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Sabina Graves covers genre television and film for Gizmodo, with a focus on animation, fantasy, sci-fi, superheroes, mythology, and horror. Her writing advocates for keeping streamers mindful in fairness with their creative collaborators to give audiences better art that will represent many and not be canceled after only one season. She also covers immersive entertainment, theme parks, and interactive experiences that take you to your favorite fandom worlds. You can follow her coverage here.
The top story
Stranger Things season five is set to premiere this year and it will be interesting to see if the series finale will be a satisfying one for the Netflix juggernaut with all the delays and aging cast members. If the show doesn’t stick the landing (bring back Eddie), we expect to be distracted by Wednesday season two and maybe a look at Chopper ahead of One Piece season two.
What we’re waiting for
As we ring in another year in dystopia, Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale is set to end with its sixth season since it’s all but coming true in the real world. Netflix’s Squid Game 2 left us hanging in December with a shorter season meant to build up to the series’ final arc this year, as audiences wondered why there weren’t too many games this time around as if that’s the whole premise of the show and not the very real dangers of late-stage capitalism, really. Here’s hoping it gets released sooner rather than later.
Xenomorphs are coming home in Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth on FX on Hulu. If only our UAPs could let us know how realistic chest bursters are on Reddit or if a mushroom can really make us clickers. Lots of doom and gloom there too with HBO’s The Last of Us returning for season two. Hey, at least Apple TV+’s Severance is back later this month!
There’s something afoot with Disney and BBC Studio; we’re waiting on them to announce more Bluey seasons with Ludo Studio, though they’ll be without creator Joe Brumm, who’s hard at work on the Bluey feature film due out in 2027 (slated to be his last work on the franchise). Will there be more minisodes this year? Or perhaps just an upcoming season announcement? It feels very unfathomable that there will be no more new Bluey for two years.
The state of animation on television continues to be in flux as the industry works for a better deal in the face of AI taking jobs and creativity away from the medium. Cartoon Network’s website has shut down and for some bizarre reason Warner Bros. Discovery stopped releasing new episodes of Gremlins: The Wild Batch and Tiny Toons Looniversity on Max abruptly in the fall of last year, which left fans on a cliffhanger of the Amblin movie spin-off and without the Tiny Toons’ holiday specials. Someone get Spielberg on the phone to fix this and check on Tooned Out, his buddy Robert Zemeckis’ live-action hybrid cartoon show that’s due out this year on the streamer too. Over at Disney, the studio has faced scrutiny over the removal of a trans character and their storyline on Pixar’s upcoming Win or Lose series—it’s a shame and a huge L that Disney and Pixar are taking by buckling to bigots.
On a more exciting Disney+ note, Andor season two is on the way for more Star Wars rebel versus fascism action. Daredevil returns in Daredevil: Born Again, and so will Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor on Doctor Who. DC will continue to tease its new universe in Peacemaker season two on Max, which will bring in characters introduced in the Creature Commandos cartoon but in live-action, and will be released in July alongside James Gunn’s big-screen Superman.
Shows to follow
Stranger Things Season 5 – Netflix
Severance – Apple TV+
Harley Quinn Season 5 – Max
Doctor Who Season 2 (Series 15) – Disney+
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 – Hulu
Squid Game Season 3 – Netflix
Peacemaker Season 2 – Max
Alien: Earth – FX on Hulu
Tooned Out – Max
Wednesday Season 2 – Netflix
Win or Lose – Disney+
Andor Season 2 – Disney+
The Last of Us Season 2 – Max
Daredevil: Born Again – Disney+
Wonder Man – Disney+
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man – Disney+
Welcome to Derry – Max
The Witcher Season 4 – Netflix
Cobra Kai (Final Episodes) – Netflix
Goosebumps: the Vanishing – Hulu
Ironheart – Disney+
Eyes of Wakanda – Disney+
Marvel Zombies – Disney+
People to follow
The animators behind all your favorite shows need us now more than ever; the medium needs to be protected from AI (which could never think of the running Nosferatu gag from SpongeBob SquarePants)
Creator Tony Gilroy with actors Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, and Adria Arjona for Andor season two
Wednesday season two’s Jenna Ortega and Lady Gaga
Daredevil: Born Again cast Charlie Cox, Jon Bernthal, and Vincent D’Onofrio
James Gunn, co-head of DC Studios and filmmaker
One Piece Straw Hat crew: Iñaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Jacob Romero, Taz Skylar teasing the next season along with creator Eiichiro Oda and series showrunners Matt Owens and Joe Tracz
Companies to watch
Warner Bros. Discovery should be put on watch if it continues breaking apart and selling off its scripted television properties piecemeal.
Netflix getting is more into the fan experience immersive space to promote its shows and we can see it doing movie theater episode screenings for Stranger Things, Squid Game, Wednesday, and One Piece with Q&As.
Disney banking on Bluey meet and greets at Disney Parks and Disney cruises in order to hold fans over: it won’t. It also needs to spend time with Jim Henson Studios thinking of The Muppets’ future: stop fumbling them and give us more parody retellings. Imagine a Muppets Die Hard with Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso, Shrinking) as Hans Gruber. Better yet let Goldstein come up with an adaptation to tackle and star in.
A longshot bet
No more franchise movies being planned for direct to streaming after the success of Moana 2.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
