10 Most Anticipated Upcoming Action TV Shows In 2025

There’s always plenty to see on television or on streaming services, with new shows popping up almost every day, especially in the action genre. This year promises to be no different, with a grand variety of 2025 shows making their debut or returning in the new year with a new season—more often than not after a considerable amount of time, for the joy of fans everywhere.

Among that variety, there are several shows that fall either completely or partially within the action genre. After all, a genre so like action broad has plenty of space for all kinds of sub-genres, from Western to crime to fantasy. There will be plenty of shows ready to deliver just that in 2025, from the latest entries in shows like Prime Video's Reacher to brand-new series.

10 American Primeval (January 2025)

Action but make it Western

American Primeval is actually already available to stream on Netflix, making it one of the very first new releases to hit the screens in 2025. Created by showrunner Mark L. Smith and starring Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, and Dane DeHaan among others, American Primeval takes place on the American frontier towards the middle of the 19th century.

In true neo-Western style, the plot follows the struggles of an ensemble cast fighting over the control of the Utah Territory in what has become known as the Utah War—particularly between the Indigenous American tribes and the colonists following the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brutal, violent, and gritty, American Primeval features all the tropes one could expect in a Western story set in a place where all that matters is survival.

9 The Last of Us (April 2025)

Returning to Joel and Ellie

The first season of The Last of Us, which aired in January 2023, was an incredible success that gained praise left and right for everything from its production design to the performances of its two main protagonists, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Now the show is finally about to return with its second season, which will partly follow the plot of the second video game in the franchise, The Last of Us Part II.

While people who have played the game will know what’s in store for Joel and Ellie, the show-only audience has simply been told that the relationship between the de facto father-and-daughter duo has become strained after the brutal events of the final episode of the first season of The Last of Us. Life during an apocalypse, however, doesn’t always leave much time for emotionally charged conversations, a premise that sets the tone for the second game.

8 Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (Upcoming)

Espionage and black-ops missions

Another project based on a video game, Splinter Cell: Deadwatch is an upcoming animated show that followed the stories of theTom Clancy’s Splinter Cell video game franchise. The story follows protagonist Sam Fisher, an elite agent of a fictional NSA black-ops division known as the Third Echelon who specializes in stealth infiltration missions.

While details of the show’s plot have not yet been released, it can be presumed it will be based on the already existing games or be something original but still heavily influenced by the missions Sam Fischer has gone through before. The only clue Netflix’s announcement teaser gives audiences is the shot of a casket belonging to Douglas Shetland, a former colleague of Sam Fischer who appears for the first time in the second game of the franchise, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.

7 Andor (April 2025)

The first sparks of the Rebellion continue

Andor is arguably one of the best series produced by Lucasfilm after its acquisition by Disney, acting as a prequel to the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie and covering the very first beginnings of the movement that will grow into the Original Trilogy’s Rebel Alliance.

The story follows the main character Cassian Andor, who turns from thief to rebel spy despite being initially cynical and disillusioned. He and several other characters—like Mon Mothma, who has already appeared in other Star Wars movies, or the eccentric Coruscant merchant Luthen Rael—play a key role in the hidden net that is beginning to spread across the galaxy to oppose the Empire. The final episode of eeason 1, which aired back in 2022, was a masterpiece of incredibly inspiringmoments so, hopefully, audiences will get treated to more of them once Andor season 2 comes out.

6 Reacher (February 2025)

Time for Season three

Reacher season 3 is set to be released in the first months of 2025, continuing the story of former military police major turned drifter Jack Reacher as he moves across the United States. The show is based on the book series of the same name by author Lee Child, which consists of almost thirty novels and a huge number of accompanying short stories and novellas.

The plot follows Reacher as he uses his extensive experience in the Army to investigate conspiracies and crimes wherever he finds himself at the time. Season 3 will see Reacher clash with a vast criminal enterprise that hides just out of sight of the law after he attempts to rescue a DEA informant, a meeting that will also bring up some dark secrets from his past.

5 1923 (February 2025)

The return of the Duttons

After Yellowstone officially ended its five-season run in 2024, fans of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western universe will be happy to know that the second season of 1923 is finally being released in the first months of 2025. Season 2 will pick up right where season 1 left off, with the Duttons in Montana fighting tooth and nail to keep their ranch and Alex and Spencer being forcibly separated and promising to find each other again in the United States.

Set between the auto-conclusive miniseries 1883—the beginning of the story of the Dutton family—and Yellowstone, 1923 follows the lives of the Duttons who are alive during the Twenties through a series of momentous periods in time, from Prohibition to the Great Depression. Leading the family are Jacob Dutton and Cora Dutton, played by Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren respectively.

4 The Recruit (January 2025)

More spy adventures await

The Recruit’s first season follows young CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks, who finds himself embroiled in a series of dangerous international conflicts that are miles above his pay grade as a new hire but that he nonetheless has to deal with. It all starts when he comes in contact with CIA asset Max Meladze, an Eastern European woman who strong-arms him into releasing her from prison.

An underrated gem in terms of Netflix action shows, The Recruit is finally back. Season 2 is going to be set mostly in South Korea, with actor Teo Yoo of Past Lives fame set to take on a major role and Nathan Fillon returning as Owen Hendricks’ director at the CIA. Before getting to South Korea, though, Hendricks will have to disentangle himself from the life-threatening situation he was in during the season 1 finale.

3 Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Upcoming)

Time to dive into the Sea of Monsters

The first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians was very much welcomed by longtime fans of Rick Riordan’s book saga about Greek demigods inhabiting every corner of the modern United States. The new year will finally see the release of the show’s second season, which is going to adapt the second book of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, The Sea of Monsters.

Protagonists Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and Grover Underwood, Percy’s satyr protector, will return to take on a new mission to save Thalia’s tree and so by extension Camp Half-Blood—finding the legendary Golden Fleece. All of this while, of course, battling the ever-growing number of monsters and demigods allied with the titan Kronos, including Luke Castellan, son of Hermes and their former friend.

2 Prime Target (January 2025)

Mathematics and international plots

Prime Target is a thriller miniseries from Apple TV+, which is always somewhat flying under the radar even though it keeps delivering incredible show after incredible show. Starring in Prime Target is Leo Woodall, whose previous projects include the second season of The White Lotus and Netflix’s remake of One Day.

The story follows Edward Brooks, a postgraduate mathematics student who has worked his way to a pattern of prime numbers that would theoretically allow him access to every computer in the world. Of course, that’s also when he discovers that mysterious forces are working to destroy his research. He begins to track down these unknown enemies with the help of NSA agent Taylah Sanders, who was already keeping tabs on him and his work.

1 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Upcoming)

Sharpen your swords for another Westeros story

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight

Drama

Action

Fantasy

Network: HBO
Directors: Owen Harris
Writers: George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker
Franchise(s): Game of Thrones

Cast

See All

Peter Claffey
Ser Duncan 'Dunk' the Tall
Dexter Sol Ansell
Egg
Finn Bennett
Aerion Targaryen
Bertie Carvel
Baelor Targaryen

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is set in a time when the Targaryen dynasty rules Westeros.

Creator(s): George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker
Streaming Service(s): MAX

Even though House of the Dragon is busy filming its third season, audiences won’t be left missing Westeros and its Seven Kingdoms for the entirety of 2025. Sometime this year, HBO is set to release A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a new Game of Thrones prequel based on George R.R. Martin’s collection of short stories Tales of Dunk and Egg.

Set before Game of Thrones but after House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will focus on the hedge knight Duncan the Tall during the events of the legendary Tourney at Ashford Meadow. Ser Duncan finds himself embroiled in a dispute between highborn lords, at the end of which he will walk away with a new squire to follow him on his adventures, Egg—who is secretly a prince of House Targaryen. While Tales of Dunk and Egg is not necessarily about action, we can expect to see plenty of duels and battles.

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