Now that 2016 is a distant memory, we find ourselves standing in a bold new world called 2017. We’ve been over the best TV of last year, but what about the year ahead? There are plenty of amazing shows on the horizon just waiting for you to put them in your eyeballs. Some even star some of your favorite people–like Chris Hardwick, whom you can see on The Wall and @midnight, and Kyle Hill, who will be hosting Mythbusters: The Search! Long story short, there’s a little something for everyone this year, but these are the upcoming TV shows that have us the most excited.
Taboo Image: FX
Premiere date: January 10, 2017 at 10PM ET (FX)
No, not an adaptation of the hit party game; rather, this eight-episode FX mini-series stars America’s favorite bedtime storyteller Tom Hardy as an early 19th century adventurer who returns to England to avenge his father’s death. In doing so, the prodigal son finds himself in the proverbial crosshairs of the mega-powerful British East India Company. That all sounds well and good, but the single best part of this show is that it is created by Steven Knight, Tom Hardy, and Hardy’s father, who is, I kid you not, named Chips Hardy. CHIPS. HARDY. Or as we call him here, Fries Daddy.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Premiere date: January 13, 2017 (Netflix)
Remember the 2004 A Series of Unfortunate Events movie with Jim Carrey? Yeah, me neither, which is why it’s the perfect time for an updated TV series based on Lemony Snicket’s fan-favorite novels. This time around, our three precocious orphans get sent to live with none other than Emmy and Tony award winner Neil Patrick Harris… who, I should mention, is not playing himself, but rather their mean uncle Count Olaf.
The Young Pope
Image: HBOPremiere date: January 15, 2017 at 9PM ET (HBO)
Imagine for a moment that you’re an HBO exec and someone pitches you a show about a chill-ass Pope. Here’s how it might play out.
HBO EXEC: A chill-ass Pope, huh? Sounds intriguing…but is he old?
PERSON WITH COOL POPE TV SHOW IDEA: No! It’s even better–he’s young.
HBO EXEC: *spits out a mouthful of coffee* Wait, what?! Okay, fine, but I bet he’s super straitlaced.
PERSON WITH COOL POPE TV SHOW IDEA: No way, dude. He smokes cigarettes. Maybe he even skateboards.
HBO EXEC: *spits out a mouthful of cigarettes* Wait, what?! Okay, fine, but I bet he’s played by some ugly monsterman like Shrek.
PERSON WITH COOL POPE TV SHOW IDEA: No, dude, it’s Jude Freakin’ Law
HBO EXEC: This Pope is extremely my shit.
~Fin~
Long story short, this show looks absolutely bonkers. If this Pope actually does wind up doing a kickflip down the Sistine Chapel steps, I’m going to lose my mind and relaunch the Crusades.
Powerless
Image: NBCPremiere date: February 2, 2017 at 8:30PM ET (NBC)
Say what you will about their movies, but DC Comics has been not-so-quietly killing the superhero TV game for half a decade now. However, all their shows raise a question: after all the massive city-threatening battles and disastrous mayoral races, what are all the normal people thinking and feeling? Enter Powerless, a comedy that follows the employees of a company who aim to better equip mere mortals for a life among superheroes and villains. Considering they cast a veritable comedic Justice League of talent, including Vanessa Hudgens, Danny Pudi, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches, and Kate Miccuci, this comedy looks super in its own right.
Legion
Premiere date: February 8, 2017 at 10PM ET (FX)
Professor X’s mentally unstable son, David Haller, suffers from schizophrenia and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals his whole life. He also happens to be an Omega level mutant, which means he is one of the most powerful people on Earth. Now he’s on the hunt for the woman he became entranced with during his most recent stay in a psychiatric hospital, and is learning that there might be more to him than just mental illness after all. That’s the premise of Noah Hawley’s ultra-trippy new Marvel series on FX, Legion, which stars Dan Stevens as Haller and looks like it’ll be as creepy, cool, and addictive as Hawley’s last FX series, Fargo.
Marvel’s Iron Fist
Premiere date: March 17, 2017
Ser Loras Tyrell is handsome at karate in the fourth solo Marvel Netflix series, which will culminate in The Defenders later this year. This one focuses on Danny Rand, an orphan who studies abroad in the mystical city of K’un-Lun, then returns to New York City to bring his father’s killer to justice. There’s gonna be hallway fights, there’s gonna be other fights, there’s gonna be a lot of connective tissue leading up to The Defenders. Long story short, watch my other episode if you want to know everything there is to know about Iron Fist, and you’ll understand why I’m hyped.
American Gods
Image: StarzPremiere date: April 2017 (Starz)
What if you were suddenly released from prison and you found yourself hanging out with Ian McShane, except he wasn’t Ian McShane at all and was actually a dude named Mr. Wednesday who was secretly the Norse god Odin? And what if all the ancient gods were still around and waging a war against the new gods of technology and media? Well, that’s basically what happens in American Gods, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s very popular novel. To call this the most anticipated new series in the Nerdist office might be an understatement. To say this is our most anticipated new Dane Cook project in a decade is just a statement.
Star Trek Discovery
Premiere date: May 2017 (CBS All Access)
Bryan Fuller may no longer have the con as Star Trek Disccovery‘s showrunner, but I am still incredibly excited to boldly go where no man has gone before in CBS’ new Star Trek anthology series. Considering it has been a decade since the last TV Trek, I think I speak for all of I us when I say I’m ready to set my phasers to eff yeah and watch some sweet, serialized Star Trek action.
Twin Peaks
Premiere date: TBD (Starz)
Much like that gum you like, that old David Lynch show you like is going to come back in style. That’s right, 25 years after the original series, David Lynch and Mark Frost are bringing us back to the weirdest town in America. Not only will we get returning favorites like Kyle MacLachlan, but newcomers like Monica Bellucci, Jim Belushi, Laura Dern, Ernie Hudson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Naomi Watts, and pretty much every great actor you can imagine. Since there’s no premiere date yet, I recommend putting on a pot of damn fine coffee and playing the waiting game. I mean, it’s been this long, so what’s a few more months?
The Deuce
Premiere date: TBD (HBO)
Finally, David Simon, the creator of The Wire, is giving us the follow-up we’ve all been waiting for: an HBO drama about the porn industry in 1970s New York starring James Franco as a pair of twins. What more do I need to say? How about two words: Maggie Gyllenhaal. That’s what I thought.
Game of Thrones
Premiere date: Summer 2017
I mean, come on, right? We all want to see this. Especially because this is the season that Gendry finally rows to shore.
Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later
Premiere date: TBD (Netflix)
Make it your beeswax to be there when the murderer’s row of hilarious people involved in Wet Hot American Summer and its prequel series First Day of Camp return to make a sequel series cued up in the final moments of the original film. While we’re not sure who’s going to be returning, Michael Showalter and David Wain have recruited Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, John Slattery, Josh Charles, and Jason Schwartzman for the new show. Considering it takes place in 1991, I can’t wait to see Coop and the gang form a killer grunge band and talk about Desert Storm and whatever else took place that year.
Bill Nye Saves the World
Image: NetflixPremiere date: Spring 2017 (Netflix)
Bill’s back, baby, and this time he’s gonna save the damn planet. Everyone’s favorite science guy–sorry, Kyle Hill–returns to Netflix with a talk show about science, politics, and pop culture. While I am deeply intrigued to see how Nye does with the new format, I’m mainly keeping my fingers crossed for more Morrissey-themed music videos about momentum. True story: the one time I met Bill Nye, that is all I asked him about and it went about as well as you might imagine.
Those are just some of the shows we’re most looking forward to in 2017. What are your favorites? What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: NBC
Additional reporting by Alicia Lutes.
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter and ask him about all things anime ( @Osteoferocious).
