Once summer arrives, you’ll want to spend more time outside soaking up the sun. But there are also nights in, rainy days, and even commute and travel time when you’ll want to sink your teeth into a new show. What’s coming in June? There are tons of great series returning with new seasons, like The Boys, The Bear, and House of the Dragon. But there are also great new shows, too.
Along with these three aforementioned returning series, we have rounded up three more for a list of six TV shows you need to watch in June. Four are returning shows and two are new, including one that serves as a spinoff set in the future and arriving seven years after the original ended its run.
Star Wars fans will be delighted to check out Star Wars: The Acolyte, also known simply as The Acolyte. This sci-fi series tells a story that begins prior to the events in the main Star Wars movies. A Jedi Master named Sol (Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae) is looking into a series of crimes taking place at the end of the High Republic era. But his journey puts him in the crosshairs of Mae (Amandla Stenberg), a former Padawan learner who has become a fierce warrior.
Also featuring Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Jodie Turner-Smith (White Noise), and Carrie-Anne Moss (the Matrix film franchise), Star Wars: The Acolyte was created by Leslye Headland, co-creator of Netflix series Russian Doll. You can expect plenty of exciting action sequences inspired by classic samurai films. Headland told The Hollywood Reporter that many of the cast members did a lot of their own action sequences, resulting in some highly anticipated martial arts moves and high-octane action scenes.
Stream Star Wars: The Acolyte on Disney+.
It has been a long two-year wait for fans of The Boys to catch up on the latest drama with Homelander (Antony Starr), Vought Corporation, and the vigilante group known as The Boys. The satirical superhero series is gritty, gory, profane, and downright stomach-churning at times. But beneath the blood, guts, deathly laser eyes, and exploding heads is a politically charged story about a powerful corporation producing genetically enhanced humans, then using them for their benefit. As far as society is concerned, however, this group of masked, caped, perfectly coiffed heroes are there to help.
The story continues as Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his sidekicks try their hardest to take down Vought, end the development of Supes, and halt their corrupt hold on society. It won’t be easy, and with new enemies, an enraged Homelander, and a half-human son ripe for molding into the most dangerous type of covert villain, there’s plenty of action to come.
Stream The Boys on Amazon Prime Video.
Wives and girlfriends will be grabbing their partners and friends to watch the second half of the third season of record-breaking series Bridgerton this month. The historical romance series based on the Julia Quinn book series and part of Shonda Rhymes’ Shondaland production is set in the Regency era in London. It’s the 1800s and social season, and young nobility are being introduced to society, each looking to impress suitable mates.
Already renewed for a fourth season, the first four episodes of season 3 were released in mid-May, and the final four are coming this month. The story is based on the novel Romancing Mister Bridgerton, focusing on the character of Colin (Luke Newton), the third Bridgerton son.
Stream Bridgerton on Netflix.
House of the Dragon might not be as big as Game of Thrones, the mega-hit series for which it serves as a prequel. But for those who are missing the story, based on the George R.R. Martin books, this fantasy drama dives deep into the history of the Targaryen family. Long before Daenerys was born, the Targaryens were fighting battles to secure their position.
The series looks at the decline of the house, the war of succession that mirrors that of the fight for the Iron Throne in Game of Thrones, and the events that led up to Daenerys’ birth 172 years later and eventual reign as Queen of Dragons. There will be eight episodes in season 2 running through August 2024.
Stream House of the Dragon on Max.
Orphan Black: Echoes has big shoes to fill with its predecessor Orphan Black, for which it serves as a spinoff, receiving critical acclaim. Fans are already curious given the absence of Tatiana Maslany from the story, whose Emmy-winning performance as numerous clones had fans in awe of her work. But as a standalone story taking place in the same universe, set in the future year 2052, the Canadian sci-fi thriller may just satisfy the desire for a return of Clone Club.
This spinoff is centered around Lucy (Krysten Ritter), a woman who went through the cloning procedure but does not remember who she is. A key character in Orphan Black: Echoes is also Dr. Kira Manning (Scoop‘s Keeley Hawes), the now grown daughter of Sarah Manning (Maslany) from the original series.
In the original, Sarah discovers her doppelganger, assumes her identity, and slowly begins to uncover the truth about a genetic cloning lab. She also learns that the project has yielded dozens of clones of her around the world. Reception to Orphan Black: Echoes, which premiered on Stan in Australia late last year, has been relatively cool. But American audiences will be able to weigh in later this month.
Stream Orphan Black: Echoes on AMC+.
Let it rip! The emotionally charged, Emmy-winning comedy-drama The Bear is back for its third season, and if the second season is any indication, the show will continue to get better with age. When things left off in season 2, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (The Iron Claw‘s Jeremy Allen White) had finally, through blood, sweat, and tears, re-opened The Bear as a fine-dining establishment. But it came at a great cost.
Supporting characters went through incredible journeys in the second season as well, including Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Sydney Adamu (Bottoms star Ayo Edebiri), Marcus Brooks (Lionel Boyce), and Tina Marrero (Liza Colon-Zayas). Each came into their own, finally starting to build their confidence. There are so many directions the show can go from here.
The Bear has its funny moments, but what really has fans glued to their TVs are the scenes of pain, trauma, and overcoming obstacles, aw well as the need for the relatable, flawed characters to get out of their own way. Season 3 of The Bear will likely have many highs and lows once again, so strap in for the fast-paced, wild ride of culinary delights and fractured family dynamics to come.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?