5 Best TV Trailers From SDCC 2026, Ranked

San Diego Comic-Con has become the go-to event for major announcements about big Hollywood franchises. 2026 was a lower-key year for the convention in terms of movie news (Marvel's big Hall H panel withstanding), but on the TV side of things, it was busy as ever, with returning favorites and promising new series getting some time in the spotlight alike.

Those of us unable to make it to the crowded pop culture celebration in San Diego were still able to keep up with the excitement by checking out the many new trailers released online alongside their convention panels. Out of the many TV trailers dropped over the weekend, these five got us the most excited. Note that this list does skew more towards new shows and unexpected announcements rather than new seasons we knew were on their way (your excitement about, say, "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" Season 3 trailer is heavily dependent on how you felt about the first two seasons).

This is a trailer where the excitement comes less from what we see in it but more from its mere existence. Coming less than a week after the grand finale of "The Vampire Lestat," this teaser reveals that AMC's adaptations of Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" books will continue with the third book, "Queen of the Damned." Call it a sequel series, or call it Season 4 of a show that keeps changing titles and perspectives, but after the excellent "Lestat" and "Interview with the Vampire" adaptations, we want it.

It will be a while until we get the show, though; based on past patterns, it'll probably be another two years before "Queen of the Damned" finally airs. This early teaser contains minimal footage, mixing stock footage of protests with close-ups of Akasha (Sheila Atim), the originator of all vampires, as she encourages the women of the world to kill all men. We're here for Atim's dramatic performance and the promise of a wild apocalypse, but if there was more to see, there's a good chance this trailer would rank higher.

Early marketing for "Lanterns" sold the series as a gritty "True Detective" riff. It didn't look bad, necessarily, but it left fans questioning the point of applying this approach to some of DC's most colorful cosmic superheroes. The latest trailer from San Diego Comic-Con gives a clearer picture of how the Green Lanterns' sci-fi concepts fit into the HBO show.

We now know that Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) are going to be dealing with Manhunter aliens. They're actually making use of the Green Lantern construct abilities, which leaves us to assume the lack thereof in the first teaser was because the effects weren't finished. The trailer also provides our first look at the villain Sinestro (Ulrich Thompson). There's still plenty of mystery as to whether this genre hybrid will work, but we're starting to see the vision here. It won't be long until we can judge that vision for ourselves, as the show premieres on August 16.

The "Avatar" Comic-Con panel did not go great, to say the least. The announcement of a new "Avatarian" writing system replacing the Chinese characters used in past installments was fair grounds for criticism regarding the franchise's cultural representation, while a note citing ChatGPT in one slide of character designs inspired mass paranoia about AI usage in the production of "Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender" (the crew have since confirmed the film contains no AI imagery and only one person on crew used it for research early on).

Yet despite all the brouhaha, fans have reason to be excited by the trailer for the new series "Avatar: Seven Havens." The post-apocalyptic setting is an intriguing change of pace from what we expect from the franchise, and if the animation here isn't quite as fluid as "The Legend of Korra" or "Avatar Aang," the art is still beautiful and the bending fights look exciting. The looming question of how much responsibility Avatar Korra holds over this new status quo is sure to provoke plenty of debate. We'll get our answers when the series premieres on Paramount+ October 9.

William Gibson's 1984 novel "Neuromancer" is arguably the defining work of the cyberpunk genre, so finally getting its long-awaited adaptation is a big deal. There's always a risk with adapting influential books long after everyone else has ripped off the original — for every blockbuster "Dune," there's a "John Carter" that lands with a shrug — but the Comic-Con teaser for this Apple TV adaptation, created by Graham Rolland and J.D. Dillard, gives us reason to hope for the best.

Emphasizing the book's historic significance, the teaser showcases stunning production design, intense action, and stylized cyberspace effects with a pulse-pounding soundtrack. You can argue it all looks a little too clean compared to the griminess of the book, especially regarding the appearance of Callum Turner as hacker protagonist Case. The book was a direct response to the culture of the 1980s and changes for an adaptation made in the 2020s are inevitable. But when William Gibson himself gives this adaptation his approval, you pay attention. "Neuromancer" promises to start 2027 off with a bang when it launches on Apple TV January 22.

It's weird that "Blade Runner" is now an ongoing franchise, considering both movies were expensive flops that only developed cult followings after the fact. Don't take this observation as a complaint; both were really good, and it's now looking like "Blade Runner 2099," the first live-action TV series in this universe coming to Prime Video, will live up to the films' high standard of quality.

Unlike the last attempt at a "Blade Runner" show, the underwhelming CG anime "Blade Runner: Black Lotus," "2099" looks to be sparing no expense on recreating the visual richness and atmosphere of the movies. Taking place 50 years after the second movie, the story sees the series' social order reversed — now Replicants are in charge, and we're following a dying Replicant Blade Runner (Michelle Yeoh) working alongside a human undercover as a replicant (Hunter Schafer).

It's the casting that has us especially excited; Yeoh is an Oscar-winning legend and Schafer has been waiting on a post-"Euphoria" breakout role worthy of her talents. We know what we'll be streaming on November 25.