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But that’s all over now and it's time to turn our primary attention from the big screen to the small screen. The fall season is jam-packed with new TV shows like VisionQuest and Crystal Lake, as well as returning favorites like Scrubs and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Here are the 10 most anticipated shows of the fall with a focus on sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and animation — and you can find even more shows and scoops in our 2026 Fall Preview.

10

Scrubs

Image: 20th Television

The early 2000s hospital comedy about quirky doctors returned last year for its first season since 2010 (or 2009 if you correctly don’t count the ninth season). While there was skepticism about whether the reboot could recapture the charming voice of the original, pretty much everyone agreed it did. The revival began with Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) appointing his former protégé J.D. (Zach Braff) as the new Chief of Medicine at Sacred Heart Hospital, a position which, surprisingly, didn’t rob the character of how fun he had been in the original series. The revival also managed to bring a fair amount of heart, particularly with the reveal of Dr. Cox’s medical condition.

Season 11 of Scrubs will premiere on ABC on Sept. 30.

9

Dig

Image: Colleen Hayes/Peacock

Not to be mistaken with Tom Cruise’s upcoming comedy Digger, Dig is a new sitcom starring Amy Poehler. Not much is known about the series except that Poehler is playing an archaeologist who, along with a few other archaeologists, uncovers a big secret on a dig in Greece. Despite the scant details, there’s good reason to be excited. For one thing, Amy Poehler is returning to television, and she’s doing it with executive producer Mike Schur, one of the co-creators of Poehler’s beloved sitcom Parks and Recreation. So with Schur and Poehler onboard, this show seems very promising.

Dig will premiere on Peacock on Nov. 23.

8

Crystal Lake

Image: A24

Few horror franchises are as iconic or successful as the Friday the 13th films, but it's been 17 long years since we've seen Jason Voorhees onscreen due to various legal rights issues. Thankfully, that drought is finally over — sort of. Crystal Lake from Callum Vinson (It: Welcome to Derry) is bringing the franchise back to the beginning — actually, before the beginning.

If you recall the original 1980 film Friday the 13th, the iconic hockey-mask-wearing Jason was not yet the villain of the franchise. In that first movie, it’s Jason’s mom who's doing the killing around Camp Crystal Lake summer camp as she seeks vengeance for the death of her son. Crystal Lake series will tell the story before the events of the first film, with Linda Cardellini as Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees.

The eight-episode first season of Crystal Lake will drop all of its episodes on Peacock on Oct. 15.

7

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/HBO

Nobody wanted HBO Max’s new Harry Potter show. The celebrated series of movies starring Daniel Radcliffe is still very fresh in people's minds, and it hardly seems necessary to re-adapt the saga right now, especially while Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling is an unrepentant transphobic bigot. Still, the sheer volume of talent involved with the upcoming Harry Potter series can’t help but attract attention.

Nick Frost is an extraordinarily good casting choice for Hagrid, and Paapa Essiedu is an intriguing pick for Severus Snape. The actor I’m most excited to see, though, is John Lithgow as Dumbledore. I also tend to think that it’d be interesting to see how much more from the books the series will be able to include, as the movie necessarily had to cut a lot out. Perhaps this series will end up being as pointless as everyone originally thought, but so far, it’s definitely not looking that way.

The eight-episode first season premieres on HBO Max on Dec. 25.

6

South Park season 29

Image: South Park Studios

For much of its run, South Park had mostly stayed out of politics, with creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker generally choosing to lampoon popular culture instead. However, for seasons 27 and 28, which aired back-to-back last year, the show about four vulgar young boys in Colorado went all-in on its bashing of President Donald Trump. Frequently depicting him entirely naked, the show portrayed Trump as a petulant, evil narcissist with a small — well, it’s South Park, so you can probably figure out what part of Trump’s anatomy they repeatedly portrayed as being too small.

The weekly swipes at Trump were so relentless that they made headlines each week and even got some direct attention from Trump himself. While some fans — likely Trump supporters who can’t take a joke — rankled at the political turn, many found it hilarious and it gave South Park the most relevance it’s had in years.

The show will return on Sept.16 for its 29th season, with semi-weekly releases after that. The release schedule may change mid-season, too, just like it did last year. Regardless of how quickly the episodes come out, I can only hope they double-down on what they did last season, which is often what Stone and Parker do when people tell them not to do something.

5

Blade Runner 2099

Image: Amazon MGM Studios

Denis Villeneuve's 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 may have been liked by critics, but the movie failed to be the massive blockbuster it needed to be to make back all the money poured into it. Still, for those who turned out for the movie, they saw that the Blade Runner franchise still had some good stories to tell in its neon-lit dystopia populated with replicants (bio-engineered slave laborers).

This go-around, executive producer Ridley Scott (who directed the original 1982 film), has teamed up with Shining Girls creator Silka Luisa for the Prime Video series Blade Runner 2099, an eight-episode miniseries with an intriguing twist. Instead of the replicants being the second-class citizens, they’ve now taken over the city of Los Angeles and the humans are the ones that are oppressed.

All episodes of Blade Runner 2099 will drop on Nov. 25.

4

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3

Image: Amazon MGM Studios

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set thousands of years before the Lord of the Rings movies and tells the story of Middle-earth’s Second Age (as opposed to the Third Age covered by Peter Jackson's films). In the course of the series, Sauron's Rings of Power are forged as part of a plot to sneakily conquer all of Middle-earth and subjugate its many inhabitants. Season 3, which premieres on Nov. 11 on Prime Video, will see Sauron forge the One Ring, a powerful weapon that will help him defeat his enemies.

Response to the series has been mixed thus far, perhaps because, unlike the more faithful films which were directly based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novels, The Rings of Power extrapolates a lot more, building its own mythology based loosely on the appendices of the original books. Some don’t see it as canon for this reason, but The Rings of Power has properly captured the scale and scope of The Lord of the Rings, even if it is a television series and not a theatrical film. And because of the sheer size of the production, and some interesting story choices, it's at least worth checking out.

Four episodes will drop on Nov. 11. After that, the season’s remaining four episodes will drop soon after, with two episodes on November 18 and another two on Nov. 25.

3

Carrie

Image: Robert Falconer/Prime Video

Stephen King’s 1974 novel Carrie, and its 1976 adaptation directed by Brian De Palma, are still as good as ever. The supernatural thriller story about a telekinetic teenager who lashes out at her bullying classmates at prom has spawned a number of remakes, and now there’s a TV miniseries in the works with the prolific Mike Flanagan at the helm. If you’re unfamiliar with Flanagan, he’s the showrunner behind a bunch of Netflix horror series like The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher. He’s also behind the Stephen King film adaptations Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep. While yet another Carrie adaptation hardly seems necessary, in Flanagan’s hands, it automatically becomes one of the fall’s most anticipated shows. Flanagan’s choice to set the series in modern times in a setting where school shootings and cyber-bullying have sadly become the norm also puts a clever twist on the iconic tale.

The six-episode series will drop all at once on Prime Video on Oct. 7.

2

VisionQuest

Image: Disney/Marvel Studios

Most Marvel Cinematic Universe shows have been pretty bad or forgettable, but both WandaVision and Agatha All Along were fun stories that didn’t drag in the middle, unlike the majority of the others. With that, the hope is VisionQuest, which is being marketed as the conclusion to the WandaVision trilogy, will be on-par with those two. Paul Bettany’s work as Vision in various Marvel movies and TV shows has always been intriguing and entertaining. He’s a strong lead, so, assuming the writing is on-point for this series, VisionQuest looks promising.

The story is about Vision re-discovering who he is after coming back online in WandaVision. While the now-white-colored android has his memories back, he still has to restore his personality and humanity. The show looks like it's tackling this in a trippy, experimental way, with the inclusion of a human version of Ultron (James Spader) residing in Vision’s programming.

Whether this is an interesting link in the chain which leads to Avengers: Doomsday or merely a conclusion for Vision’s journey, it should prove interesting to see.

The eight-episode series VisionQuest will have a weekly rollout and debut on Disney Plus on Oct. 14.

1

Avatar: Seven Havens

Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of the greatest animated series of all time. In a world where tribes of “benders” can manipulate the elements of water, earth, fire, or air, a young boy named Aang is the last airbender and the current “Avatar,” the only person who can bend all four elements. Over three seasons, the show told a complete and pretty much perfect story, which is why some feared that its 2012 sequel series, The Legend of Korra, wouldn’t measure up. Fortunately, The Legend of Korra, which followed the story of Aang’s Avatar successor, Korra, was on par with the original.

Hopefully the third series, which follows the new Avatar named Pavi, can replicate the success of its two predecessors.

The new series will premiere on Oct. 9, on Paramount Plus, with a 13-episode first season. A second season will be coming sometime in the future, with another 13 episodes. %!s()

“I don’t want my mother and father to be upset with me,” he wrote on August 29. “I did this so I could see myself as a man. I won’t go back to Egypt, my beloved country, until I bring it honour.

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“Everything I earn in a month is 700 Egyptian pounds [$13.7], and I’m an international [athlete] … After all this pressure, there was no way I could go back.”

On August 27, another Egyptian wrestler, Mohamed al-Shami, 23, had escaped while his team transited through Rome on their way home from the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy.

In his Facebook post on August 29, Al-Shami said he had come to feel like a financial burden on his family and that he wanted to start earning money for them.

“At a certain point I felt my father was exhausted, that life had become too hard for him,” he wrote. “I’m the eldest of my siblings, so someone had to make a sacrifice and take responsibility.”

While the authorities in Egypt may now try to take legal action against the two athletes, their posts drew a wave of sympathy from Egyptians on Facebook, with many saying they understood the pressures that pushed the athletes to escape from a country mired in poverty.

Indeed, Hajjaj and al-Shami are far from the first Egyptian wrestlers to flee while abroad, and the hardships they describe are widely shared across the sport in Egypt.

Debt and despair

A 27-year-old wrestler, who won several gold medals for Egypt and asked not to be named, told Al Jazeera that fellow athletes under 20 years old earn 700 Egyptian pounds ($13.7) to 800 ($15.7) Egyptian pounds a month.

Older international players reportedly receive between 5,000 pounds ($98.2) and 12,000 pounds ($235.7) a month, depending on their achievements.

“Wrestlers often go into debt to cover supplements and living costs while waiting for prize money that may or may not arrive,” he said.

Ahmed Baghdouda left for France in 2023 immediately after winning silver at the African Wrestling Championships, reportedly over low pay. Tarek Abdel Salam defected to Bulgaria in 2017 amid alleged medical neglect and later won European gold under Bulgaria’s flag. That year, Ibrahim Ghanem also chose to stay in France, subsequently winning a World Championship title for the country.

In October 2025, Mohamed Ibrahim el-Sayed – popular as Kishu and a six-time African wrestling champion, two-time U23 world champion, and bronze medallist in the 67kg category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – announced he had taken “the first step” towards switching his sporting allegiance to represent the United States, posting training photos from a facility with the US flag behind him.

Asked by Al Jazeera through a messaging app why wrestlers keep fleeing Egypt, Kishu blamed the wrestling federation.

“It’s the only body that can provide a suitable environment, but the opposite keeps happening,” he said from the US. “The problem isn’t just about money – it goes much deeper than that. When I retire, what am I supposed to do? God forbid I get injured – what happens to me then?”

“I would take the same decision again and again and I advise Egypt’s international players to focus on their training and acquire their rights because it’s their lives that are being wasted.”

Al Jazeera reached out to the president and the vice president of the Egyptian Wrestling Federation (EWF), as well as the president of the Egyptian National Olympic Committee (ENOC), for their comments, but none of them responded.

However, the EWF’s team psychologist Hossam Mohamed said the disappearance of players abroad is not simply down to poor financial compensation or neglect, insisting the state provides good support to wrestlers – whether through financial bonuses, training camps abroad, or accommodation and meals. He said medal bonuses can reach 5 million Egyptian pounds ($98,135) for an Olympic gold.

“The wrestling federation, compared to major sports federations, has limited resources in light of the absence of broadcasting rights and the commercial and audience revenues enjoyed by football,” he noted.

“[But the] core problem for [athletes] isn’t only what they receive during their playing years, but what awaits them after retirement or injury.”

On Hajjaj and al-Shami, he said they competed in international championships, but “receiving bonuses is tied to achieving results – a player who doesn’t finish in a top position doesn’t receive a tournament bonus”, and neither was able to achieve podium finishes in recent competitions.

Gamal el-Badrawy, a former head of Egypt’s kickboxing federation, called on the Ministry of Youth and Sports to impose tighter oversight of national sporting federations and to review bonuses, allowances and health insurance.

“[Athletes] cannot be entirely absolved of responsibility, but the weak financial and administrative system is the main driver,” he told Al Jazeera.

Prosecutors investigate

Meanwhile, Egypt’s Ministry of Youth and Sports has referred Hajjaj and al-Shami to the public prosecutor, accusing them of breaking the rules governing national delegations.

The ENOC separately referred Brigadier General Ibrahim Adel – EWF secretary-general and head of the wrestling delegation at the tournament in Taranto – to its ethics committee for investigation and suspended him from his duties for allowing al-Shami to escape.

Adel refused to comment on the criticisms against the EWF, but told Al Jazeera he believed the moves against him were unfair, pointing to precautionary measures already in place before the trip: notarised undertakings signed by both the players’ guardians and the players themselves committing them to return to Egypt.

Meanwhile, fleeing athletes often leave behind distressed families.

Hajjaj’s father, Hajjaj Abu Gabal, told Al Jazeera over the phone that he was deeply worried for his son after he left the national team in Slovakia, noting that he had switched off his phone for a long time and did not respond to calls.

“I signed the notarised parental consent required for my underage son to travel,” he said, as 21 is the age of full legal adulthood in Egypt. “But no one from the wrestling federation had contacted me since the escape.”

Hajjaj, according to his father, said wrestling required expenses for food, drink, clothing and other needs, including costs related to the training period and participation in championships, and these expenses were a burden on him and the family.

“Whatever happens, he’s still my son,” the father said.

“I keep praying for him to be safe and secure, and may God compensate him for the difficult times he went through.”

This article was published in collaboration with Egab, a platform that empowers journalists from across the Global South to publish stories in international media outlets. %!s()

A clutch of English talent - notably Toulouse star Jack Willis - remain across the Channel and out of reach for England head coach Steve Borthwick.

"I can see why they do it because they don't want all their players playing abroad, but I don't think that's necessarily going to be the case anyway," said Lawes.

"It's important that you have the best players available for selection. If we want the game to develop and more people to watch it, I think it has to develop.

"I just reckon you make your best players available and by any means necessary.

"I don't see why you'd limit yourself."

In addition to Willis, who was voted the best player in France in 2024-25 and could well retain the award after a player-of-the-match performance in the Top 14 final in June, Willis' brother Tom, Kyle Sinckler, Manu Tuilagi, David Ribbans, Billy Vunipola, Lewis Ludlam and Junior Kpoku also ply their trade in France.

England have better access and control over players who are at Prem clubs. The clubs, in turn, benefit from central payments from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and more chance of retaining their biggest stars, who face international exile with a move overseas.

Other nations, such as New Zealand, France and Ireland, have a policy of picking home-based players, but some of England's other rivals, such as South Africa, Australia and Scotland, lean heavily on players based abroad.

Borthwick has opted not to include either Lawes or Joe Marchant, his new Sale team-mate who has spent the past three seasons at Stade Francais in Paris, in his first training camp of the season, asking them to prove themselves in the Prem first.

The England coach adopted a similar approach when Owen Farrell returned from Racing 92 at the start of last season.

"I spoke to Steve a little bit," said Lawes, who played 80 minutes in a 50-28 win over Bath in the Prem Rugby Cup on Sunday, to Rugby Union Weekly.

"It was just what I would expect - he knows I'm coming back and he's going keep an eye on me, but he wants to see me play in the Prem first and I think that's a good idea.

"I've spent two years away, let's see how I go in the Prem first, I'm not really thinking about England before I can get up and running for Sale so that's there's no point."

Lawes, who initially retired from Test rugby after the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final defeat by South Africa, said his return to England was not something he expected when he departed boyhood club Northampton in the wake of lifting the domestic title the following year. %!s()

“With the type of cancer that I have, which I don’t want to get into, the current thing is a five-year deal,” Campbell said. “I’ve decided pretty specifically though to live with it, not die from it.”

He went on to say that it can be easy to “go down a massive rabbit hole“ given “the cancer rabbit hole is enormous.” He explained, “You can go into focus groups of 10,000 guys who have exactly what you have. I won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

Campbell‘s appearance on the podcast was to promote his new film, Ernie & Emma, which follows a small-town pear salesman following the death of his wife, Emma.

Despite his health, Campbell said he decided he wants to carry on with his life and live normally: “When I promote this movie, I have nothing. I’m free and clear when I promote this movie. You have to make this decision of, ‘Oh okay, but do I have to stop everything I’m doing because of this?’ Well no. So, it’s a sort of whack-a-mole life, literally.”

He added, “You don’t die from cancer, you die from what cancer does to you. It does weird shit and then you address it and move on.”

In March, Campbell publicly announced that he has a condition, which is “treatable not curable.”

In a social media post, the actor wrote, “Hi folks, these days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that — I’m having one of those. It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable,’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too.”

“The good news is, I’m not gonna go into any more detail,“ he continued. “I’m posting this because professionally, a few things will have to change — appearances and [fan conventions] and work in general need to take a back seat to treatment. My plan is to get as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie Ernie & Emma this fall.“

“That’s about it,” he concluded. “I’m not trying to enlist sympathy — or advice — I just want to get ahead of this information in case false information gets out (which it will). Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while. As always, you’re the greatest fans in the world and I hope to see you soon!” %!s()

The small Muslim-majority Balkan nation signed on Monday a formal agreement to join the United Nations-mandated force, according to a social media post by the United States-backed Board of Peace.

“Representatives of the Republic of Kosovo, the Board of Peace & the International Stabilization Force signed the Participating Country Agreement for the inclusion of Kosovo in the ISF,” the post said.

The accord, signed by Kosovo Security Force Commander Lieutenant-General Bashkim Jashari and US ISF Commander Major-General Jasper Jeffers, formally establishes the Kosovo’s inclusion in the planned force.

“The landmark event underscores Kosovo’s commitment to the ISF mission and its continued support for President [Donald] Trump’s 20-point peace plan”, according to a Board of Peace statement.

The plan is a US-Israeli framework agreement introduced one year ago to end the war in Gaza.

Among its provisions, it envisages the creation of a multinational security mission to maintain stability, manage demilitarisation and train a Palestinian police force to oversee security in post-conflict Gaza.

Countries confirmed to be contributing troops include Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Albania and Uganda.

Turkiye will not participate after Israel vetoed Ankara’s involvement.

Roadblocks

Israel’s government approved key legal measures to allow for the entry of the ISF to Gaza in July, with an official saying the force will operate “in full coordination with” the Israeli military, according to the Times of Israel.

But deployment of the ISF has met roadblocks due to disagreements on the timing of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.

On Monday, Nikolay Mladenov, high representative for the Board of Peace, said Israel must implement its commitments under the Gaza peace roadmap for the process to move forward, according to the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency.

“We are still at the point at which we need to make sure that what has been agreed is going to be implemented and is going to change significantly the lives of the people in Gaza,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we’re not there yet,” he added, saying discussions were continuing with Israel on “the implementation of their part of the commitments” required to move the process forward.

Mladenov told Al Jazeera last month the board had “determined the mechanism for deploying the [ISF] and its deployment locations in the Gaza Strip”.

The force’s “advance elements should arrive in the Gaza Strip soon”, he added.

In August, the Trump administration told Congress it is committing more than $206 million to the ISF.

Reuters reports the funds will go towards equipment, infrastructure, vehicles and operational costs. An additional $6 million would repurpose US armored vehicles to support the force. %!s()