The Last of Us and 14 other fantasy/sci-fi shows that won’t be back in 2024

2023 offered up some great TV: The Last of Us, a new season of The Wheel of Time, Netflix’s surprisingly good adaptation of One Piece, and much more. And all of those shows are coming back…eventually. These days, TV shows are often matching movies when it comes to scale and spectacle; that means huge budgets, enormous sets, and months of post-production. Because these shows are so complicated and take so much time to make, new seasons can be released years apart from each other. Quality takes time, and there’s a lot of quality out there.

If you want to get excited about what 2024 will offer, we have a guide to all the TV shows worth looking out for. But of the point of this article is to make you sad. Here are all the biggest sci-fi/fantasy show that (most likely) won’t be back until after 2024 is over:

1. The Last of Us season 2 (HBO)

The Last of Us was the first big genre hit of 2023, an adaptation of Naughty Dog’s zombie video game series done up with a coat of HBO polish. The acting was pristine, the budget was off the charts, and the drama crackling. Fans are eager to see this team tackle Naughty Dog’s lightning rod of a sequel, The Last of Us: Part 2.

There was never much chance of that happening in 2024, even after HBO renewed the show shortly after it premiered to impressive ratings. The Last of Us takes a long time to write, a long time to shoot, and a long time to finish. Chances of a quick turnaround dropped to zero after the writers of the WGA went on strike earlier this year, followed by the actors of SAG-AFTRA. The strikes shut down many productions in Hollywood, including The Last of Us. Now that both strikes are over, the plan is to start filming season 2 in February of 2024.

The cast and crew have a long road ahead of them. There’s no chance we’ll be seeing more of Joel and Ellie next year. See you in 2025.

2. The Witcher season 4 (Netflix)

The Witcher is a bit of a hot potato right now. The show, an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels about a professional monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia, debuted in 2019 on Netflix to accolades from fans and critics alike. It started to lose some people in season 2 as it went further afield of the novels. After fans heard that star Henry Cavill would no longer be playing Geralt after season 3, many seemed to write the show off completely.

We think some of those fans are missing out, but there’s no denying that The Witcher has some rebuilding ahead of it. That would take a while under normal circumstances — the show has always taken a gap year between seasons — and will take even longer after production was delayed by the Hollywood strikes.

Nevertheless, The Witcher season 4 is on the way, with Liam Hemsworth subbing in as Geralt. Will folks get over the loss of Henry Cavill? We’ll have to wait until 2025 to find out.

There are many more shows that wont return next year. Click the button below to read on: