The weather is getting hot, and you know what that means: time to never, ever leave your air conditioned home as you binge so much television. Thankfully, we’ve got a slew of new and returning TV shows (and movies) for you to consume over the course of July 2026.
In fact, why not consider this month one long Saturday morning, as there are so many cartoons to watch in July, ranging from highly anticipated returns like X-Men ’97 Season 2 to a brand-new riff on the classic Ghost in the Shell.
Don’t worry if you’re not a big animation fan, because there’s lots of live-action entertainment to enjoy, from the sci-fi apocalypse of Silo on Apple TV, to returning seasons for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and The Walking Dead: Dead City. Hey, there’s even the weirdest Big Bang Theory spin-off you can imagine!
Basically, there’s something for everyone this month regardless of your watching habits. So let’s get into it with a breakdown of the nine shows and one movie you need to watch in July 2026.
(Note: This list is presented in release date order.)
Enola Holmes 3 (July 1)
First of all, it’s an enormous missed opportunity not to title this movie 3nola Holm3s. Second of all, Millie Bobby Brown is back in this threequel as the title character, younger sister of the iconic Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill). Everything seems to be going swimmingly as Enola prepares for her wedding to Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), when shockingly, Sherlock goes missing! Tthe wedding gets put on hold and Enola is on the case.
Also starring Himesh Patel as Dr. Watson and Helena Bonham Carter as the matriarch of the Holmes family, the first two films were a twisty, fourth-wall breaking delight as Brown portrayed the diametric opposite of the monosyllabic, dead serious Eleven from Stranger Things. Brown has been and continues to be an enormous star for Netflix, and while some results may vary — see The Electric State — she’s also reliable at delivering entertainment for the streamer.
Slightly confusing matters, while writer Jack Thorne returns to adapt yet another novel in Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes Mysteries series, director Harry Bradbeer (who directed the first two) has been swapped out for Philip Barantini, who is better known for his work on Stephen Graham adult nail-biters like Boiling Point and Adolescence. Can those skills translate to the lighter, sillier world of Enola Holmes? We’ll find out when the Malta-set third movie debuts on Netflix.
See the full list of new releases on Netflix for July.
X-Men ’97, Season 2 (July 1)
To me, my X-Men! The hit Disney+ series returns for a second season after two years away, and the stakes could not be higher. No, we’re not talking about the three timelines where baddie Apocalypse is antagonizing Marvel’s merry mutants, but rather with big shake-ups behind the scenes (showrunner Beau DeMayo was fired before the Season 1 premiere) and the MCU’s quality level remaining a highly debated subject. All eyes are turning to Xavier’s crew to see if they can save the house that Tony Stark built.Outside pressures aside, this isn’t the first time the animated adventures of the X-Men have battled back to try and save a world that hates and fears them, as the return of the original X-Men: The Animated Series cast succeeded beyond all expectations in Season 1. That’s a high bar to clear for Season 2, but already early reviews (hey, we gave it a nine out of 10!) are glowingly positive. And with our heroes trapped throughout time, new iconic characters from the comic books popping up, and storylines that look to adapt everything from The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s game-changing New X-Men, it seems like X will mark the spot once again.Silo, Season 3 (July 3)The wildest, weirdest sci-fi show on TV is back for a third season in advance of the already filmed fourth and final season, and there is a lot going on with the Apple TV post-apocalypse epic. Set in a massive underground bunker hundreds of years in the future where 10,000 people have never seen the outside world other than through a camera in the cafeteria, Season 2 ended — and spoilers past this point — with the adventurous Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) and her antagonist Bernard (Tim Robbins) trapped in a chamber and about to be flash-fried. Then the action jumped back hundreds of years to before the apocalypse with a young Congressman named Daniel (Ashley Zukerman) going on what he thought was a date with Helen (Jessica Henwick), but who turned out to be a journalist asking him about a dirty bomb in the nation’s capital.How does this past lead up to the post-apocalyptic future of Silo? You’ll find out in Season 3 as the 10 episodes jump back and forth between timelines, essentially vacillating between a taut political thriller and a sci-fi rebellion story, with wild, insane swerves throughout. Trust us, you won’t see where this one is going right up until the jaw-dropping final episode. And with only one season to go, this is a great time to get locked into Silo.The Ghost in the Shell (July 7)Looks like cyberpunk is back on the menu, boys, and this time it’s thankfully Scarlett Johansson-free, as Prime Video is releasing what’s meant to be a faithful anime adaptation of the iconic manga series by Masamune Shirow.While there have been multiple animated adaptations and spin-offs already about cyborg cybercrime-fighter Motoko Kusanagi (as well as the maligned live-action version hinted at above), this one comes from Science SARU, the folks behind (among other things) the massive 2024 hit, Dandadan. Can they take a cyberpunk franchise from the distant future of [checks notes] the mid-2020s and make it still feel like something out of this world? We’ll find out soon enough.The Hawk (July 16)It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve seen Will Ferrell in a straight-up comedy, and indeed, if you skip past Apple TV’s holiday movie Spirited, the last really goofy Ferrell flick was 2020’s Eurovision. Well, now he’s back on The Hawk, a Netflix series about a washed-up golfer trying to get some of his mojo back by heading back on the tour.If that sounds a little like Apple TV’s Stick, which stars Owen Wilson in a similar scenario, let’s make matters more confusing by telling you that The Hawk co-stars Luke Wilson. But other than golf and a Wilson brother, these two shows seem to veer in different directions, with Stick more grounded and The Hawk an over-the-top laugh-fest in the mode of Happy Gilmore (but with Ferrell instead of Adam Sandler).The show also stars Molly Shannon as Ferrell’s ex-wife, Jimmy Tatro as his younger rival, Chris Parnell, and Fortune Feimster. Curiously, the series was previously being developed by Ferrell, Ramy Youssef, and Josh Rabinowitz, with the latter two leaving due to the classic “creative differences.”King of the Hill, Season 15 (July 20)That boy continues to not be right as the surprise hit return of the animated series continues in Season 15 with another 10 all-new episodes on Hulu.Set years after the original show in sort-of real time, Bobby Hill (Pamela Adlon) is now mostly grown up, working as a chef, and dating Connie (Lauren Tom), much to the chagrin of their parents. In the new season, when Bobby ends up on a cooking competition TV show, things get even more complicated.Meanwhile, Hank (Mike Judge) and Peggy (Kathy Najimy) are dealing with their retirement, as well as what that means for their still evolving relationship. And somehow in there, they all find time to head to a comic convention.Read our previous season 14 review of the revival (we gave it a 10!).Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 4 (July 23)Is it entirely unfair to call this a lame duck season of Paramount+’s Star Trek prequel series? With Starfleet Academy canceled, and one abbreviated final season coming after Strange New Worlds Season 4, a lot seems in flux with the storied franchise, which is perhaps too much to put on the shoulders of a series that sometimes has its characters bursting into song or exploring a Hollywood mystery on a proto-holodeck.As opposed to previous seasons — which alternated goofy one-offs mostly about Spock (Ethan Peck) being extremely horny with bigger mythology episodes about the threat of the reptilian Gorn — and based merely on the trailer for the upcoming fourth season, it seems like things are erring on the side of serious (your random space dragon aside). That makes a sort of sense too, as Strange New Worlds has increasingly leaned into its function as prequel to The Original Series, slowly shuffling the non-canon characters to the side in favor of the Kirk (Paul Wesley) led crew finding their footing on an Enterprise currently captained by the doomed Pike (Anson Mount).Regardless of walking us up to the first episode of the original show, or outside pressures about whether there’s any future for Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future at Paramount on the small screen, it’ll still be good to have the crew back in action. Punch it.Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (July 23)Is this the weirdest TV spin-off in history? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s certainly an unexpected swerve for the Big Bang Theory Cinematic Universe (BBTCU), which thus far has delivered a Wonder Years-esque Young Sheldon and the sitcom shenanigans of Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage since the originating series.Instead, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe focuses on several supporting characters — Kevin Sussman’s Stuart Bloom, Brian Posehn’s Bert Kibbler, Lauren Lapkus’ Denise, and John Ross Bowie’s Barry Kripke — as they try to stop the upcoming destruction of the multiverse. Seriously.The bizarre single camera sci-fi comedy will confront the characters with post-apocalypse versions of themselves, fascist regimes, and much more as they interact with other supporting players from the BBTCU (Bazingaverse, perhaps?), including Wil Wheaton, Christine Baranski, Riki Lindhome, and others. Whatever this show ends up being, you can’t say they didn’t take a big swing with this one. It’s coming to HBO Max on July 23.See the full list of new releases on HBO Max for July.The Walking Dead: Dead City, Season 3 (July 26)Speaking of franchises that may be on their last legs, The Walking Dead Universe — which came close to weekly episodes at one point on AMC and AMC+ — is now down to the final season of Daryl Dixon later this year and this third season of Dead City, which has yet to announce a follow-up.That said, we’re pulling for the third season of the Escape From New York-esque series, which finds Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) once again teaming up to try and pull Manhattan back from the edge of chaos. This season also features a new showrunner in franchise stalwart Seth Hoffman, so here’s hoping the muddy confusion that ended up infusing last season can be swept away like so much walker detritus, and we can get back to the good stuff… meaning Negan and Maggie being total bad-asses and whupping zombie butt.Batman: Caped Crusader, Season 2 (July 31)It’s time for DC’s least-heralded character, a guy named “Batman,” to finally get his due in the second season of Prime Video’s animated series. More seriously, this show was initially pitched as sort of a redo of the classic Batman: The Animated Series by co-creator Bruce Timm. The darker, more adult series picked up with Batman early in his career encountering entirely new versions of villains for the first time.This time around, Hamish Linklater’s Bruce Wayne/Batman, who does not sound entirely dissimilar from H. Jon Benjamin’s Bob Belcher, is tangling with The Riddler, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, and a deadly serious version of The Joker first introduced in the Season 1 finale. Time to head back to Gotham once again.Will you be watching any of these series this month? What else are you looking forward to that we didn’t get to? Vote in our poll and let’s discuss in the comments!You can chat with Alex Zalben on BlueSky @azalben.bsky.social, or find him regularly yapping on the Comic Book Club podcast.
