For most of American television history, viewers could expect long-running shows to release new episodes incredibly frequently. I Love Lucy, for instance, never had even six months off the air between seasons. The same can be said for other top shows throughout the decades, which aired a new season air every year on a fairly strict September-through-May schedule.
This regularity is precisely why American fans joked about how long they had to wait for new seasons of Sherlock when it was airing, as the two-year gaps seemed excruciatingly long. However, that structure, which is more normal across the pond, is now becoming the standard in the States as well. It doesn't seem to matter how many episodes are in the series or what genre it is; new seasons of TV are taking a long time to make.
Here, we break down some of the worst offenders, including series that have taken more than five years to produce a new season. From epic fantasies to sci-fi comedies, it seems like the new normal for wait times for new seasons of TV is two years if not longer, allowing fans to forget what came before by the time their favorite series finally returns.
1. House of the Dragon
Current Wait: 6 months and counting
Longest Wait: 1 year, 7 months, 25 days
One of the most obvious examples of this trend comes from House of the Dragon, which is taking significantly longer to produce new seasons than its predecessor. For its first seven seasons, Game of Thrones released new episodes every year. Then the episode count dropped from 20 to seven with the seventh season, and the final season only featured six episodes, which aired after a gap of two years.
This narrative shrinkflation continued in the prequel series, which took two years between its first two seasons, with the second only containing eight episodes, compared to the first season's 10. This might have been excusable given the writer and actor strikes in 2023, but it seems the company is taking it as proof that they can take their time moving forward. Six months after the finale of season 2, House of the Dragon is only now starting to film season 3. It's unlikely that the next season will be ready until summer 2026, continuing their two-year production timeline.
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Current Wait: 1 year and counting
Disney+ brought the popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians book franchise to the small screen in 2023, with the first season of its new show covering the events of the first book, The Lightning Thief. The series was renewed for a second season in February 2024, shortly after the first season finished airing. However, there has still not been a confirmed release date.
Filming on the second season just finished earlier this month, so it's possible to guess when the new season will be arriving. Per Forbes, if post-production takes a comparable amount of time as it did for its first season, Percy Jackson and the Olympians will be back in late December 2025. If so, it will be just under two years between the end of season 1 and the start of season 2.
3. The Artful Dodger
Current Wait: 1 year, 2 months and counting
Hulu and Disney+ brought a sequel to the classic novel Oliver Twist to screens in 2023. It follows the exploits of the titular Artful Dodger into adulthood, where he serves as a doctor for an Australian penal colony. He gets caught up in a series of moral tug-of-wars and is reunited with his criminal mentor Fagin, who drags him back to his roots. Meanwhile, a romance with Lady Belle Fox compels him to help others and push for progress.
Although it performed fairly well, The Artful Dodger was in limbo for a long time, finally earning a renewal in November 2024. Filming began in February 2025, so another season is still a long way off. It's unlikely that it will be released until 2026, which will make it yet another show to take more than two years between seasons.
4. The Wheel of Time
Current Wait: 1 year, 4 months and counting
Longest Wait: 1 year, 8 months, 9 days
Over the last decade or so, there has been an increasing interest in presenting epic fantasy on television, and The Wheel of Time is one of the most prominent examples. It's based on the novel series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, following Moiraine Damodred's attempts to track down a prophesied magic user called the Dragon Reborn.
The show initially took one year and 8 months between the end of its first season and the start of its second. It is currently set to air its third season on March 13, 2025, which will mean a slightly shorter gap for audiences. If that season is well-received, perhaps it will be proof that even epic fantasy can be produced in less than two years.
5. Black Mirror
Current Wait: 1 year, 8 months and counting
Longest Wait: 4 years, 11 days
For a while, Black Mirror was considered to be one of the best sci-fi series out there, exploring disturbing possibilities to critique social and technological trends. However, the anthology show started taking way too long between seasons, which drained its fanbase's enthusiasm. Admittedly, Black Mirror is a British series, which are more likely to have extended breaks between seasons, but it had been producing new content at least every one to two years before changing the release schedule drastically in the 2020s.
There was a shocking four years between seasons 5 and 6, due in part to conflict behind the scenes when the show's creators left their former production company. This also coincided with the onset of Covid-19 and its associated complications for the entertainment industry. Because of its long break and changes in the world, season 6 was marketed as a "reset" for the series.
Series 7 was announced in November 2023, a few months after the end of season 6, but there isn't a firm release date yet. The teaser trailer said to expect six new episodes in 2025, but the fact that no specific date has been set two months into the year means it probably won't debut until summer at the earliest.
6. Wednesday
Current Wait: 2 years, 3 months and counting
Fans of The Addams Family were cautiously optimistic when the concept of a teen mystery following Wednesday Addams was first announced, and though the final product has some laughable effects, it found widespread popularity. It was renewed for a second season after only three months, but the wait since then has been extensive.
Due in part to lead actress Jenna Ortega's busy schedule, the next season didn't even start filming for about a year after being renewed, and wrapped last November. Although a 2025 release has been confirmed, we don't know exactly when it will happen, with predictions suggesting it might drop as early as May or as late as October. In the end, fans may end up waiting nearly three years between seasons.
7. The Orville
Current Wait: 2 years, 6 months
Longest Wait: 3 years, 1 month, 9 days
The Orville provided a breath of fresh air to the sci-fi genre, parodying classic Star Trek plots and aesthetics while contributing its own characters and ideals. Although it received some negative reviews during its first season, it was renewed for a second season before its first finale had even aired. Similarly, a third season was approved before the second had even begun.
These early renewals made it possible for production to start quickly, and the second season debuted around a year after the season 1 finale. However, it took over three years for the third season to air, thanks to the onset of Covid-19 while the show was filming. Two years after the third season finally aired, there was finally talk of a fourth.
Fans are now back to playing the waiting game, as the new season wasn't even expected to begin pre-production until this year. At its fastest, The Orville took about a year to produce a new season, which means the next season won't be around until at least 2026, three-and-a-half years after the last episode aired.
8. Stranger Things
Current Wait: 2 years, 7 months and counting
Longest Wait: 2 years, 10 months, 24 days
Stranger Things is one of the most successful series in Netflix's history, drawing record-breaking audiences with its take on teen horror and '80s nostalgia. However, like so many of the other entries on this list, it risks losing that popularity by making viewers wait an excessive amount of time between seasons.
There was only about a year's gap between the first and second seasons, but that timeline has been gradually increasing, with fans waiting a little under two years between the second and third seasons and nearly three years between the third and fourth. While some of this was due to external circumstances like Covid-19 and the writers and actors strikes of 2023, it is becoming untenable.
The show was renewed for one last season back in 2022, but fans have pointed out how much the actors have grown and how the time between seasons makes it harder to believe them as high schoolers. The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is set to release sometime this year, but co-creator Matt Duffer shared in early February that it is "still a long way" away, which has fans speculating that it won't air until the last few months of the year. That will make it the show's longest gap yet, nearing three and a half years.
9. Peacemaker
Current Wait: 3 years and counting
The 2022 Peacemaker is a sort of TV sequel to the movie The Suicide Squad, which came out the previous year. The first season, which starred John Cena as a violently patriotic meathead antihero, achieved critical acclaim, with a second season announced just before the season finale aired. However, the project has had a complicated few years due to the elevation of the show's creator, James Gunn, to the head of DC Studios.
Along with Gunn being busy, the show had to be reworked, as the first season was part of the now-finished DCEU and is no longer considered canon to the DCU Gunn is developing. According to Gunn, season 2 will now follow the events of the upcoming Superman movie, releasing in July.
It makes sense why all of this behind-the-scenes chaos would cause delays, but the wait has still be far too long. The latest information says that the new season will air in August 2025, three and a half years after the first.
10. One-Punch Man
Current Wait: 5 years, 7 months and counting
Longest Wait before that: 3 years, 3 months, 21 days
One-Punch Man is an anime series follows the exploits of a superhero who can defeat any opponent with one blow. The series aired in Japan in 2015, with an English-language dub debuting on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block the next year.
It was quickly renewed for a second season, which didn't air until 2019. This delay was in part because the series changed directors and production companies. Three years later, it was announced that the show would have a third season, which is now scheduled to premiere in 2025. While there isn't a set release date yet, the new season will likely air in October, as that will coincide with the show's 10th anniversary. As much as that symbolism may be appreciated, it will mean that over six years have passed between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3.
American audiences have long been used to consistent release dates, with a new season of their favorite shows arriving every year. But since a series of understandable world events pushed back releases five years ago, studios seem to have decided they no longer need to provide regular content to maintain their fanbases.
But hey! At least the current landscape isn't yet quite as bad as some British television. It took seven years for fans of crime drama Happy Valley to see a third season, and 10 between Series 4 and 5 of Jonathan Creek. Maybe the growing standard of two years isn't completely outrageous.
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