The biggest shows coming to HBO, Disney+, Netflix and more
There’s no shortage of TV networks and streaming services competing for your hard-earned cash. And as a result there are plenty of upcoming TV shows to gorge on over the coming months.
Last year us square-eyed TV viewers were treated to some truly great series, from the epic historical drama of Shogun to the retro-futuristic, ultra-violence hijinks of Fallout. Not to mention the soaring heroism of Masters of the Air and Larry David’s last grouchy outing as himself in the final season of long-running comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm.
But we’re now well into a new year, which means a fresh crop of televisual bounty is wending its way to our goggleboxes. In this article, we look forward to the best upcoming TV shows of 2025 – our pick of the stuff that streaming services and traditional channels have planned for release on the small screen this year.
Your Friends and Neighbors – Season 1 (Apple TV+)
Jon Hamm stars as a hedge fund manager who, having recently seen both his job and his marriage go the way of the dodo, takes drastic steps to maintain his wealth. Turning burglar and pilfering items from the homes surrounding his own in a swanky, exclusive suburb, he begins to learn the deep, dark secrets of his outwardly respectable neighbours.
If this show ends up being good – and we have high hopes that the talented Hamm has finally found himself a dramatic role to rival his best-known turn as Don Draper in Mad Men – then we have great news for fans: Apple has already renewed it for a second season, so there’s no danger of any stories being left untold.
Release date: 11 April 2025
The Last of Us – Season 2 (Max/Sky)
The millions who have played through Naughty Dog’s game know what’s in store – but we wager they’re ready to have their hearts broken all over again by this TV adaptation. The first season was spectacular and moving, and managed to distil the feel of the game almost perfectly while expanding on it themes in some genuinely interesting ways but, if HBO’s The Last of Us is to truly cement its position as the greatest game adaptation of all time, it really needs to nail Part II properly. It’s a tricky ask, but if anyone’s up to it, the creative team here are.
Release date: 13 April 2025
Poker Face – Season 2 (Sky/Now/Peacock)
Natasha Lyonne shines as unlikely detective Charlie Cale – a casino cocktail waitress with a preternatural ability to detect when a person in lying – in this mystery/comedy/thriller from Knives Out creator Rian Johnson. Seemingly inspired by Columbo’s inverted narrative structure, Poker Face is a case-of-the-week road trip crime comedy where the viewer knows the killer’s identity from the start – and the dramatic thrust comes from following Cale’s process in uncovering the culprit’s method and motives.
This second season, which has a new ‘big bad’ villain pursuing Cale across America, will be 12 episodes long and feature a dizzying list of guest stars including Awkwafina, Method Man, Cynthia Erivo, Giancarlo Esposito, Haley Joel Osment, Justin Theroux, Katie Holmes and Kumail Nanjiani.
Release date: 8 May 2025
Love, Death + Robots – Season 4 (Netflix)
After a three-year hiatus, Netflix’s animated anthology series is returning with 10 new mini-movie tales. The brainchild of film director David Fincher and Deadpool creator Tim Miller, Love, Death + Robots has generally been something of a hit-and-miss affair, with a few highlight stories dotted amongst more forgettable fare, but its sheer range of genres (horror, comedy, action, sci-fi) and visual styles has always made it worth checking out.
Netflix tells us that this forth collection of stories includes ‘dinosaur gladiators, messianic cats, string-puppet rock stars’ and much more, and you can get a taste of what’s on the menu by looking at the first trailer embedded above.
Release date: 15 May 2025
Murderbot – Season 1 (Apple TV+)
Alexander Skarsgård stars as the titular security android in this futuristic comedy-thriller, an adaptation of Martha Wells’ bestselling sci-fi novels. Engineered to be a sophisticated but emotionless killing machine, instinctively following its greedy corporate overlords’ every whim by protecting scientists on a perilous planet, Murderbot instead develops self-awareness – but rather than immediately turn on its masters, it’d rather spend its time binge-watching TV shows in an attempt to understand the universe around it. We can relate.
Release date: 16 May 2025
Nine Perfect Strangers – Season 2 (Prime Video/Hulu)
The Austrian Alps is the setting for this second season of Amazon’s White Lotus rip-off. Perhaps that’s a little harsh, but it’s hard not to see Nine Perfect Strangers – in which Nicole Kidman’s enigmatic psychedelic guru brings together a group of issues-laden people in a luxurious, spectacular setting – as some kind of response to The White Lotus’ success.
Kidman aside, this season comes with a whole new cast including Henry Golding, Christine Baranski, Murray Bartlett (of, yes, The White Lotus fame) and Mark Strong.
Release date: 22 May 2025
Clarkson’s Farm – Season 4 (Prime Video)
A few years ago, very few people would have predicted that Jeremy Clarkson would soon be fronting one of the most wholesome shows on TV. And yet here we are, with this cockle-warming series about the former Top Gear presenter’s new life as a farmer in the Cotswolds – an unexpected powerhouse of cosy reality television.
As well as focussing on Diddly Squat Farm, this fourth season, which opens with four episodes immediately available to stream, will also follow Clarkson’s struggles in getting his pub The Farmer’s Dog up and running.
Release date: 23 May 2025
Ironheart – Season 1 (Disney+)
After being introduced as a supporting character in the 2022 movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams takes centre stage in this six-part TV series. The young genius inventor has created a powerful war suit much like Tony Stark’s, and returned to her hometown of Chicago in order to put it to the test and fulfil her ambitions. But things aren’t going to be smooth, as she finds herself entangled in the machinations of the rakish, dangerous man known as ‘The Hood’.
If it means anything to you, Ironheart is the final entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ‘Phase 5’, so expect it to introduce new characters and themes in order to prep the ground for whatever’s coming next both in the cinema and on Disney+.
Release date: 24 June 2025
Squid Game – Season 3 (Netflix)
The first season of Squid Game was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle TV moments, with the violent Korean thriller rising from obscurity to cultural phenomenon in a matter of weeks. And it deserved to, being a brilliantly crafted satire that succeeded in getting its point across in one series.
Of course, its global success meant a second and this third (and final) season were pretty much inevitable, despite them not feeling necessary from an artistic or creative standpoint. That’s always the way with cultural phenomena, we suppose – we need more death games!
While this no longer feels like required viewing for every Netflix subscriber, we suspect millions will be streaming it just to find out how the whole saga ends.
Release date: 27 June
Alien: Earth (Hulu/Disney+)
It’s fair to say that recent additions to the Alien franchise have been hit and miss, but we hold high hopes for this – the series’ first ever TV show. Set in 2120 (which is two years before the events of the original movie), it concerns a mysterious spacecraft that crashes on Earth. And, needless to say, its deadly contents. Aside from that, we know very little about the plot, but with months to go before its release we expect more revealing trailers to appear soon.
The series, which is being executive produced by Ridley Scott and Noah Hawley (best known for the excellent Fargo TV show), apparently follows the style and mythology of the early films much more than the likes of Prometheus and Romulus.
Release date: Summer 2025
King and Conqueror – Season 1 (BBC)
Ah, 1066 and all that. The story of William of Normandy, Harold Godwinson and the Battle of Hastings is generally among the first bits of history British schoolkids learn about, and it’s absolutely packed with drama on both the grand and human scale.
Odd then, that we’ve rarely seen it represented on the screen. This BBC-produced series is changing all that, with James Norton playing King Harold and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William of Normandy – and while we don’t know a whole lot about it the initial round of shots suggest a grim and gritty look reminiscent of Game of Thrones or The Last Kingdom.
Release date: 2025
Welcome to Derry – Season 1 (Sky/Now/Max)
Serving as a prequel to the 2017 It movie, this supernatural series takes place in Stephen King’s fictional town of Derry, Maine – the setting for many of the horror maestro’s best-known novels and short stories.
Set in the 1960s, this nine-part show will tell the origin story of the demonic Pennywise (played once more by Bill Skarsgård) through a series of catastrophic events that take place in the town whenever the killer clown emerges from hibernation. The plan is to make two more seasons, set in later time periods – but we suppose we’ll have to see how the first season performs before that’s confirmed.
Release date: 2025
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – Season 1 (Sky/Now/Max)
This prequel to Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s three Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, promises to be much smaller in scope than HBO’s other Martin adaptations.
Following the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, and Egg, a Targaryen prince and Ser Duncan’s squire, it’s set around 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones. We’re excited for it mainly because it’s based on Martin’s real, finished stories and its tighter focus means it should be relatively simple to adapt without creating the sort of major plot holes and issues that beset the latter seasons of GOT. This first season will have only six episodes, so we’re hoping for a nice brisk fantasy story without excessive padding. Too much to ask, perhaps…
Release date: Late 2025
