2026 TV Series Guide: Planned Sequels and Releases

What to watch in 2026 — from franchise finales to shows about fear, growing up, and the future.

Adolescence, You, The White Lotus, Black Mirror, The Last of Us. Last year for TV audiences was marked by the release of many sequels and releases of new shows. This season won't be any different when it comes to filling out your watchlist — the film industry keeps actively expanding its TV segment.

The DeTalks team has gathered up-to-date information on release dates, cast, and plot details for some of 2026's most anticipated shows.

Euphoria, Season 3 (HBO)

After a four-year break, the teen drama Euphoria returns, to stop being a teen drama. The show's creators are moving the story forward five years, when the characters are no longer in high school.

The story begins in Mexico, where protagonist Rue (Zendaya) owes a significant debt to drug dealer Laurie (Martha Kelly) and tries to survive and deal with the consequences of the choices she made in previous seasons. Meanwhile, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) get engaged and prepare for their wedding.

There was a four-year gap between seasons two and three, caused by behind-the-scenes production issues. After season two's finale, the show's team spent a long time searching for a new direction for the story, and the script for season three was rewritten multiple times.

The situation was further complicated by the Hollywood strikes of 2023, which effectively froze production, as well as the actors' packed schedules, since by then they'd become stars of major studio projects.

Euphoria's third season is set to premiere April 12. You can read more about the show here.

Blade Runner 2099 (Prime Video)

Blade Runner 2099 is another show whose release was delayed by the Hollywood strikes. The sequel continues the story of the film Blade Runner 2049 (2017) — the show's events take place roughly 50 years after the film, in a dystopian Los Angeles where humans and replicants coexist.

At the center of the story are Olwen (Michelle Yeoh) and Cora (Hunter Schafer). Olwen is a new-generation replicant aware that her 'end of term' is inevitable, but not ready to accept it without a fight. Her journey is a struggle for survival and an attempt to understand whether artificially created life has the right to continue, and to its own choices.

Cora, meanwhile, is an ordinary woman closely tied to the megacity's underground world — corporations, illegal technology, and resistance movements. Together, the two women are forced to confront not just an outside threat, but their own doubts, since the conspiracy at the center of the story calls into question the very future of coexistence between humans and replicants.

Many Blade Runner 2099 fans worried whether the show could preserve the franchise's 'true spirit' — its atmosphere of philosophical cyberpunk and reflections on the nature of humanity.

But according to British actor Tom Burke, who plays one of the lead roles in the show, its aesthetic leans closer to the original 1982 Blade Runner, with its 'baroque,' eclectic mix of cultures and eras, than to the 'sterile' futurism found in some contemporary sci-fi projects.

The show's exact premiere date hasn't been announced yet.

Scarpetta (Prime Video)

Among this year's wide range of genres, viewers will also get the detective show Scarpetta, inspired by real Virginia forensic expert Dr. Marcella Fierro. The lead roles are played by Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Bobby Cannavale, with the first two episodes directed by David Gordon Green.

The plot is built across two timelines at once: it shows Kay Scarpetta's story in the 1990s, when the protagonist was just starting out as a forensic expert, and present-day events, when she returns to her hometown to investigate a new case.

A secondary storyline adds emotional weight: it follows Kay's complicated relationship with her sister, Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis), revealing long-standing family conflicts and secrets.

Scarpetta is based on Patricia Cornwell's novel of the same name (2008). Amazon Prime Video ordered two full seasons of the show while it was still in production, a sign of the studio's strong confidence in the project.

Scarpetta premieres on Prime Video March 11.

Margo's Got Money Troubles (Apple TV+)

Another book-to-screen adaptation arriving next year is a show based on Rufi Thorpe's novel of the same name, Margo's Got Money Troubles (2024). The lead roles are played by Elle and Dakota Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, and Nicole Kidman, with David E. Kelley producing.

The show follows Margo Millet, a 20-year-old woman who, after getting pregnant by her professor and dropping out of college, has to find ways to make ends meet and support herself and her child. The protagonist experiments with the platform OnlyFans while also rethinking her relationship with her family.

The casting choices for the show turned out to be somewhat unexpected. Nick Offerman, for instance, plays Jinx, Margo's father — a formerly marginal figure, sharply contrasting with his usual on-screen roles as restrained or ironic characters.

Just as unexpected is Michelle Pfeiffer's involvement — an actress who rarely appears in TV projects, playing the protagonist's mother, a complicated, un-idealized woman with her own failures.

For what it's worth, the adaptation began filming even before Thorpe's book became a bestseller. Margo's Got Money Troubles premieres April 15.

House of the Dragon, Season 3 (HBO)

Another 2026 sequel is the third season of House of the Dragon. Eight new episodes continue the previous two seasons' story about the fight for power within House Targaryen, in the world of Game of Thrones.

The main characters return in the new season — Rhaenyra, Daemon, and Alicent — alongside new characters joining the story. Among the fresh faces: Lord Ormund Hightower, head of the powerful House of Oldtown, who leads the Greens' forces in the fight for the Iron Throne; Ser Roderick Dustin, a tough northern lord with his own warriors; and Ser Torren Manderly, a representative of the North from House Manderly.

The story also introduces Ser Luthor Largent, Ser John Roxton, and Ser Adrian Redfort — knights from various corners of the realm — along with Alysanne 'Black Aly' Blackwood, a skilled hunter and archer.

The gap between seasons two and three was the longest in the franchise's history — nearly 20 months. Some fans even grew frustrated with the long wait. The exact premiere date for House of the Dragon's third season hasn't been announced yet, but it's tentatively planned for summer.

For more on how fanbases affect casting, scripts, and the reputation of entire film projects, read here.