The 50 Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2022

December 15, 2021 1:16 PM EST

If 2021 was the year that Disney+ experimented with bringing superheroes from the big screen to our televisions, laptops and phones, 2022 will be the year that superheroes, Jedi, elves and hobbits take over TV for good.

Big name actors like Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke will star in Marvel series on Disney+. John Cena’s Peacemaker, based on the breakout character from James Gunn’s Suicide Squad reboot, will become the first from the DC Extended Universe to get his own TV show on HBO Max. Two major Star Wars supporting players, Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, are each starring in their own series on Disney+. And a Lord of the Rings TV series, already the most expensive show ever created, will debut on Amazon in the fall.

But if movie stars are invading the small screen, the actors who have defined TV for the last decade are also finding new creative outlets. Downton Abbey is getting a sumptuous followup called The Gilded Age starring queen of TV and The Good Fight star Christine Baranski. Atlanta creator Donald Glover will return with not only a third season of that Emmy-winning series but a new adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. After making his mark on both Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal will lend his talents to an adaptation of the beloved post-apocalyptic video game, The Last of Us. And The Crown’s Matt Smith is set to play yet another prince, this time in Game of Thrones‘ long-awaited spinoff series, House of Dragon.

Here are the TV shows we’re most looking forward to in 2022.

Women of the Movement

Jan. 6 on ABC

Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball) will helm this historical drama about Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, played by the Tony-winning star of the Tina Turner musical, Adrienne Warren. Emmett Till was murdered at just 14 years old in 1955, and Till-Mobley dedicated the rest of her life to the Civil Rights movement. Jay-Z and Will Smith are producers on the project.

Peacemaker

Jan. 13 on HBO Max

The Suicide Squad director James Gunn became so enamored with John Cena’s character in that film that he decided to build him a spinoff. The ironically named Peacemaker says that he’ll kill any man, woman or child in the name of peace. Peacemaker’s teammates in The Suicide Squad challenge his amoral devotion to the American flag. In the new series, written and directed by Gunn, Peacemaker struggles with the fine line between hero and villain.

As We See It

Jan. 21 on Amazon

Jason Katims, the prolific producer and creator behind Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, brings a new drama to Amazon, this one centered on three autistic twenty-something friends and roommates navigating work and their love lives.

The Gilded Age

Jan. 24 on HBO

Downton Abbey fans, rejoice! Julian Fellowes is back with another costume drama. The Gilded Age is set in 1880s New York City, where old-money families who have dominated American high society since before the American Revolution clash with up-and-comers amassing vast fortunes from the railway, coal and copper industries following the Civil War. Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon play the matriarchs of one of those old guard families, while Carrie Coon stars as a newcomer to their posh neighborhood.

The Afterparty

Jan. 28 on Apple TV+

Only Murders in the Building proved that true crime and comedy mesh together well. Now, writer Chris Miller (one half of the Chris Miller and Phil Lord team behind The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street) has recruited a murderer’s row of comedians for The Afterparty, including Tiffany Haddish, Ilana Glazer, Sam Richardson, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz and Ben Schwartz. The murder mystery is set at a high school reunion afterparty, and each episode is told from a different character’s perspective.

Pam & Tommy

Feb. 2 on Hulu

Lily James and Sebastian Stan star as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, whose honeymoon sex tape became the first viral video ever when it was released without the couple’s permission in 1995. Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman round out the cast as Rand Gauthier and Uncle Mintie, porn industry veterans who stole the tape and mass produced it to sell online.

Inventing Anna

Feb. 11 on Netflix

Shonda Rhimes’ latest show dramatizes a real-life story worthy of the fictionalized antics on shows like Scandal. Julia Garner disappears into the role of Anna Delvey, the con woman who snuck her way into New York high society, living in the city’s most luxurious hotels and holding court at its most exclusive restaurants for years until two high-profile stories, in New York Magazine and Vanity Fair, exposed her grifting and she was found guilty of grand larceny.

The Dropout

March 3 on Hulu

One of several Elizabeth Holmes projects in the works, The Dropout stars Amanda Seyfried as Holmes, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire who claimed she invented a blood testing technology that would revolutionize healthcare. When it became clear this technology didn’t exist, Holmes was arrested and now stands trial for wire fraud. Holmes ensnared some of the richest and most powerful investors in the world and serves as a prime example of a problematic fake-it-til-you-make-it culture within Silicon Valley. New Girl showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether is helming the series.

Pachinko

Spring 2022 on Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is hoping that the big-budget adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s novel can be an international hit. The show, a tale of forbidden love that expands into a saga that spans across Korea, Japan and the U.S., was filmed across all three continents and will be told in Korean, Japanese and English.

The Lord of the Rings TV Series

Sept. 2 on Amazon

Amazon's first image from its *Lord of the Rings* television seriesAmazon Studios

Amazon has made a big bet on this Lord of the Rings prequel: The streamer reportedly poured nearly half a billion dollars into just the first season, making it the most expensive series of all time. The as yet unnamed show is set in Middle-Earth thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and, like the films that preceded it, was shot in New Zealand.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

December on Amazon

2019 LACMA Art + Film Gala Presented By Gucci - Arrivals — Donald Glover arrives at the 2019 LACMA Art + Film Gala in Los AngelesGregg DeGuire—FilmMagic via Getty Images

Donald Glover is set as co-creator and star of this adaptation of the 2005 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The action-comedy centers on a bored suburban married couple that discovers they are both assassins when they’re assigned to kill one another. Initially, Glover was supposed to star opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the show, the Fleabag creator dropped out of the series.

American Gigolo

TBA on Showtime

Jon Bernthal will star in and produce a present-day reimagining of Paul Schrader’s 1980 film about the sex industry. Bernthal will star as Julian Kayne, played in the movie by Richard Gere, who, after being sent to prison for murder, returns to Los Angeles to figure out who set him up 15 years ago.

Anatomy of a Scandal

TBA on Netflix

Big Little Lies’ David E. Kelley is working on an adaptation of the 2018 book Anatomy of a Scandal, which follows the ripple effects of an accusation of rape throughout the world of the British elite. Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery and Rupert Friend will star in the show.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

TBA on Netflix

One of the most beloved animated series of all time is getting a live-action adaptation. The action-adventure saga follows Aang and his friends as they try to save the world. Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Leung and Kim’s Convenience breakout star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee will lend their talents to the project.

Bel-Air

TBA on Peacock

Peacock is reimagining the ’90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a drama set in modern-day Los Angeles. The show promises to explore the class divides, racial dynamics and struggles that come with Will’s move from West Philadelphia to his aunt and uncle’s California mansion—issues that the 30-minute sitcom version couldn’t always tackle. Will Smith will executive produce this new version of the show that once made him a star.

Brideshead Revisited

TBA on BBC

Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino is adapting Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel of a young British man who falls in with an aristocratic family and gets entangled in their drama. The enviable cast includes Andrew Garfield, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes and Joe Alwyn.

Halo

TBA on Paramount+

First announced by Steven Spielberg way back in 2013, the Halo TV show is finally coming to the small screen. The adaptation of the wildly popular first-person shooter game will center on Master Chief (played by Orange Is the New Black’s Pablo Schreiber).

House of Dragon

TBA on HBO Max

The first of many planned Game of Thrones sequels, prequels and spinoffs, House of Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Thrones and centers on infighting within the Targaryen household. When the King of Westeros dies, two of his children lay claim to the throne, dividing the royal family and the kingdom. And because the main players are all Targaryens, we can certainly expect dragons battling dragons.

Interview with the Vampire

TBA on AMC

Already made into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, the late Anne Rice’s vampire novel is getting another adaptation. Given that AMC acquired the rights to all of her books, this will likely be just the first of many adaptations of both her Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches books.

The Last of Us

TBA on HBO

The groundbreaking and morally complex video game about a hardened survivor named Joel (Pedro Pascal) tasked with ushering a young girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey, the scene-stealing Lyanna Mormont from Game of Thrones) across the United States in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse is finally making its way to television. While most video game adaptations fail to translate to the big or small screen, The Last of Us is a distinctly cinematic game, and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is writing and executive-producing the adaptation along with the creator of the video game, Neil Druckmann. It’s been announced that Nick Offerman will play a supporting role.

The Marvel Shows

Ms. Marvel

TBA on Disney+

Ms. Marvel centers on Kamala Khan (played by Iman Vellani), a Pakistani-American teen growing up in New Jersey who is obsessed with Captain Marvel. Like many Marvel heroes before her, Kamala suddenly finds herself with spectacular powers, particularly the ability to stretch into any shape. The show will help set up the plot of the next Captain Marvel movie, The Marvels.

Moon Knight

TBA on Disney+

Perhaps the most star-studded Marvel TV show to date, Moon Knight features Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke. Isaac plays Marc Spector (a.k.a. Moon Knight) a CIA agent who, after visiting an archeological dig site, is imbued with the powers of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, and Ethan Hawke will play the yet-unnamed villain. Moon Knight is one of Marvel’s darker comics and is often compared to the Batman saga.

She-Hulk

TBA on Disney+

Mark Ruffalo is taking Hulk to the small screen for She-Hulk, a show about Bruce Banner’s cousin, Jennifer Walters. Tatiana Maslany stars as Walters, a lawyer who specializes in cases that deal with superhumans—and, incidentally, can turn into a big green superhuman herself. Tim Roth will also reprise his role as the Hulk villain The Abomination. Roth originally appeared in the 2008 Incredible Hulk movie starring Ed Norton as the Big Guy before the role was recast.

Secret Invasion

TBA on Disney+

After appearing in a whopping 11 Marvel films, Samuel L. Jackson is finally getting his own Marvel project. He will star as Nick Fury as he hunts down the shape-shifting Skrulls (first introduced in Captain Marvel) that have been covertly infiltrating the highest reaches of power on Earth for years. Ben Mendelsohn will also reprise his Captain Marvel role as the Skrull Talos.

The Old Man

TBA on FX

Jeff Bridges will play a retired CIA agent who has been living off the grid for years. But when an assassin arrives to try to take him out, the agent must revisit his past. John Lithgow also stars in the show.

The Staircase

TBA on HBO Max

A fictional version of the famous true crime documentary of the same name, The Staircase centers on Michael Peterson, a man accused of murdering his wife in 2001. Peterson claimed that his partner died falling down the stairs, but police suspected he murdered her and staged the scene to look like an accident. Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Juliette Binoche, Rosemarie DeWitt and Sophie Turner will all play roles in the murder mystery.

The Star Wars Shows

Obi-Wan Kenobi

TBA on Disney+

star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith-obi-wan — Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in *Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.*Twentieth Century Fox/Lucasfilm

The long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show is finally hitting Disney+ in 2022. Unlike The Mandalorian, which is only loosely tied to the events of the Star Wars films, Obi-Wan Kenobi will fill in the blanks between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope when Jedi were being hunted down and Obi-Wan was hiding out on Tatooine, watching over Luke Skywalker. Ewan McGregor will reprise the titular role, Hayden Christensen will return to play Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker and Joel Edgerton will return as Luke’s uncle. Kumail Nanjiani, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Maya Erskine round out the cast. Deborah Chow, who helmed some of the most momentous episodes of The Mandalorian, will direct the series.

Andor (TBA on Disney+)

TBA on Disney+

Diego Luna Rogue One — Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story*Giles Kyte—LucasFilm

Diego Luna is getting his own Rogue One prequel. The thriller will follow the Rebel spy Cassian Andor on his covert missions as the revolution against the Empire begins to take shape. Stellan Skarsgård and Fiona Shaw will join Luna in the cast.

Tokyo Vice

TBA on HBO Max

Michael Mann is taking his talents to TV. The Heat filmmaker will direct the pilot for Tokyo Vice, a series based on reporter Jake Adelstein’s 2009 memoir of the same name and set in the criminal underworld of Japan. Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe are set to star. Daniel Deston Cretton, fresh off Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, will also direct several episodes