There are so many of the best TV shows returning with new seasons in 2025, especially the Netflix shows. New seasons of Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game, and more good Netflix shows premiere in 2025. HBO and Max have new seasons of The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and many more. After a rough couple of years for good TV shows, 2025 is going to be one for the books!
Unfortunately, even with all those good TV shows coming back in 2025, there are still a handful of TV shows that definitely won't be back with new seasons this year. We'll be waiting until 2026, or even later, potentially, to watch new seasons of some of the best shows on TV.
We shared a list of eight of those good TV shows that won't be returning in 2025. Let's get things started with House of the Dragon!
House of the Dragon
Sadly, House of the Dragon season 3 isn't coming to HBO or Max in 2025. We'll be waiting until 2026 to watch the new season of House of the Dragon, and that's such a bummer because of how season 2 ended. I don't know how we're supposed to wait for almost two years for season 3.
Production on House of the Dragon is rumored to start in the spring and continue through the fall, according to Winter is Coming. The fact that it hasn't started filming yet means we're in for a long wait for season 3. There's so much work that goes into bringing this show to life when it comes to set design, visual effects, and post-production. So, it's going to be a while until we see anything related to House of the Dragon season 3.
The good news is that there's a new Game of Thrones spinoff coming to HBO and Max later this year. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms starring Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell as Dunk and Egg will premiere sometime in the second half of the year. We're still waiting for the premiere date, but we'll share it as soon as we find out!
- Premiere date: Aug. 21, 2022
- Seasons: 2
- Created by Ryan Condal
- Cast: Olivia Cooke, Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Milly Alcock, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, and more
- Where to watch: HBO and Max
The Boys
The Boys season 5 is going to be the final season of the series. As such, Prime Video is going to be holding the final season of Eric Kripke's series until 2026. Honestly, it might not even be done until 2026 with everything going on. This is one of the biggest and most popular shows on TV, and it's definitely going to be one of the shows we miss this year.
The cast and crew of The Boys season 5 started filming in November 2024, but as Kripke mentioned in multiple interviews after season 4, production will likely last into the summer of 2025. There's just not enough time for all of the post-production and promotion to get the season ready for a 2025 premiere. Plus, almost every season of The Boys so far has been released in the summer, so I feel like we're going to be waiting until the summer of 2026 for The Boys season 5.
- Premiere date: July 26, 2019
- Seasons: 4
- Created by Eric Kripke
- Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Antony Starr, Jessie T. Usher, Karen Fukuhara, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Nathan Mitchell, Dominique McElligott, and more
- Where to watch: Prime Video
Bridgerton
Bridgerton is one of the only big Netflix shows not returning for a new season in 2025. We're getting new seasons of Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game, The Night Agent, and more. In fact, the first three seasons of Bridgerton rank on the all-time Netflix Top 10 more than any other series. So, we know fans are going to be missing Bridgerton this year.
Unfortunately, we're only a few weeks into the new year, but we know Bridgerton season 4 is not coming to Netflix until 2026. Production on Bridgerton season 4 started in the fall of 2024, but it's ramping up now. We don't know exactly when production will end, but it will probably be sometime this spring.
Still, we know that Bridgerton season 4 won't premiere until early 2026 at the earliest. There are just too many big shows coming back in 2025, and Netflix is going to wait a bit to roll out the new season about Benedict (Luke Thompson), Sophie (Yerin Ha), and their love story. We know Penelope (Nichola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) will be back for season 4, along with Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey). Unfortunately, Phoebe Dynevor, who stars in the series as Daphne Bridgerton, revealed she has not been invited back for season 4 yet. Will it happen? We'll just have to wait and see!
- Premiere date: Dec. 25, 2020
- Seasons: 3
- Created by Chris Van Dusen
- Cast: Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha, Nicola Coughlan, Phoebe Dynevor, Simone Ashley, Jonathan Bailey, Adjoa Andoh, Luke Newton, Claudia Jessie, Regé-Jean Page, Golda Rosheuvel, and more
- Where to watch: Netflix
The Rings of Power
For a long time, the status of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 was not totally clear. We all knew The Rings of Power season 3 was going to happen, but it wasn't until the very end of 2024 that the new season was confirmed. In an interview with Screen Rant, The Rings of Power creators Patrick McKay and JD Payne revealed that they were working on season 3 at the end of 2024, but production has not started yet. They didn't share any other details, though.
So, we all know by now that The Rings of Power seasons just take a long time, longer than many other TV shows. There was a two-year gap between The Rings of Power season 1 and season 2, and we're probably looking at a similar timeline between season 2 and season 3. So, if production starts soon and lasts through the end of the year, we could see The Rings of Power season 3 in the late summer or early fall of 2026. Obviously, it could be later than that if production doesn't get started soon, though.
- Premiere date: Sept. 1, 2022
- Seasons: 2
- Created by J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay
- Cast: Morfydd Clark, Charlie Vickers, Charles Edwards, Lloyd Owen, Robert Aramayo, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Benjamin Walker, Markella Kavenagh, Daniel Weyman, and more
- Where to watch: Prime Video
Fallout
Fallout is one of the best and most underrated TV shows of 2024, but the first season starring Ella Purnell was only a taste and a glimpse of what this series is going to be. Now, fans are anxiously awaiting the release of Fallout season 2.
Thanks to some of the cast members, we know that Fallout season 2 started filming at the end of 2024, which is obviously a good sign. Unfortunately, Fallout is simply too big of a show to expect filming, post-production, promotion, and all of the other things that go into that process to be complete within a year window. So, Fallout season 2 is not going to premiere in 2026. It's much more likely that we'll see Fallout season 2 on Prime Video in early to mid-2026. We'll share more updates about the new season of the sci-fi series when we find out!
- Premiere date: April 10, 2024
- Seasons: 1
- Created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet
- Cast: Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, and more
- Where to watch: Prime Video
The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal is one of the hottest shows of the fall of 2024. I don't think anyone foresaw the Assassin thriller becoming the hit that it did, and I don't think anyone else expected such a quick season 2 renewal. With an actor like Eddie Redmayne attached to the project and the source material, it sure seemed like this was destined to be a limited series, but that's not how it happened. The Day of the Jackal season 2 is happening on Peacock/Sky!
Unfortunately, because of the late 2024 renewal, there's simply no way the creative team will be able to turn another season around before the end of 2025. It's much more likely we'll see The Day of the Jackal season 2 on Peacock/Sky sometime in 2026. As of right now, no filming details are known, so once we learn what's going on, we'll have a much more accurate estimate of when to expect the new season.
The good news is Redmayne will be back in season 2!
- Premiere date: Nov. 7
- Seasons: 1
- Created by Ronan Bennett
- Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, Eleanor Matsuura, Úrsula Corberó, Chukwudi Iwuji, Khalid Abdalla, and Lia Williams
- Where to watch: Peacock
Shōgun
Shōgun is another good TV show that won't be back with a new season this year. Despite all the acclaim and wins at the Emmys and Golden Globes recently, Shōgun will skip 2025 and likely aim for a 2026 premiere, assuming all goes well.
As things stand, we all know that Shōgun season 2 is happening on FX, but there's no reported start date or production timeline for the series yet. The latest update that we had from Esquire is that Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks are writing the next season. There have been rumors that production on season 2 will begin sometime in early 2025, but even if that happens, this show takes a long time to bring new seasons to life. There's just not enough time, despite it being January right now, for this season to crank out a new season in a year.
As for when season 2 could premiere, it's up to FX, obviously, to decide that. I have a feeling that we won't miss two Emmys cycles for this show, so we should see it premiere before the end of May 2026.
- Premiere date: Feb. 27, 2024
- Seasons: 1
- Created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks
- Cast: Anna Sawai, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, and more
- Where to watch: FX and Hulu
Outer Banks
Sadly, Outer Banks also makes the list of shows that won't be back with a new season in 2025. Obviously, that's probably to be expected considering there's been more than a year between every season so far and Outer Banks season 4 just dropped in October and November 2024.
According to reports, the cast and crew will be starting production on Outer Banks season 5 in April. Filming will continue through the end of the year. Then, assuming all goes well, we should see the final episodes of Outer Banks on Netflix sometime in the spring or summer of 2026.
In a perfect world, Outer Banks season 5 would drop at the tail-end of 2025. It'd be the perfect Pogue Christmas gift, honestly. But, with Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Jonathan Daviss, Drew Starkey, Madison Bailey, and Carlacia Grant having busy schedules and looking at the killer lineup of Netflix shows coming in 2025, there's just not enough time to roll out season 5 this year.
It's a bummer, but I think we all know it's going to be worth the wait to take one last ride with the Pogues. There is still revenge to be taken, of course.
- Premiere date: April 15, 2020
- Seasons: 4
- Created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke
- Cast: Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Pankow, Carlacia Grant, Charles Esten, Drew Starkey, Austin North, and more
- Where to watch: Netflix
So, that's the list of the good TV shows that definitely won't be back in 2025. We'll continue to share updates on all these shows and more throughout the year. As mentioned, the good news is that most of the shows will be filming this year, so we should learn a lot of new information.