New 12 months’s Eve was just a little completely different this yr, and never simply because “Auld Lang Syne” was sung over Zoom as a substitute within the arms of family and friends and your conventional tuxedo/ball robe outfit was changed with sweatpants and the T-shirt you have been carrying for 3 days. Flipping the web page to 2021 was a aid after the everlasting darkness that was 2020, and optimism fills our hearts as we arbitrarily pin all our disappointment and fears on a time-measuring system created 500 years in the past.
However there’s something to be legitimately optimistic about: the 2021 TV yr. We have put collectively an inventory of exhibits that we’re most excited for in 2021, and there are some nice ones. Comedies, sci-fi epics, variations, and extra are all arriving over the following 12 months, in what could possibly be the most effective years of TV ever.
Notice: With the coronavirus pandemic delaying manufacturing on a number of exhibits, a number of of our picks beneath include an asterisk, as delays may push premiere dates previous 2021.
Mr. Mayor
Premieres Thursday, Jan. 7 on NBC
Lately, NBC’s must-see Thursday evening sitcoms have been coming in bits and items moderately than a full-fledged block, however two individuals who have been large elements of NBC’s glory days of yore — Cheers‘ and The Good Place‘s Ted Danson and 30 Rock‘s Tina Fey — are hoping to construct a basis for a brand new one. Danson performs a wealthy dude who runs for mayor for a really sitcommy purpose — to impress his teen daughter — and wins earlier than he actually is aware of what he stands for. Fey and her 30 Rock co-founder Robert Carlock have a knack for writing good office comedies with enjoyable ensemble casts, and the topic of native authorities may make this the following Parks and Recreation, if Leslie Knope wasn’t so good.
WandaVision
Premieres Friday, Jan. 15 on Disney+
It has been over a yr since Disney+ launched in November 2019, and we’re lastly getting our first Marvel Cinematic Universe collection originally of 2021. But it surely seems like it is going to be well worth the wait. Set after Avengers: Endgame and markedly completely different from all the pieces else you are used to within the MCU, WandaVision follows Wanda/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Imaginative and prescient (Paul Bettany) as they stay their preferrred life in suburbia, their life like a basic TV sitcom. However when issues appear to be an excessive amount of like a TV present, they start to suspect one thing is up. That is going to be a giant yr for Marvel on Disney+, with fellow MCU exhibits The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (March 19), Loki (Might 2021), Hawkeye (late 2021), and Ms. Marvel (late 2021) all scheduled to be launched in 2021. [Everything we know about WandaVision]
Shadow and Bone
Premieres April 2021 on Netflix
You realize the drill: If somebody is making a TV adaptation of one of our favorite fantasy novels, we’ll be jazzed for it. Shadow and Bone takes two of creator Leigh Bardugo’s guide collection — Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows — and smashes them collectively for a brand new collection that melds each storylines of a world at battle with itself and the flesh-eating creatures that inhabit it. The heroine is a younger orphan named Alina Starkov who discovers she’s in possession of an important energy, which she makes use of to avoid wasting her finest pal. And since that is YA fantasy, you recognize there’s going to be some romance thrown in there. The solid is generally made up of little-known actors, however Westworld‘s Ben Barnes has signed on to play Common Kirigan, aka The Darkling. [16 book-to-screen variations coming in 2021]
Basis
Sequence premiere 2021 (unconfirmed) on Apple TV+
In case you like your science fiction as arduous and dense as darkish matter, Basis, primarily based on the seminal guide collection by Isaac Asimov, seems like it is going to do the trick. The collection comes from style masters David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman, and follows a mathematician (Jared Harris) whose fashions predict the autumn of the Galactic Empire and the efforts that go into correcting the demise from whole devastation to simply sucking rather a lot. This seems like Apple TV+’s reply to Amazon’s The Expanse, full with an out-of-this-world funds to make issues look pretty much as good as they will. Plus, did we point out Jared Harris?
Halo
We’re again on the #Halo set and #MakingMasterChief. 📸: @schreiber_pablo pic.twitter.com/dFYKWRrwQR
— Halo on Showtime (@SHO_Halo) November 10, 2020
Sequence premiere 2021 (unconfirmed) on Showtime
In 2001, I kneeled earlier than my mattress and begged any divine energy that might take heed to bless us with a Halo TV present. So I take all credit score that it is lastly taking place, courtesy of Showtime and Awake‘s Kyle Killen. The difference of the insanely common collection of Xbox and PC first-person shooter video games is prone to drop this yr after what looks as if eons of growth, with Pablo Schreiber (The Wire) taking the function of protagonist Grasp Chief, a supersoldier constructed by the military to blast away aliens with the assistance of his onboard A.I. Cortana. We do not know a lot in regards to the present exterior of some key casting, however that is little doubt going to be a big-budget motion extravaganza, and with Killen writing, count on some nice character storytelling in regards to the ever-mysterious Grasp Chief. I am so excited for this I am crying.
The Lord of the Rings
Viggo Mortensen, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Sequence premiere 2021 (unconfirmed) on Amazon Prime Video
2021 seems just like the yr that streamers and networks will throw a ton of money at TV exhibits, and none will likely be extra buried in cash than Amazon’s epic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Amazon is reportedly spending a billion (BILLION!) {dollars} on the present, which already has a two-season order (and a five-season dedication), so there aren’t any excuses for this to not be wonderful (knocking on wooden). It is going to be a prequel, set within the Second Age of Center-earth earlier than the occasions of the guide and movies, probably exhibiting Sauron’s rise to energy. [Everything we know about Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series]
The Previous Man
Sequence premiere 2021 (unconfirmed) on FX on Hulu
Lastly, a present a couple of man who sits in his chair watching TV all day and ready for his grandkids to name. Or, it is an adaptation of thriller creator Thomas Perry’s 2017 novel The Previous Man, which follows a retired intelligence officer who turns into marked for dying and is pulled into the world he left behind. Jeff Bridges stars because the titular aged fella, and from the fast seems on the teaser trailer, you’ll undoubtedly need to keep off his garden. John Lithgow and Amy Brenneman additionally star.
Solely Murders in This Constructing
Solely Murders within the Constructing
Sequence premiere 2021 (unconfirmed) on Hulu
Two thirds of the Three Amigos — Steve Martin and Martin Short — reunite for this comedy about true-crime-obsessed residents of an residence constructing who discover themselves concerned in a homicide thriller. Apparently Chevy Chase was busy, as a result of the third star of the present is Selena Gomez, who additionally produces with Martin and Quick. Martin and Quick could also be thought of “previous folks” comedy by you millennials on the market, however the two are unbelievable collectively, lately happening a comedy tour as a duo and exhibiting they nonetheless obtained it. Loser sleuths in approach over their heads matches proper into their shtick.
Station Eleven
Station Eleven
Sequence premiere 2021 (unconfirmed) on HBO Max
Pandemic exhibits could seem just a little too on-the-nose today, however the adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s acclaimed 2014 novel began again in late 2019 earlier than coronavirus hit, making this miniseries extra prescient than exploitative. The story follows the lifetime of Kristen, a former little one actor who faces a world dropped at its knees by a swine flu epidemic that kills many of the world’s inhabitants. Mackenzie Davis landed the function of Kristen and the novel is an workplace favourite, however what we’re actually excited for is that Hiro Murai, the visionary genius behind lots of Donald Glover’s works together with Atlanta, is directing the miniseries.
Cease looking out, begin watching! TV Information’s Watch This Now! page has much more TV suggestions.