All the sci-fi streaming in January 2023: ‘The Last of Us’, ‘The Bad Batch’, ‘Poker Face’, ‘Wolf Pack’ & more

If you’re already looking for convenient excuses to justify the inevitable backslide on that long list of well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions, then look no further than the nearest small screen. The flip of the calendar means January’s the month to ring in a slew of big sci-fi and horror premieres, plus long-awaited new seasons of familiar faves. 

With the clock ticking ever closer to The Mandalorian’s Season 3 return this March, Disney+ is getting back in the Star Wars swing of things with the Season 2 premiere of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which arrives super-soon on Jan. 4. Coming days later to Netflix is Christian Bale on the case of an 1800s murder mystery in the Jan. 6 premiere of The Pale Blue Eye, while Apple TV+ returns M. NIght Shyamalan’s Servant for its fourth and final season on Jan. 13.

In the middle of it all are Joel and Ellie, the unlikely duo of danger-defying survivors who brave virus-plagued mutants for a post-apocalyptic cross-country trek in HBO’s series adaptation of The Last of Us. Starring Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey and The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, the PlayStation game-inspired series comes from Emmy-winning Chernobyl director Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog studio co-chief Neil Druckmann, and launches starting Jan. 15.

The back half of January belongs to Peacock and Paramount+, thanks to brand-new debuts from a pair of genre giants. Rian Johnson launches a season-long whodunnit at Peacock with the Jan. 26 premiere of Poker Face, while Sarah Michelle Gellar takes point at Paramount+ in Wolf Pack, an all-new supernatural series that we swear shares no story DNA at all with Teen Wolf: The Movie, the streamer’s other lupine debut. Related or not (and they’re totally not!), both Wolf Pack and Teen Wolf movie come howling to Paramount+ beginning Jan. 26.

Highlights

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+): Lucasfilm Animation ramps up the action once more with the second season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the Dave Filoni-created series that follows the adventures of Jango Fett clone Omega (Michelle Ang) and the mutated mercs of Clone Force 99. The new 16-episode season kicks into hyperdrive starting Jan. 4 at Disney+.

Koala Man (Hulu): An adult animated series set in the land down under, Koala Man features creator Michael Cusack as the show's titular star alongside guest voice acting turns from Hugh Jackman and Hugo Weaving. Cusack’s family leader leads a sorta-kinda double life as a low-key community hero who's determined to take a bite out of the local crime scene…one petty offender at a time. Koala Man launches Jan. 9 as a Hulu original series.

Vikings: Valhalla (Netflix): There’s already a third season in the works, which means getting invested in Vikings: Valhalla’s upcoming sophomore outing is sure to reward all the blood and bluster that comes with following Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), Freydis Eriksdotter (Frida Gustavsson), and Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter) as English and Norse cultures go medieval on each other. Cultures collide once more when Season 2 premieres on Jan. 2 at Netflix.

Servant (Apple TV+): From the ever-churning mind of showrunner M. Night Shyamalan, Servant reanimates for its fourth and final season in what Apple TV+ is modestly teasing as nothing less than “The final reckoning.” Hey, we’ve been hooked on the series' mind-twisting exploration of creepy, grief-bound insanity right from the very start. Season 4 of Servant dolls up for the approoaching series finale with a Jan. 13 debut.

The Last of Us (HBO): Knowing how the radioactive story plays out didn’t detract one bit from Craig Mazin’s captivating, Emmy-winning Chernobyl, and as fans of Naughty Dog’s epic The Last of Us video games, we’re all in to follow HBO’s small-screen adaptation right through to the end of Joel and Ellie’s tragic travels. As the series’ effects-laden trailer teases, half the fun is seeing how HBO will tap the heavy post-apocalyptic sci-fi atmosphere that elevates the PlayStation franchise to must-play status, which means we’re lit up like Fireflies to catch the live-action series’ Jan. 15 premiere. 

The Legend of Vox Machina (Prime Video): Dungeons & Dragons lore gets an adult-animation tweak in The Legend of Vox Machina, the fiery, funny series inspired by the D&D-based web adventure Critical Role. Level up for a second season of near-death experiences in the fictional land of Exandria when the flames descend on Prime Video beginning Jan. 20.

Wolf Pack (Paramount+): Sarah Michelle Gellar headlines the supernatural story of Wolf Pack, the all-new Paramount+ series adaptation based on the books from author Edo Van Belkom. A California wildfire unleashes a freaky creature right at the moment a pair of nearby teenagers start to bond over the discovery that their shared history reaches far back into a well-concealed and mysterious past. Jan. 26 is the date to howl at the moon as Wolf Pack stalks toward its Paramount+ premiere.

Poker Face (Peacock): Fresh from peeling back the layers of critical buzz following the recent premiere of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson parades to Peacock with a different sort of murder whodunnit — the kind that’ll take an entire season to explore. Russian Doll's Natasha Lyonne stars as Charlie Cale, an accidental detective who just happens to possess the super-useful gift of being able to tell when someone’s telling a lie. But that's all the help she'll get as the series unfolds with a mystery-of-the-week format inspired by classic TV-detective serials like Columbo. Poker Face kicks off its 10-episode sleuthing quest starting Thursday, Jan. 26 at Peacock.

Peacock

Items marked with * indicate programming exclusive to Peacock.

Jan. 1 
13 Going on 30, 2004* 
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, 2000 
Apollo 13, 1995
Bulletproof, 1996 
Cell, 2016* 
The Chronicles of Riddick, 2004* 
Doom, 2005
Heist, 2015* 
Hulk, 2003 
Legend, 1986 
Liar, Liar, 1997 
MacGruber, 2010 
Madagascar, 2005 
Mr. Peabody & Sherman, 2014  
Pitch Black, 2000* 
The Quiet Ones, 2014* 
The Shack, 2017 
Warm Bodies, 2013* 

Jan. 3 
Quantum Leap, Season 1, New Episode (NBC)  

Jan. 6  
Grimm, Seasons 1-6  

Jan. 10 
80th Golden Globe Awards 
Quantum Leap, Season 1, New Episode (NBC) 

Jan. 17 
Quantum Leap, Season 1, New Episode (NBC) 
Night Court, Season 1, New Episode (NBC) 

Jan. 24 
Quantum Leap, Season 1, New Episode (NBC) 

Jan. 31
Quantum Leap, Season 1, New Episode (NBC) 

Disney+

Jan. 4
The Boonies (S1)
Magic of Disney's Animal Kingdom (S2)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (S2 premiere, Episodes 1 &2)
National Treasure: Edge of History (Episode 5)
Willow (Episode 7)

Jan. 11
Celebrity Ghost Stories (S5 & S6)
My Ghost Story (S1)
National Treasure: Edge of History (Episode 6)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (S2 Episode 3)
Willow (Episode 8)

Jan. 18
National Treasure: Edge of History (Episode 7)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (S2 Episode 4)

Jan. 25
National Treasure: Edge of History (Episode 8)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (S2 Episode 5)

Netflix

Jan. 1
Kaleidoscope
The Conjuring
Forrest Gump
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
I Know What You Did Last Summer
King Kong
Leap Year
Minority Report
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Top Gun
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Twins

Jan. 5
Woman of the Dead

Jan. 6
The Pale Blue Eye
The Walking Dead — Season 11

Jan. 10
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

Jan. 12
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight — Season 2
Vikings: Valhalla — Season 2

Jan. 19
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre

Jan. 23
Minions: The Rise of Gru

Jan. 26
Daniel Spellbound — Season 2
Record of Ragnarok — Season 2 Episodes 1-10

Hulu

Jan. 1
Dante’s Peak
Gamer
Home Alone
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 3
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
Predestination
The Prestige
Prometheus
The Triplets Of Belleville
Zombieland
January 3
Fantasy Island — Season 2 Premiere

Jan. 7
House of Darkness

Jan. 9
Koala Man — Season 1

Jan. 19
Web of Death — Complete Limited Series

Jan. 27
The Deer King
Maneater

Jan. 31
The Watchful Eye — Series Premiere
Voyagers

HBO Max

Jan. 1
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons
Black Butterfly
Child’s Play (2019)
Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee II
Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles
Death Warrant
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters II
Hereditary
Insidious: Chapter 2
Jennifer Eight
John Wick
John Wick: Chapter 2
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
Matilda
Piranha 3D (2010)
Piranha 3DD (2012)
Planet 51
Regression
Rememory
Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, 1985 (HBO)
Teen Wolf (1985) 
Teen Wolf Too (1987)
The Cabin in the Woods
The Haunting
The Unborn,
Urge
Vendetta


Jan. 3
The Menu

Jan. 6
DC’s Stargirl — Season 3
The Nun

Jan. 12


Velma (HBO Max Original Series Premiere)

Jan. 15
The Last of Us (HBO Series Premiere)

Jan. 17
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons

Paramount+

Jan. 15
Mayor of Kingstown — Season 2 premiere

Jan. 18
The Smurfs (2021) — Season 1

Jan. 26
Teen Wolf: The Movie
Wolf Pack — Series premiere

Prime Video

Jan. 1

Arachnophobia
Bound
Cursed
El Dorado
Halloween VIII: Resurrection
Mean Creek
Minority Report
Paranormal Activity 2
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 4
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
Star Trek Beyond
The Foot Fist Way
The Monster Squad
Walking Tall
Wes Craven Presents: They

Jan. 2
Hell Bound

Jan. 3
Clerks
Hell Raiders
Homeless
Invasion of the Star Creatures
Legion of Iron
Ministry of Vengeance
Murder By the Book
Savage Weekend
Secret Screams
Starflight One
The Manster
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
The Running Man
The Secret of the Ice Cave
The Time Travelers
The Witches
Timestalkers
Virtuosity

Jan. 9
Clue
In The Arms Of A Killer
Instant Karma
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Megaville
Night of the Living Dead
Night Visitor
Pale Blood
Portrait In Terror
Predators
Prey For The Hunter
Rockula
Sword Of The Conqueror
The Case Of The Hillside Stranglers
The Norseman
Traces Of Red
Underworld
Underworld Awakening
Underworld Evolution
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
War-Gods Of The Deep
Warriors From Hell

Jan. 15
Carrie
Casino Royale
Goldeneye
License to Kill
Live and Let Die
Octopussy
Quantum of Solace
Robocop
Rocky
Skyfall
The Living Daylights
The Silence of the Lambs
The Thomas Crown Affair
The World is Not Enough
Tomorrow Never Dies
A View To A Kill

Jan. 21
Hercules (2014)

Apple TV+

Jan. 13
Servant — Season 4

Jan. 27
Shrinking