The best upcoming TV shows coming soon on Disney+, Netflix, Max, Apple TV and linear TV
Being a “cord cutter” and streaming all your TV entertainment was supposed to simplify things, but nowadays there’s a truly bewildering number of networks and streaming services vying for that hard-earned subscription money. They all want your cash, and as a result there are loads of upcoming TV shows arriving in the remaining months of 2025 – a strategy to tempt you into either subscribing for the first time or renewing your monthly payment.
We’re now well into the autumn, and the past few months of shows have delivered some extremely solid entertainment, with the latest seasons of Severance, The Rehearsal and Andor being particular highlights for us. Thankfully, there are still loads more on the way – from fresh seasons of beloved dramas to miniseries to all-new shows. 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.
It: 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: October 2025
Pluribus – Season 1 (Apple TV+)
Thanks to Apple’s slow drip-drip of tiny teasers (like the one above) we know next to nothing about this all-new drama series, other than (a) it’s about a virus that makes those who catch it exasperatingly happy and (b) it’s the new show from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul mastermind Vince Gilligan, starring the latter’s Rhea Seehorn.
Seehorn’s character has been described as the most miserable person on the planet – and potentially the world’s best hope against a cheerfulness epidemic that could bring down the human race. That’s more than enough for us, to be honest – we’ll be streaming it the minute it’s available on Apple TV+.
Release date: 7 November 2025
The Beast in Me – Season 1 (Netflix)
Following the tragic death of her child, popular novelist Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes) has withdrawn from public life into a hermit-like existence, her creative spark fizzled out by heartache. It flares back to life when brooding real estate mogul Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), once suspected of murdering his wife, moves in next door. But is Aggie’s sudden professional interest in her new neighbour a healthy coping mechanism, or a sick bit of rubbernecking? And who is the real monster out of the two – the alleged killer or the grief-stricken writer who won’t stop delving into the affairs of an exonerated man?
Release date: 13 November 2025
Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV+)
If you like Slow Horses, this miniseries should be right up your dark, mysterious and suspenseful alley – because it’s an adaptation of another book by Mick Herron, the thriller writer behind the Slough House series of novels on which Slow Horses is based.
Down Cemetery Road, adapted for the screen by Slow Horses writer Morwenna Banks, stars Emma Thompson as private investigator Zoë Boehm, who teams up with Ruth Wilson’s Sarah Tucker to delve into the mystery of a missing child – a mystery that goes much deeper and darker than either woman can have imagined.
The first two episodes will be available on 29 October, with a further episode released weekly until the 10 December finale.
Release date: 29 October 2025
Stranger Things – Season 5 (Netflix)
The first series of Stranger Things hit Netflix nine years ago. Feel old yet? It’s been a long and arduous journey for the Hawkins kids and their families, and at times it’s felt the same to be a viewer, with episodes getting longer and the cast of characters expanding season upon season. This fifth season of the 1980s-set drama promises to bring the struggle against skull-faced demon Vecna to a conclusion, however, and we’re hopeful that show creators the Duffer brothers can deliver the satisfying, scary and emotional ending that this marquee show deserves.
The season will consist of eight episodes, served up in three ‘volumes’. The first, consisting of four episodes, will premiere on 26 November, while a second, this time of three episodes, arrives on Christmas Day. The final episode will be released on New Year’s Eve.
Release date: 26 November 2025
Fallout – Season 2 (Amazon Prime Video)
Amazon’s post-nuclear smash hit proved that video game adaptations don’t have to be complete disasters – quite the opposite, in fact. The first season of Fallout was a masterclass in world-building, serving up the game series’ trademark retro-futuristic aesthetic with lashings of ultra-violence and pitch-black humour. This time around, plucky Vault Dweller Lucy is heading to the neon-lit ruins of New Vegas, dragging the ghoulified Cooper Howard and newly minted Brotherhood of Steel knight Maximus along for the ride.
Expect the same gleefully twisted take on 1950s Americana that made the first season such a treat – complete with cheerful atomic-age propaganda masking the horror of nuclear annihilation. The show’s knack for balancing genuine emotion with absurdist violence should be in full effect as our heroes navigate the political minefield of New Vegas, where various factions vie for control of the wasteland’s last great city.
Release date: 17 December 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: Early 2026
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