Predicting HBO’s 2026 Release Schedule
Here is a prediction for HBO’s release schedule for 2026.
HBO has a massive year ahead with many big hitters set to release this year—here is a prediction of the release schedule for HBO in 2026.
Every 2026 HBO Show
Every year HBO has a video with a sneak peek of their slate for the following year. Here is this year’s:
This video confirms these shows will air on HBO in 2026. It also includes shows on Max, but we won’t include them here.
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1
- Industry Season 4
- The Comeback Season 3
- Rooster
- Euphoria Season 3
- House of the Dragon Season 3
- DTF St. Louis
- Half Man
- Lanterns
- The Gilded Age Season 4
- War
- Dune: Prophecy Season 2
- Untitled Larry David Project
It is to be noted that both Industry and Half Man are co-productions with BBC while War is a co-production with HBO and Sky Television, so it’s not just up to HBO to set the dates for those, so there will be fluctuation on them.
Shows With Release Dates or Release Windows
There are two shows with release dates set:
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: January 18th
- Industry Season 4: January 11th
Here are the shows with release windows:
- The Comeback Season 3: March
- Rooster: March
- Euphoria Season 3: April
- House of the Dragon Season 3: Early Summer
- Lanterns: Summer
Shows Releasing Between January 1st and May 31st
A large part of TV schedules depend heavily on the Emmys, and their cutoff for a show to be allowed in the race for the upcoming season is May 31st. For example, the cutoff for 2026 Emmys is May 31st, 2026 so HBO will try to fit as many shows as they can into those slots.
In an interview earlier this year, HBO’s CEO Casey Bloys said the following about the 2026 Emmys:
I go into next year with the drama frontrunner, because The Pitt is back in January,” Bloys said. “And we’ll have The Gilded Age, hopefully Task breaks through, because I think the performances are phenomenal, and Hacks will be coming back. We’ve got a new Bill Lawrence and Steve Carell show. We’ve got a really great limited series called DTF with Jason Bateman and David Harbour by Steve Conrad, Euphoria is coming back. Nancy [Abraham] and Lisa [Heller] have always got an amazing docs, so I think we’ll have another good year.
So on top of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Industry, The Comeback, Rooster, and Euphoria Season 3, HBO will also release DTF before Emmys eligibility ends. It will likely end its final episode of a 7-episode season before May 31st, so the entire show can be eligible instead of just a part.
Casey Bloys also said House of the Dragon Season 3 would be an early summer release just outside the Emmys eligibility.
When Will ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Be Released?
Euphoria Season 3 is perhaps the most anticipated on the list here is what to expect. The show is confirmed to start airing in April. HBO only releases one episode every week and the season features 8 episodes.
The show must start airing on either April 5th or April 12th to be able to finish its 8th episode either on or before May 31st (which is a Sunday) to enter Emmy eligibility. So bet on either of those two dates.
When Will ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 Be Released?
With House of the Dragon Season 3 confirmed to be outside the Emmy eligibility, it feels like the show can premiere at any time during the summer. Casey Bloys said it will likely be June, which lines up with Season 2’s release in 2024.
House of the Dragon Season 2 started production in April 2023 then wrapped in September 2023 and aired in Mid-June 2024 while House of the Dragon Season 3 started production in March 2025 and wrapped in October of that year. Both have 8 episodes so it does feel like Season 3 will be able to finish post-production around the same time so expect House of the Dragon Season 3 to start airing around mid-June and finish airing around early August.
House of the Dragon star Matt Smith recently said that Season 3 of the show comes out in August, which contradicts what Casey Bloys said. In this case, I went with what Bloys said because Matt Smith said Season 2 of the series would be an August release, but it ended up releasing in June.
When Will ‘Lanterns’ Be Released?
Set to be the first DCU show to air on HBO, Lanterns has had different release windows. First it was set to release in Early 2026 but it has seemed to shift to the end of the Summer according to Casey Bloys. It isn’t clear when exactly that is, but it will almost surely air after House of the Dragon Season 3 ends so a good bet is between mid-August and mid-September.
Lanterns started production in February 2025 and wrapped sometime around July, so it should have enough time to finish post-production by August 2026. The previous DC shows, Peacemaker Season 2 started airing in late August earlier this year on Max, and The Penguin started airing in mid-September on HBO, so it does seem like Lanterns will continue that trend.
Tentative HBO Schedule for 2026
Here is a full potential schedule for every Sunday of 2026. Try not to take this as the gospel as these are purely researched guesses that could completely miss the spot.
January
Jan 4th: Nothing
Jan 11th: Industry S4 Ep 1
Jan 18th: Industry S4 Ep 2; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ep 1
Jan 25th: Industry S4 Ep 3; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ep 2
February
Feb 1st: Industry S4 Ep 4; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ep 3
Feb 8th: Industry S4 Ep 5; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ep 4
Feb 15th: Industry S4 Ep 6; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ep 5
Feb 22nd: Industry S4 Ep 7; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Ep 6
March
March 1st: Industry S4 Ep 8; The Comeback S3 E1
March 8th: The Comeback S3 E2; Rooster Ep 1
March 15th: The Comeback S3 E3; Rooster Ep 2
March 22nd: The Comeback S3 E4; Rooster Ep 3
March 29th: The Comeback S3 E5; Rooster Ep 4
April
April 5th: The Comeback S3 E6; Rooster Ep 5; Euphoria S3 Ep 1
April 12th: The Comeback S3 E7; Rooster Ep 6; Euphoria S3 Ep 2
April 19th: The Comeback S3 E8; Rooster Ep 7; Euphoria S3 Ep 3; DTF St. Louis Ep 1
April 26th: Rooster Ep 8; Euphoria S3 Ep 4; DTF St. Louis Ep 2
May
May 3rd: Rooster Ep 9; Euphoria S3 Ep 5; DTF St. Louis Ep 3
May 10th: Rooster Ep 10; Euphoria S3 Ep 6; DTF St. Louis Ep 4
May 17th: Euphoria S3 Ep 7; DTF St. Louis Ep 5
May 24th: Euphoria S3 Ep 8; DTF St. Louis Ep 6
May 31st: DTF St. Louis Ep 7
June
June 7th: Nothing
June 14th: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 1
June 21st: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 2
June 28th: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 3
July
July 5th: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 4
July 12th: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 5
July 19th: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 6
July 26th: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 7; Half Man Ep 1
August
August 2nd: House of the Dragon S3 Ep 8; Half Man Ep 2
August 9th: Half Man Ep 3
August 16th: Half Man Ep 4
August 23rd: Half Man Ep 5
August 30th: Half Man Ep 6
September
September 6th: Nothing
September 13th: Nothing
September 20th: Lanterns Ep 1
September 27th: Lanterns Ep 2
October
October 4th: Lanterns Ep 3
October 11th: Lanterns Ep 4
October 18th: Lanterns Ep 5
October 25th: Lanterns Ep 6; Untitled Larry David Project Ep 1
November
November 1st: Lanterns Ep 7; Untitled Larry David Project Ep 2
November 8th: Lanterns Ep 8; Untitled Larry David Project Ep 3
November 15th: Untitled Larry David Project Ep 4; War Ep 1
November 22nd: Untitled Larry David Project Ep 5; War Ep 2
November 29th: Untitled Larry David Project Ep 6; War Ep 3
December
December 6th: War Ep 4
December 13th: War Ep 5
December 20th: War Ep 6
December 27th: Nothing
Notes
HBO usually puts a show or two in their video that doesn’t make its intended date. For example 2025 had A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which was delayed to 2026 while 2024 had White Lotus Season 3 and IT: Welcome to Derry which both ended up being 2025 shows.
A betting man would guess this year it will either be Dune: Prophecy Season 2, as it has only started production in November (and it has increased its episode count from 6 to 8) or Gilded Age Season 4, which does not seem to have started filming yet.
Dune: Prophecy is a CG-heavy show which will likely require a good amount of post-production. Gilded Age, on the other hand requires less extensive post but the show does not seem to have any production dates set yet which will hurt its chances for a 2026 release.
This schedule presumes that both Gilded Age and Dune: Prophecy both miss their 2026 dates as they feel unlikely to make it. This will likely push Lanterns a bit backwards to late-September to not coincide with the opening weekend of Clayface, a DC Studios film.
It is unclear at this time how many episodes Comeback Season 3 has. Same with War. We will presume 8 for Comeback Season 3, as Season 2 had that many. For War since it’s a UK show, we will guess it is a more standard 6 episodes. If it has more, it will more than likely start a few weeks earlier as HBO usually doesn’t schedule shows into Christmas or the New Year.
Thanks for reading our article on a tentative HBO schedule for 2026. If you enjoyed it, consider checking out our other articles.
