It’s been a huge year for science fiction television. From The Last of Us in January to What If...? Season 2 in the last few days of the year, there’s been endless entertainment for genre fans across cable and streaming alike — even if some series got delayed due to Hollywood strikes that reshaped the industry for the better.
While we’ll likely still feel the effects of those strikes well into 2024, there’s still plenty of exciting sci-fi (and fantasy, and horror) to get excited for this year. It’s the nature of television that more shows will likely get added to the schedule later on, but here’s everything currently slated for 2024 to get excited about, from the high-profile adaptations to franchise experiments and everything in between.
15. Echo
Release Date: January 10, 2024 on Disney+ and Hulu
Marvel is kicking off 2024 with a bang. Spinning off of Hawkeye, Echo follows Deaf character Maya Lopez as she returns to her Choctaw community to seek revenge against the supervillain Kingpin. Echo is notably the first MCU show released under the “Marvel Spotlight” label, a collection of projects that focus on more underseen characters. It’s also the first MCU show to be rated TV-MA, so it’s going to be an intense watch. With all five episodes releasing at once, you might want to clear a couple of hours to get through it all in one sitting.
14. True Detective: Night Country
Release Date: January 14, 2024 on HBO
True Detective has been hit-and-miss since its nearly-perfect first season, but Night Country looks to bring the HBO series back to its roots with a mystery set in Alaska and starring Jodie Foster. In the trailer for the season, it looks like that strange spiral from Season 1 is making a return, so this may be more supernatural than just true(ish) crime. Night Country could be the season where everything snaps back into place.
13. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Release Date: February 2, 2024 on Prime Video
Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in this spy comedy based on the 2005 film of the same name. The story follows two assassins as they navigate their espionage careers and their marriage. Imagine it like The Americans but with fewer wigs and more jokes. With a supporting cast boasting the likes of Sarah Paulson, Parker Posey, and Michaela Coel, this series is bound to become a major player in Prime Video’s expanding genre roster.
12. Avatar: The Last Airbender
Release Date: February 22, 2024 on Netflix
It’s been a long time coming. After a tumultuous path to production, Nickelodeon’s smash-fit fantasy animated series is finally being adapted into a TV series that seems a lot more promising than the disastrous 2010 feature from M. Night Shyamalan. Percy Jackson and the Olympians proved that a streaming series could forgive the sins of a lackluster 2010 movie, so signs are looking good that Avatar will live up to fans’ lofty expectations.
11. 3 Body Problem
Release Date: March 21, 2024 on Netflix
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss may have fumbled that show’s ending — which may or may not be why their Star Wars trilogy was quietly canceled — but they are looking to turn things around with an epic new sci-fi series. Based on the critically acclaimed novels, 3 Body Problem follows a Chinese astrophysicist who makes one decision in the 1960s that ends up having huge ramifications over time and space — a perfect fit for Netflix’s time-bending pedigree that includes shows like Dark, 1899, and Bodies.
10. Fallout
Release Date: April 12, 2024 on Prime Video
After The Last of Us proved video games could make for great prestige TV series, Westworld masterminds Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are attempting to do the same with video game institution Fallout. Set in a nuclear wasteland, Fallout doesn’t adapt any specific game in the series, instead depicting an entirely new adventure in this familiar post-apocalypse — the perfect choice for an open-world game where experiences vary.
9. The Boys Season 4
Release Date: April 12, 2024 on Prime Video
The Boys is now a franchise in its own right, spawning both an animated anthology and a college-focused spinoff (with more on the way). But in 2024, the action reverts back to the original series, which will show the aftermath of Homelander’s fall from grace and the division that’s tearing through the country as the question of Supes gets more and more contentious. Oh, and there’s now a Supe-murdering contagion in the mix too, just for fun.
8. Invincible Season 2 Part 2
Release Date: Early 2024 on Prime Video
Invincible kept fans hanging by dividing its second season into two parts. The first four episodes premiered in Fall 2023, while the last four are still unscheduled. After the mid-season finale brought Mark’s estranged father Omni-Man back front and center before ending on a huge cliffhanger, there’s a lot that needs to be worked out in the rest of the season. Hopefully, fans won’t have to wait too much longer to find out what happens.
7. House of the Dragon Season 2
Release Date: Summer 2024 on HBO
House of the Dragon made a big splash in 2022 with a prequel full of incest, gore, dragons, and political scheming — exactly what Game of Thrones fans have come to expect. But in Season 2, all the bubbling tensions from Season 1 have erupted into all-out warfare, and every family will have to decide between the Greens and the Blacks. Let the Dance of the Dragons commence!
6. Agatha: Darkhold Diaries
Release Date: Late 2024 on Disney+
Agatha: Darkhold Diaries (previously known as Agatha: House of Harkness, previously known as Agatha: Coven of Chaos) has been keeping fans guessing ever since it was announced. The spinoff follows WandaVision breakout star Kathryn Hahn as her witchy villain Agatha Harkness. This time around, she’ll be joined by the likes of Joe Locke, Aubrey Plaza, and Patti LuPone, a chaotic collection of charisma that’s sure to inject more whimsy into an increasingly dark and dreary MCU.
5. The Penguin
Release Date: Late 2024 on Max
The Batman changed how we see the Caped Crusader, but it also introduced us to an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin. Set one week after The Batman, Farrell will be joined by Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone as Gotham copes with the power vacuum left in the wake of Carmine Falcone’s demise.
4. The Rings of Power Season 2
Release Date: 2024 on Prime Video
Prime Video did the impossible and found more to say about The Lord of the Rings with The Rings of Power, a prequel set thousands of years before the main timeline that changed the perspective on Middle Earth (especially Sauron) forever. While Season 2 doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, filming wrapped in mid-2023 so it should be only a matter of time before we can sink back into Tolkien’s world again.
3. Skeleton Crew
Release Date: 2024 on Disney+
There are only two Star Wars series slated for 2024, but they’re both incredibly exciting. Skeleton Crew, created by Spider-Man director Jon Watts, is a youth-focused adventure featuring Jude Law that’s attracted some huge names to direct various episodes, including recent Oscar winners The Daniels, The Green Knight’s David Lowery, Minari’s Lee Isaac Chung, and Star Wars mainstay Bryce Dallas Howard. With any luck, it could be the Stranger Things of Star Wars.
2. The Acolyte
Release Date: 2024 on Disney+
This year’s other new Star Wars show is doing something the franchise needs desperately: paying attention to both the past and the Sith. Showrun by Leslye Headland and starring Amandla Stenberg, The Acolyte is set about a century before the prequels and follows a former Padawan as she reunites with her old master to investigate a mysterious threat. Expect some really deep Force lore and our first live-action look at the High Republic era.
1. Daredevil: Born Again
Release Date: 2024 on Disney+
From 2000s misfire to beloved Netflix series to cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk, Daredevil has been through more ups and downs than almost any superhero franchise. Now, the Man Without Feat is getting his moment in the MCU spotlight. Daredevil: Born Again will join Echo under the Marvel Spotlight banner as a TV-MA street-level adventure. While the plot details are anyone’s guess after the first stab at the story was scrapped, the return of Matt Murdock to the MCU will undoubtedly be the highlight of any MCU TV fan’s 2024.
