The 39 Most Anticipated New Shows of 2024 (2024)

It's a great year to be a television lover! After historic Hollywood strikes in 2023 significantly delayed production on a number of projects, some of the industry's most rarefied actors, writers, and directors are back to work—and delivering an abundance of transportive TV shows while they're at it.

New original series are overtaking our screens and feeds, from historical reimaginings of some of fashion's most illustrious figures in Apple TV+'s The New Look to depictions of authoritarian regimes that hit close to home via HBO's The Regime.Beloved adaptations like Netflix's One Day and FX's Shōgun have reintroduced their source material to become instant cult classics to a new generation of streamers. And, of course, some of our favorite shows—including The Bear, House of the Dragon, and Feud—have at last returned to our queues.

The nature of our diversified television landscape means this list isn’t even exhaustive—who knows when a niche show might stand out from the high-budget crowd, or which foreign-language program could become the next Squid Game? Our only option is to watch and find out.

Nicole Kidman is back, this time in a long-awaited limited series created by The Farewell’s Lulu Wang, filmed in Hong Kong at the height of COVID-19 restrictions. The series is based on 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, following three expats in the city and how their lives (and secrets) all intertwine.

Ryan Murphy’s Feud anthology returns for its second season, this time with a dramatized reimagining of the high-society women who were scorned after their friend Truman Capote published scathing stories about their secrets and intimate lives. Based on 2021’s nonfiction account Capote’s Women, by Laurence Leamer, this will likely be one of the juiciest and most glamorous television releases of the year. The cast might blow your wig off: Tom Hollander as Capote himself, and the titular swans played by Naomi Watts, Chloë Sevigny, Diane Lane, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, and Molly Ringwald.

The Genius anthology series returns with a season focused on the relationship and parallels between Martin Luther King Jr. (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Malcolm X (Aaron Pierre) over the course of the civil rights movement. The cast includes Weruche Opia as Coretta Scott King and Jayme Lawson as Betty Shabazz.

Technically, a short-lived 1996 CBS series is the original source material here, but you more likely remember the 2005 spy film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. A reboot has been gestating at Prime Video, and at long last, after some changes (Phoebe Waller-Bridge was originally set to costar), Donald Glover and Maya Erskine will appear as the titular couple, with an impressive supporting cast including Sarah Paulson, Michaela Coel, Parker Posey, and Alexander Skarsgård, in what is sure to be one of the more explosive releases this year.

If you don’t have plans for Valentine’s Day (or just miss Normal People), consider watching this British limited series based on the popular 2009 novel of the same name. (There was also a film adaptation in 2011.) This love story spans two decades and stars This Is Going to Hurt breakout star Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) as star-crossed lovers.

This English-language biopic follows a few key fashion designers during and after the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, primarily focusing on Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) and Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn), with guest stars like Glenn Close. The series has already been greenlit for a second season.

With Severance, Silo, and For All Mankind, Apple TV+ has cemented itself as a streaming platform committed to high-budget science-fiction storytelling. Constellation continues this trend, with Noomi Rapace at the helm in a psychological thriller about an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space. The series is directed by Emmy winner Michelle MacLaren (Shining Girls, Breaking Bad, The X-Files).

The highly anticipated live-action adaptation of the Peabody-winning 2005 Nickelodeon animated series is finally upon us. With 2010 film version by M. Night Shyamalan having been widely panned, fans of the original have waited with bated breath to find out if this new adaptation—starring a completely Asian and Indigenous cast—will do justice to the source material.

Rick Grimes returns. This limited spin-off series continues his and Michonne’s story in the greater Walking Dead universe after the events of the original show’s ninth season. As they’re two of the most recognizable figures from the entire franchise at the peak of its popularity, the pressure is on to deliver a satisfying continuation of the story.

Adult animation has been experiencing something of a golden age, lately characterized by last year’s Blue Eye Samurai and Scavengers Reign. Created by Russian Doll writer Cirocco Dunlap, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy follows alien doctors who specialize in treating rare illnesses. Stephanie Hsu is set to star alongside Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne, Keke Palmer, Kieran Culkin, and Sam Smith. Prime Video already greenlit a second season, so you don’t even have to worry about it getting canceled before you have a chance to watch.

Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell and previously adapted into a 1980 Emmy-winning miniseries, this fictional historical drama has been teased as one of the highest-budget releases of the year to come. It chronicles the clash of cultural and political forces in 16th-century Japan.

The Good Wife’s extended universe continues to expand with the return of Elsbeth Tascioni, a quirky fan favorite character (and an Emmy-winning performance by Carrie Preston). Finally front and center, Elsbeth moves to New York City and begins solving murders, in what appears to be a more straightforward police procedural than the serialized storytelling we got used to on The Good Fight from showrunning powerhouses Robert and Michelle King.

Nothing compares to a Kate Winslet HBO series. Following the success of Mare of Easttown, the Academy Award winner returns as the chancellor of a fictional Central European autocracy in this satirical political miniseries. She’s joined by Hugh Grant, Martha Plimpton, and Andrea Riseborough, among others.

This British historical drama is the true story of Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham (Julianne Moore), who molded her son George Villiers (Nicholas Galitzine), the 1st Duke of Buckingham, to seduce King James VI of Scotland and I of England (Tony Curran). It sounds very gay and juicy.

Two decades after appearing on an episode of The Sopranos, Annette Bening is back on television, this time in a starring role alongside Sam Neill. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name and created by Melanie Marnich (The OA, The Affair) Apples Never Fall will follow a picture-perfect American family navigating the secrets that surface in the wake of their matriarch’s disappearance.

Speaking of Andrea Riseborough, she will also star as Alice in this London-based romantic miniseries, which spans 15 years of a tender relationship with Jack (Domhnall Gleeson). The cast is rounded out by Aisling Bea and Aimee Lou Wood, and the show is written and created by Victor Levin (Mad Men, Mad About You).

Palm Royale follows underdog Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig), a woman determined to break into Palm Beach high society in 1969. This period-comedy miniseries was created by Abe Sylvia (Dead to Me), adapting the 2018 novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie, by Juliet McDaniel. The impressive cast includes Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Leslie Bibb, Kaia Gerber, and Laura Dern.

Like Dune and Foundation, 3 Body Problem is based on a sprawling series of science-fiction novels. Chinese author Liu Cixin’s story features multiple timelines and alien civilizations. The Netflix adaptation by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, with Alexander Woo, is highly anticipated by fans of the books and will focus on the future reverberations of actions taken by an astrophysicist in China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s.

As the Bolshevik Revolution unfolds, a lucky Russian aristocrat is saved from death and placed under house arrest in this miniseries starring Ewan McGregor (with a large mustache) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The show is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Amor Towles and is directed by Sam Miller (I May Destroy You).

In 1960s New York, Tom Ripley (Fleabag’s Andrew Scott) is hired by a wealthy man to convince his son to return home from Italy, only to uncover murder and deceit. The show is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley and will also star Dakota Fanning.