Coven Academy is a 2026 supernatural teen series created by Tim Federle, the writer-director behind High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, who also wrote and directed the pilot. A Freeform original that streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, it blends witchy coming-of-age drama with the glossy romance and humor of a classic young-adult ensemble.
Set in a richly atmospheric New Orleans, the series follows a group of teenage witches-in-training who must learn to master their powers while protecting the city from dangerous, ancient forces. Malina Pauli Weissman stars as Briar, with Tiffani Thiessen as the enigmatic Miss Graves and Malachi Barton among the young coven, as school rivalries, a simmering love triangle and genuine supernatural threats collide inside the walls of the academy.
Premiering on Freeform on October 1, 2026, with the full season landing on Disney+ and Hulu the following day, Coven Academy was moved over from an originally planned Disney Channel run to a slightly older-skewing home. It arrived aimed squarely at fans of supernatural teen soaps, mixing spellcraft, friendship and first love against a vividly gothic backdrop. It is streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
The Sandman is a Netflix fantasy drama adapted from Neil Gaiman's landmark comic book series, published by DC's Vertigo imprint between 1989 and 1996 and long considered one of the most influential and reputedly "unfilmable" works in the medium. After decades of stalled film attempts, it finally reached the screen as a lavish series, bringing Gaiman's dreamscapes and mythology to life.
Tom Sturridge stars as Dream, also known as Morpheus, one of the seven Endless, cosmic embodiments of concepts like Death, Desire, and Destiny. The story begins with Dream escaping a century of captivity and setting out to rebuild his neglected realm, before broadening into a sweeping saga about gods, humans, and the responsibilities of power. The ensemble features Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Boyd Holbrook, and Gwendoline Christie, among many others.
The second season, released in two parts in 2025, served as the series' conclusion, adapting the comics' later, darker arcs to a strong and emotional reception. Praised for its faithful, richly designed realization of a story once thought impossible to film, The Sandman is streaming on Netflix.
The Witcher is Netflix's flagship fantasy series, created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and adapted from the novels and short stories of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which also inspired CD Projekt Red's globally popular video games. Since its 2019 debut it has been one of the streamer's signature epics, blending monster-hunting adventure, court intrigue, and a fractured, time-hopping structure across a war-torn continent.
The series follows Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter known as a witcher, whose destiny becomes bound to the powerful sorceress Yennefer and the runaway princess Ciri. For its first three seasons Geralt was played by Henry Cavill, a devoted reader of the books and player of the games; beginning with the fourth season, released in October 2025, Liam Hemsworth takes over the role, a rare recasting of a series' central character that the show addresses within its own story.
The Witcher became a global sensation on release, driving renewed interest in Sapkowski's novels and a surge in sales of the video games, and spawning spinoffs and animated films. Its lavish battles, dark fantasy tone, and Emmy-nominated design have kept it among Netflix's most-watched originals. All seasons are streaming on Netflix.
Star City is an Apple TV+ alternate-history drama and a spinoff of the acclaimed series For All Mankind, developed by that show's creators Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert and Ronald D. Moore. Premiering in May 2026, it shifts the vantage point of the space race to the other side of the Iron Curtain, telling the story of the Soviet program with the same blend of political intrigue and personal drama.
Rhys Ifans stars as Sergei Korolev, the secretive Chief Designer who masterminded the USSR's early triumphs in orbit. The ensemble includes Anna Maxwell Martin, Agnes O'Casey, Alice Englert and Adam Nagaitis as cosmonauts, engineers and intelligence officers at Star City, the closed training complex where the KGB hunts for a suspected traitor even as a secret mission to Venus takes shape.
Filmed in Vilnius, Lithuania and premiered at the 2026 Canneseries festival, the series earned rapturous reviews, with a 94 percent critics' score, and became one of Apple TV+'s biggest hits of the year. Because the site has no dedicated Apple TV+ field, its streaming link is listed as the source website. It is streaming on Apple TV+.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a Paramount+ series and the first Star Trek show set primarily at the fabled training academy, created by Gaia Violo and run by franchise steward Alex Kurtzman alongside Noga Landau. Premiering in January 2026, it is set in the 32nd century, the far-future era first opened up by Star Trek: Discovery, as the Academy reopens to welcome its first new class of cadets in more than a century.
The young ensemble of cadets aboard the training vessel navigate friendship, rivalry and first command while learning the Federation ideals of diplomacy and empathy. Oscar winner Holly Hunter leads the adult cast as Chancellor Nahla Ake, with Paul Giamatti recurring as the antagonist Nus Braka, and franchise veterans Robert Picardo, reprising the Doctor from Voyager, and Tig Notaro, returning as engineer Jett Reno, lending the series continuity with wider Trek lore.
The show earned strong reviews, with an 85 percent critics' score, and was mounted on a lavish scale. Aimed at a younger audience without sacrificing the franchise's optimism, it leans into coming-of-age storytelling among the stars. It is streaming on Paramount+.
The Eternaut is Netflix's first Argentine original series and one of the most ambitious science-fiction productions ever mounted in Latin America. Directed by Bruno Stagnaro, it adapts El Eternauta, the legendary 1957 graphic novel by writer Hector German Oesterheld and artist Francisco Solano Lopez that holds near-mythic status in Argentina.
Ricardo Darin, the country's most celebrated actor, stars as Juan Salvo, an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary nightmare when a silent, deadly snow begins falling over Buenos Aires, killing instantly anyone it touches and knocking out power across the city. As Salvo and a small band of survivors improvise makeshift protection and venture into the frozen streets, they realize the snow is only the opening move of a vast and terrifying alien invasion.
Released in 2025, the series became a global phenomenon and one of Netflix's most-watched non-English titles, praised for its craft, its scale, and the way it grounds cosmic horror in ordinary human solidarity. Its resonance is deepened by the history of its source material and its author, and a second season has been confirmed. It is streaming on Netflix.
Lazarus is a globe-trotting science-fiction anime thriller from Shinichiro Watanabe, the legendary creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, marking his most ambitious original series in years. A co-production for Adult Swim, it channels Watanabe's trademark blend of slick action, jazz-inflected cool, and existential undercurrents into a propulsive near-future chase with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance.
Set in the year 2052, the story begins with a miracle: a neuroscientist named Dr. Skinner has given the world Hapna, a painkiller with no apparent side effects that has been embraced by almost everyone alive. Then Skinner reappears to deliver a devastating message — the drug is lethal, and everyone who has taken it has roughly three years to live unless he is found. A team of five gifted outsiders, code-named Lazarus and led by the acrobatic escape artist Axel Gilberto, is assembled and given just thirty days to track Skinner down and secure a cure.
Watanabe surrounded himself with a remarkable roster of collaborators: the show's high-octane action was overseen by Chad Stahelski, the director of the John Wick films, while the score drew on the talents of artists including Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, and Floating Points. Airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block in the United States, Lazarus divided viewers but earned admiration for its style and ambition, even entering awards conversation. Lazarus is streaming on HBO Max.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is an HBO Max fantasy series set in George R.R. Martin's world of Westeros, adapted from his Dunk and Egg novellas that began with The Hedge Knight. Developed by Martin and showrunner Ira Parker, it is the second live-action Game of Thrones spinoff after House of the Dragon and unfolds roughly ninety years before the events of the original series.
The story follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a lowborn, big-hearted hedge knight of little means, and his cunning young squire Egg, who is secretly far more than he appears. Peter Claffey stars as Dunk and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg, as the mismatched pair travel a more peaceful, hopeful Westeros in search of adventure, honor, and a place in the world, in a lighter and more intimate register than the sprawling political warfare of its predecessors.
Premiering in early 2026, the series was warmly received as a change of pace for the franchise, trading dragons and dynastic bloodshed for a charming buddy adventure rooted in chivalry and friendship. Martin, who has spoken fondly of the Dunk and Egg tales, remained closely involved in bringing them to the screen. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms streams on HBO Max.
