HBO

When it comes to TV in 2026, the question isn’t whether there’s something to watch—it’s whether you can keep up. The streaming wars have matured into something closer to a stalemate, which means the shows that break through are earning it the old-fashioned way: through exceptional writing, magnetic casts, and stories that refuse to sit still.

The year is already shaping up to be a landmark one. HBO launched a new Game of Thrones universe entry that critics are calling the best fantasy television of the decade. Prime Video dropped a star-studded crime thriller that had everyone arguing on opening weekend. And by April, the most delayed comeback in prestige TV history will finally land when Euphoria returns after a four-year absence.

The revival economy is also alive and well. Beloved comedies from the early 2000s are making their long-awaited returns, while continuing anthology series are arriving with casts so stacked they seem engineered to trend. And for fans of the dark and gothic, a vampire rock star is preparing to mount the most dramatic tour since Ziggy Stardust.

To identify the most talked-about TV of 2026, Stacker surveyed coverage from outlets including The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Variety, and Rolling Stone to identify 10 series commanding the most attention this year. Only brand-new series or new seasons premiering in 2026 were considered.

One honest caveat: with so much airing this year, plenty had to be left off. You’ll need to look elsewhere for “Scarpetta,” “Bridgerton” Season 4, “The Comeback” Season 3, and “Outlander’s” final season. Consider our 10 as a starting point.

 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

HBO Max

HBO | Premiered January 18, 2026

The Westeros franchise has been running long enough to need a reset—and HBO quietly delivered one on January 18, 2026. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the second Game of Thrones prequel series, is set a full century before the events of the original show and follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), a lowborn hedge knight, and his improbable squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a bald child harboring a very significant family secret.

Adapted from George R.R. Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas by creator Ira Parker, the six-episode first season took critics and audiences by surprise with its intimate, road-trip energy. Gone are the dragons, palace intrigue, and operatic bloodbaths of the franchise’s previous entries. What replaced them earned a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an IMDb score of 8.8. The season averaged nearly 14 million viewers per episode in the U.S. by February, and HBO has already renewed it for a second season, set for 2027.

 

The Boys: Season 5

Amazon // MGM Studios

Prime Video | Premieres April 8, 2026

It was always going to end like this: a fascist with laser eyes trying to become immortal, and a team of violent underdogs with a supe-killing virus as their only play. Prime Video’s superhero satire “The Boys” wraps its five-season run on April 8, 2026, with showrunner Eric Kripke—who announced the final season during the Season 4 premiere with characteristic flair—ready to go out as loud as possible.

The final eight episodes open on a world under Homelander’s (Antony Starr) complete control, with dissidents imprisoned in so-called Freedom Camps. Karl Urban returns as the newly radicalized Billy Butcher, armed with a virus capable of wiping out every super-powered being on earth—himself included. The season also reunites Kripke with his “Supernatural” cast: Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins join Jensen Ackles (already back as Soldier Boy) for a finale worth the wait. The series finale airs May 20, 2026.

 

The Testaments

IMDb // Disney

Hulu | Premieres April 8, 2026

“The Handmaid’s Tale” ended in May 2025 after six seasons and 66 episodes. The door to Gilead closed. Then it opened again when Hulu green-lit “The Testaments,” a sequel series based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. The first three episodes arrive April 8, 2026, with weekly installments to follow.

The shift in perspective is complete. Where “The Handmaid’s Tale” followed June Osborne’s escape from the regime, “The Testaments” is set roughly 15 years after the original show’s events and follows two teenagers: Agnes (Chase Infiniti), June’s daughter Hannah, who has grown up entirely inside Gilead; and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a young Canadian whose life is upended by a secret connecting her to the same world. Ann Dowd returns as Aunt Lydia—now positioned not as an enforcer but as something closer to a dissident from within. Creator Bruce Miller returns as showrunner. Elisabeth Moss produces.

 

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair

Disney / Hulu

Hulu | Premieres April 10, 2026

It took 18 years, a creator holdout, two writers the creator specifically demanded, and a pitch that started as a movie before shrinking into four episodes—but “Malcolm in the Middle” is finally, improbably back. The revival miniseries drops April 10, 2026, with Frankie Muniz reprising the title role alongside Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Kennedy Masterson, Justin Berfield, and Emy Coligado. Nearly the complete original ensemble.

The premise is exactly what you’d expect from a show that always understood the comedy of inevitability: Malcolm has spent over a decade shielding his daughter from his chaotic family. Hal and Lois demand his presence at their 40th anniversary party. The walls close. The chaos returns. Creator and writer Linwood Boomer is back in the room, and director Ken Kwapis—who helmed episodes of the original—directed all four installments.

 

Euphoria: Season 3

HBO Max

HBO | Premieres April 12, 2026

In December 2025, HBO’s Instagram posted a photo of Zendaya in a car with two words: “Let’s ride.” The internet recognized it as confirmation that the longest wait in prestige television was almost over. “Euphoria” Season 3 premieres April 12, 2026—four years after Season 2’s finale, through what creator Sam Levinson has described as a complete reinvention of the show’s world.

A five-year time jump carries the East Highland characters out of high school and into an adult reckoning. Rue (Zendaya) resurfaces in Mexico, in debt to a dangerous figure named Laurie (Martha Kelly), looking for ways out. Cassie and Nate are engaged. Jules is in art school. The season was shot partially on 65mm film—the first narrative television series to do so in significant volume—and carries eight episodes with a finale airing May 31, 2026. The delays were real. The production chaos was real. The impatient audience waiting on the other end is also very real.

 

Beef: Season 2

Netflix

Netflix | Premieres April 16, 2026

“Beef” won eight Emmy Awards for its first season and then went quiet for three years. The anthology format gave creator Lee Sung Jin the freedom to start over entirely—new characters, new conflict, new cast—and what he came back with on April 16, 2026, is an embarrassment of riches. Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan play the feuding Millennial couple at the center of Season 2’s unraveling. Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton play the younger employees who stumble into the blast radius. Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho play the Korean billionaire owners of the country club where all of it unfolds.

The setting is more elevated than the parking lot where Season 1 ignited, but the thesis is the same: rage as social revelation, grievance as character portrait. All eight 30-minute episodes drop simultaneously on April 16. The show’s score is entirely original music by Finneas O’Connell, a multiple Oscar and Grammy winner. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong stay on as executive producers.

 

The Vampire Lestat

AMC

AMC | Premieres June 7, 2026

AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” adaptation earned two acclaimed seasons by doing something the 1994 film never fully managed: taking the queer, race-conscious heart of Anne Rice’s novels seriously. For the third season—officially retitled “The Vampire Lestat” to honor the book it adapts—the brat prince himself (Sam Reid) takes over the narrative. The premiere is June 7, 2026.

The conceit is perfect: fed up with Daniel Molloy’s published account of his life with Louis, Lestat launches a multi-city rock tour in the 1980s to set the record straight. The season cuts between his San Francisco concerts and his origins in 18th-century France. Reid performs all the songs himself. Jacob Anderson returns as Louis, now watching Lestat’s fame spiral with the particular exhaustion of a man who knows exactly how this ends. New cast additions include Sheila Atim as Akasha, the Queen of the Damned, and Jennifer Ehle as Gabriella, Lestat’s mother. Rolin Jones returns as creator and showrunner.

 

House of the Dragon: Season 3

HBO

HBO | Premieres Summer 2026

The Dance of the Dragons has been building toward this. Season 2 of “House of the Dragon” ended on the cusp of the Battle of the Gullet—a massive aerial and naval confrontation drawn from George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood”—and Season 3, premiering in June 2026, opens with it. Filming ran from March to October 2025. The eight-episode season brings back Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, now on opposite sides of a civil war for which neither was quite prepared.

Showrunner Ryan Condal confirmed in January 2026 that the forthcoming fourth season—announced by HBO in November 2025 and slated for 2028—will be the show’s last. Which means Season 3 is the penultimate chapter of the Targaryen civil war: the point at which the dance becomes a slaughter. HBO has already signaled the network’s commitment to keeping the franchise alive through 2028, with “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” Season 2 arriving in 2027 to bridge the gap.

 

The Madison

Emerson Miller // Paramount+

Paramount+ | Premiered March 14, 2026

Taylor Sheridan has built a television empire out of rugged men, Montana landscapes, and the quiet cost of protecting what you love. “The Madison,” which premiered March 14, 2026, is his most personal departure from that template. Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell—reunited onscreen for the first time since 1988’s “Tequila Sunrise”—play Stacy and Preston Clyburn, a New York City family who relocate to the Madison River valley of central Montana following a tragedy that scatters them.

The six-episode first season was released in two three-episode drops (March 14 and 21) and was already renewed for a second season before Season 1 finished its debut run. Critics noted the tonal shift from Sheridan’s previous work—less gunfire, more grief—and Sheridan himself has called it his most intimate project to date. The cast also includes Matthew Fox, Patrick J. Adams, and Beau Garrett. The Clyburns have no connection to the Duttons. This one stands on its own.

 

One Piece: Into the Grand Line

Netflix

Netflix | 2026 (date TBA)

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of “One Piece” was the surprise of 2023—praised for honoring the spirit of Eiichiro Oda’s beloved manga, where every previous Hollywood attempt had failed. The second season, subtitled “Into the Grand Line,” continues Monkey D. Luffy’s (Iñaki Godoy) journey to become King of the Pirates as the crew sails into deeper, more dangerous waters. Oda returns as executive producer and has been sharing production updates with the franchise’s devoted fanbase throughout filming.

The show premieres in 2026 with an exact date still to be confirmed at the time of writing, but it arrives as one of Netflix’s most anticipated scripted releases of the year. The task for Season 2 is the same as it was for Season 1: maintain the tone, honor the source material, and keep the crew together. Early signs—including Oda’s continued involvement and a cast that visibly loves what they’re making—suggest the answer to all three is yes.

Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard // Getty Images

A movie doesn’t have to be good to draw a crowd. In the superhero genre, that rule applies more reliably than almost anywhere else in Hollywood.

Superhero films are among the most pre-sold products in the entertainment industry. A beloved character, a familiar franchise, or the promise of two icons finally sharing the screen can fill theaters regardless of what critics write. Studios have learned—sometimes painfully—that even a film with a Metascore in the 30s can gross several hundred million dollars if the IP is strong enough.

Stacker compiled data on superhero and comic book films using IMDb user ratings, Metacritic scores (Metascore), and worldwide box office gross from Box Office Mojo. Each film was ranked using a combined score—an average of the IMDb rating (normalized to a 100-point scale) and the Metascore—to reflect both audience and critic consensus. Only films that earned at least $200 million worldwide are eligible. Ties were broken by Metascore, then by IMDb vote count. The film with the lowest combined score appears last.

Read on to find out which superhero movies earned hundreds of millions at the box office—and what critics and audiences made of them.

#15. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

IMDb

– Director: Sam Raimi
– IMDb user rating: 6.3
– Metascore: 59
– Combined score: 62.5 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $890.9 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $336.5 million
– Runtime: 139 min

After two beloved installments, director Sam Raimi returned for a third chapter that attempted to juggle three separate villains—Sandman, Venom, and the New Goblin—while also exploring an alien symbiote’s corrupting influence on Peter Parker. Critics found the film overstuffed and tonally uneven, with Roger Ebert noting that the movie “contains characters acting on the basis of information we don’t have.” What kept audiences coming was the same thing that always brings them to a Spider-Man sequel: loyalty to the characters. The $890 million worldwide gross made it the highest-earning film of 2007 at the time of its release, even as it remains the most divisive entry in the Raimi trilogy.

#14. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

IMDb

– Director: Alan Taylor
– IMDb user rating: 6.7
– Metascore: 54
– Combined score: 62.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $644.8 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $206.4 million
– Runtime: 112 min

The second Thor solo film pits the God of Thunder against Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves, who seeks to use an ancient weapon called the Aether to plunge the universe into darkness. Critics largely agreed that while Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston’s chemistry remained a bright spot, the villain was underdeveloped and the plot mechanical. Director Alan Taylor later said that Marvel substantially altered the film from his original vision during post-production—a tension that showed in the finished product. The film grossed over $644 million worldwide, riding the goodwill of the MCU brand and the promise of more Loki.

#13. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

IMDb

– Director: Taika Waititi
– IMDb user rating: 6.1
– Metascore: 57
– Combined score: 59.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $761.0 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $343.3 million
– Runtime: 119 min

Taika Waititi’s follow-up to the acclaimed Thor: Ragnarok reunites Thor with Jane Foster, who has become the Mighty Thor, as the two face off against Gorr the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale. Critics who praised Ragnarok found this entry leaned too far into comedy at the expense of its more compelling dramatic elements, particularly underusing Bale’s genuinely threatening villain. Audiences responded more warmly than critics, though the film’s 6.1 IMDb rating makes it the lowest-rated MCU film on this list. It still grossed $761 million worldwide, a testament to the franchise’s reliable drawing power.

#12. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

IMDb

– Director: Marc Webb
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 53
– Combined score: 59.5 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $709.0 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $202.9 million
– Runtime: 142 min

Sony’s second entry in its Amazing Spider-Man series arrived burdened with the task of launching a broader cinematic universe, and the ambition showed. Three villains, multiple origin setups for planned spinoffs, and a romantic subplot all competed for space in a 142-minute runtime that critics widely found exhausting. The Hollywood Reporter described it as “a movie that too often feels like a commercial for its own sequels.” The one sequence that drew near-universal praise—the death of Gwen Stacy—was a reminder of what the series was capable of when it focused. Sony subsequently reached an agreement with Marvel Studios to share the Spider-Man character, and the Garfield era ended there.

#11. Venom (2018)

IMDb

– Director: Ruben Fleischer
– IMDb user rating: 6.6
– Metascore: 35
– Combined score: 51.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $856.1 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $213.5 million
– Runtime: 112 min

Sony’s standalone Venom film arrived with a 30% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an $856 million worldwide gross, one of the sharpest disconnects between critical and commercial reception in superhero movie history. Critics cited a weak script, a villain with little screen presence, and a tone that couldn’t commit to either horror or comedy. Audiences were more forgiving, drawn in by Tom Hardy’s committed performance as Eddie Brock and the darkly comedic dynamic between host and symbiote. The film was profitable enough to spawn two sequels, neither of which improved on the original’s reviews.

#10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

IMDb

– Director: Gavin Hood
– IMDb user rating: 6.5
– Metascore: 40
– Combined score: 52.5 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $373.1 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $179.9 million
– Runtime: 107 min

The first solo Wolverine film traces Logan’s origins from the 19th century through his transformation into the adamantium-clawed mutant audiences knew from the X-Men series. Hugh Jackman’s performance was generally praised, but critics found the script rushed and the treatment of supporting characters—particularly Deadpool, whose mouth is literally sewn shut in the film’s climax—baffling to fans of the source material. Ryan Reynolds, who played the character, spent years publicly lamenting the portrayal before reclaiming the role in his own Deadpool franchise. X-Men Origins: Wolverine grossed $373 million worldwide but is widely considered a low point for Fox’s mutant film series.

#9. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Warner Bros. Pictures

– Director: Zack Snyder
– IMDb user rating: 6.4
– Metascore: 44
– Combined score: 54.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $874.4 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $330.4 million
– Runtime: 151 min

The first-ever theatrical meeting of Batman and Superman arrived with some of the highest anticipation in superhero movie history and a Metascore of 44. Critics found the 151-minute runtime ungainly, the tone relentlessly grim, and the central conflict—resolved when both heroes realize their mothers share the name Martha—a storytelling shortcut that became one of the most mocked moments in the genre. The film earned a C+ CinemaScore, an unusually poor grade for a major tentpole. Despite all of that, $874 million at the worldwide box office made clear that the promise of seeing two icons face off was enough to fill theaters regardless of what critics wrote.

#8. Justice League (2017)

IMDb

– Director: Zack Snyder / Joss Whedon
– IMDb user rating: 6.0
– Metascore: 45
– Combined score: 52.5 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $657.9 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $229.0 million
– Runtime: 120 min

Production on Justice League was upended when director Zack Snyder stepped away following a family tragedy, and Joss Whedon was brought in to oversee extensive reshoots. The result was a film that critics described as tonally inconsistent, with a generic villain and a rushed storyline that failed to give its newly assembled team room to breathe. A $25 million CGI effort to remove star Henry Cavill’s production mustache became a widely reported symbol of the film’s troubled making. The movie grossed $658 million worldwide but fell well short of its estimated $750 million break-even point. A fan campaign eventually led Warner Bros. to release Snyder’s original cut in 2021 to a considerably warmer reception.

#7. Suicide Squad (2016)

IMDb

– Director: David Ayer
– IMDb user rating: 5.9
– Metascore: 40
– Combined score: 49.5 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $747.1 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $325.1 million
– Runtime: 123 min

Suicide Squad assembles a team of incarcerated supervillains for a covert government mission, a premise that generated enormous pre-release excitement. Critics, however, found the theatrical cut—reportedly recut by the studio to more closely match the energy of its marketing materials—choppy and incoherent, with underdeveloped characters and a climax that failed to justify the setup. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was broadly singled out as the film’s most effective element. The film grossed $747 million worldwide and won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Director David Ayer has since said the released version differed significantly from his intended cut.

#6. Black Adam (2022)

IMDb

– Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
– IMDb user rating: 6.1
– Metascore: 39
– Combined score: 50.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $393.0 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $168.0 million
– Runtime: 125 min

Dwayne Johnson had championed the anti-hero Black Adam for over a decade, and the character’s solo film was positioned as a major turning point for the DC Extended Universe. Critics found the film formulaic, with a predictable story arc and action sequences that prioritized spectacle over consequence. The film grossed $393 million worldwide against an estimated $195 million budget—a return that fell short of what a star of Johnson’s profile typically delivers. When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios shortly after the film’s release and announced a full franchise reset, Black Adam’s future in the new continuity was effectively closed.

#5. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

IMDb

– Director: James Wan
– IMDb user rating: 5.6
– Metascore: 40
– Combined score: 48.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $435.1 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $129.4 million
– Runtime: 124 min

The original Aquaman surprised many in 2018 by grossing over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the highest-earning film in DCEU history at the time. The sequel arrived under very different circumstances: DC Studios had already announced a new creative direction under James Gunn, effectively marking the film as the final chapter of an era audiences knew was ending. Critics found the story unengaging and the humor forced, and the film grossed $435 million—less than half of what its predecessor earned. Jason Momoa’s charisma carried the series as far as it could go.

#4. Ghost Rider (2007)

IMDb

– Director: Mark Steven Johnson
– IMDb user rating: 5.3
– Metascore: 35
– Combined score: 43.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $228.7 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $115.8 million
– Runtime: 114 min

Ghost Rider follows motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze, who sold his soul to the devil as a teenager and is now compelled to transform into a flaming skeleton at night to hunt down evildoers. Nicolas Cage starred in and produced the film, which critics found slow and strangely humorless given its pulpy premise. The villain, Blackheart, was seen as a weak antagonist, and the PG-13 rating was widely noted as a constraint on a character whose source material skewed much darker. The film grossed $228 million worldwide—more than double its production budget—which was enough for Sony to greenlight a sequel in 2012. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance earned worse reviews and grossed $132 million.

#3. Green Lantern (2011)

IMDb

– Director: Martin Campbell
– IMDb user rating: 5.5
– Metascore: 39
– Combined score: 47.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $219.9 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $116.6 million
– Runtime: 114 min

Warner Bros. invested $200 million in Green Lantern as the intended foundation of a DC cinematic universe, casting Ryan Reynolds as test pilot Hal Jordan, who is inducted into an intergalactic police force after receiving a powerful alien ring. Critics found the film unfocused, with a CGI-heavy aesthetic that felt unfinished and a villain—a fear-consuming cloud entity called Parallax—that failed to generate tension. The film grossed $220 million worldwide, a number that left the studio well short of recouping its investment after marketing costs. Warner Bros. shelved plans for a sequel. Reynolds later referenced the film repeatedly in his Deadpool films as a source of self-deprecating humor.

#2. Batman Forever (1995)

IMDb

– Director: Joel Schumacher
– IMDb user rating: 5.5
– Metascore: 51
– Combined score: 53.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $336.5 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $184.1 million
– Runtime: 121 min

When Tim Burton stepped away from the Batman franchise after Batman Returns, Warner Bros. brought in Joel Schumacher with a mandate to lighten the tone and broaden the audience. The result replaced Burton’s gothic atmosphere with neon-lit sets, brightly colored villains, and a campiness that divided fans of the darker earlier films. Val Kilmer took over the Batsuit, joined by Jim Carrey as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. Critics were mixed but not hostile—the film’s Metascore of 51 reflects a more divided response than outright rejection. Audiences turned out in large numbers, delivering $336 million worldwide and setting the stage for a sequel that would test the franchise’s limits far more severely.

#1. Batman & Robin (1997)

IMDb

– Director: Joel Schumacher
– IMDb user rating: 3.8
– Metascore: 28
– Combined score: 29.0 / 100
– Worldwide lifetime gross: $238.3 million
– Domestic lifetime gross: $107.3 million
– Runtime: 125 min

Widely regarded as one of the worst superhero films ever made, Batman & Robin replaced Val Kilmer with George Clooney and doubled down on the campy aesthetic of its predecessor to a degree that critics found unwatchable. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze delivered ice-themed puns at a rate that reviewers found numbing, Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy was reduced to broad comedy, and the Bat-suits featured anatomical details that became the film’s most enduring cultural legacy. Clooney has since apologized for his performance in interviews on multiple occasions. The film opened to $42 million domestically but collapsed in its second weekend, dropping 63% as word of mouth spread. Warner Bros. shut down the Batman franchise entirely in response, and it did not return to theaters until Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins in 2005. Batman & Robin grossed $238 million worldwide—enough to rank it among the biggest superhero box office disappointments of the decade.