6 Upcoming HBO Shows, Ranked by Hype

I have already argued with people about television episodes that nobody has actually seen. That's the embarrassing part of being genuinely obsessed with this stuff. A casting announcement arrives, somebody describes the premise of a new adaptation, or an actor casually mentions a particular storyline, and suddenly I'm defending creative decisions that haven't even been filmed. The disappointment could be enormous. Apparently, that possibility has never discouraged me. But anticipation becomes especially dangerous when a project has something genuinely exciting to build upon. A brilliant source novel, unfinished character relationships, a creative team with something to prove, or an entire fictional world that deserves considerably more time than a movie could ever provide. HBO has several opportunities to deliver television that people will be arguing about for years. I already know which ones I'm most impatient to watch — and here are 8 upcoming ones that I can’t wait for. 6 'Dune: Prophecy' Season 2 (TBA) Image via HBO Set approximately 10,000 years before the rise of Paul Atreides, Dune: Prophecy follows Harkonnen sisters Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula (Olivia Williams) as they manipulate the political and religious forces shaping humanity's future. Their work within the Sisterhood lays the foundations for the organization that will eventually become the Bene Gesserit. The second season continues their struggle for influence as threats to their carefully constructed plans become increasingly difficult to contain. The first season occasionally buried its most interesting relationships beneath an enormous amount of mythology. That's precisely why I'm curious about what happens next. Valya's extraordinary determination to control humanity's future has already created devastating personal complications, especially within her own family. Showrunner Alison Schapker has eight episodes to develop those tensions, with Indira Varma, Tom Hollander, and Ashley Walters joining the cast. The potential is considerable. I want the political maneuvering to become as emotionally vicious as the Harkonnens themselves. 5 'The Chain' (TBA) Image via HBO A mother receives a phone call informing her that her daughter has been kidnapped. The instructions are horrifyingly simple. Pay a ransom, abduct another child, and force that child's parents to repeat the process. Her own daughter will only be released once the next family complies. The Chain adapts Adrian McKinty's bestselling thriller, with Jodie Comer starring as Rachel, the mother forced into this impossible situation. I desperately want to see what Damon Lindelof does with that premise. He is writing and showrunning the eight-episode HBO adaptation, having previously created The Leftovers and HBO's Watchmen. Those shows were extraordinary at forcing characters to confront situations where every available answer carried terrible consequences. Here, the central horror is almost offensively efficient. Somebody has discovered how to turn a parent's love into a criminal weapon. HBO has indicated that Lindelof will expand the novel's mythology, and that prospect alone makes this considerably more intriguing than an ordinary kidnapping thriller. 4 'Crazy Rich Asians' (TBA) Image via WB Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) discovered that her boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) belonged to one of Singapore's wealthiest families in the 2018 romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians. Their relationship became a battleground for family expectations, inherited privilege, and the formidable disapproval of Nick's mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh). HBO's upcoming sequel series will continue their story, bringing back Wu, Golding, Ronny Chieng, and Yeoh for an eight-episode drama. I'm particularly delighted that this is becoming a television series instead of another two-hour movie. Kevin Kwan's novels contain enough wealthy relatives, poisonous social rivalries, romantic complications, and outrageous displays of status to sustain entire seasons. Adele Lim, who co-wrote the film, is returning as showrunner, with original director Jon M. Chu among the executive producers. Production is planned for 2027. The prospect of spending more time with Eleanor alone is tempting. Few characters can make an apparently polite family conversation feel quite so dangerous. 3 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' Season 2 (2027) Image via HBO Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) is an enormous hedge knight with a stubborn sense of honor and a remarkable talent for finding trouble. His young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) is secretly a Targaryen prince, which makes their adventures rather more politically complicated than Dunk realizes. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms brought their friendship to television through George R. R. Martin's Dunk and Egg stories, and the second season will adapt the novella The Sworn Sword. I could watch these two travel across Westeros arguing about practically anything. Their chemistry is the entire attraction, and the next story presents a wonderfully different challenge. Dunk enters the service of Ser Eustace Osgrey and becomes entangled in a land and water dispute involving Lady Rohanne Webber. Showrunner Ira Parker understands the appeal of keeping these adventures intimate. The stakes are smaller than the struggles for the Iron Throne, but that allows loyalty, wounded pride, and ordinary decency to become enormously important. With a 2027 return planned, I'm particularly excited to see Dunk attempting diplomacy when his greatest talent remains hitting things with a sword. 2 'The Last of Us' Season 3 (TBA) Image via HBO The Last of Us began with Joel (Pedro Pascal) escorting Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across an America devastated by a fungal pandemic, gradually developing a father-daughter bond that changed both their lives. The second season pushed Ellie into a devastating conflict involving Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman whose own experiences challenge everything Ellie believes about justice and revenge. Season 3 is expected to explore more of Abby's perspective, continuing the story's increasingly complicated examination of violence and its consequences. This is where the adaptation could become genuinely extraordinary. Anybody familiar with The Last of Us Part II knows how aggressively the game challenges players to reconsider their loyalties. Spending substantial time with somebody you've been conditioned to resent is a remarkable narrative gamble. Craig Mazin, who continues as showrunner, now has the opportunity to explore that moral discomfort through Dever's performance. And I cannot stop thinking about how audiences will respond when familiar events acquire another perspective. The greatest attraction here is the possibility of making viewers question their own emotional allegiances. That's considerably more ambitious than simply delivering another season of excellent post-apocalyptic television. 1 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' (2026-) Image via HBO Harry Potter (Dominic McLaughlin) is an eleven-year-old orphan living with relatives who treat him as an inconvenience until a letter arrives inviting him to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There, he meets Ron Weasley (Alastair Stout) and Hermione Granger (Arabella Stanton), discovers the truth about his parents, and encounters a magical world still haunted by the dark wizard responsible for their deaths. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone begins HBO's ambitious new adaptation of J. K. Rowling's novels, with the first season scheduled for Christmas 2026. I have a ridiculous amount of affection for the first book's smaller details. The excitement of receiving a Hogwarts letter. Discovering Diagon Alley. Getting lost inside the castle. Those wonderful early friendships before anybody understands how dangerous the coming years will become. Francesca Gardiner is writing and showrunning the series, with Mark Mylod directing multiple episodes. The cast also includes John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Snape, and Nick Frost as Hagrid. But the enormous challenge is emotional rather than technical. The original films already occupy an extraordinary place in people's lives. This adaptation has the opportunity to spend an entire television season making Hogwarts feel like somewhere we genuinely attend school. If it captures that experience, rather than simply reproducing familiar movie moments, I might become completely unreasonable about it. Harry Potter Release Date 2026 - 2026 Showrunner Francisca Gardiner Directors Mark Mylod Writers Francesca Gardiner Cast Dominic McLaughlin Harry Potter Arabella Stanton Hermione Granger Alastair Stout Ron Weasley