring Anthony Hopkins and Iwan Rheon.