Stranger Things 4 is the biggest name on TV in May 2022, with Netflix’s global supernatural horror hit returning after three whole years. The show and its world have gotten bigger in the meantime — episodes will be longer than ever, and the fourth season won’t be confined to Hawkins unlike past instalments. Stranger Things 4 is out May 27 on Netflix (though not wholly, as you can read below). Some audiences, especially those who love being in a galaxy far, far away, might disagree with my opening statement. After all, they are getting a follow-up to the tales of Darth Vader and his former mentor with Obi-Wan Kenobi, also premiering May 27 over on Disney+ Hotstar.
From India, the biggest web series in May 2022 is likely Amazon’s Modern Love Mumbai, an Indian take on an American series that traces its origins to a New York Times column. Vishal Bhardwaj, Hansal Mehta, and Shonali Bose are among the esteemed directors taking on the show’s episodic anthology concept. Fatima Sana Shaikh, Pratik Gandhi, Meiyang Chang, Naseeruddin Shah, Sarika, Masaba Gupta, Prateik Babbar, and Arshad Warsi lead the cast. Modern Love Mumbai is available May 13 on Prime Video. A week later, Disney+ Hotstar will treat us to Escaype Live — with Siddharth, Jaaved Jaaferi, and Shweta Tripathi Sharma — that seeks to showcase the dark side of social media fame.
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There’s a lot more coming this month. Voot Select will premiere the newest Star Trek series that ties into Gene Roddenberry’s first creation. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts May 5. In the same week on May 6, Apple TV+ and Prime Video will take you back to the Iranian capital with its Niv Sultan-led thriller Tehran and the far-away island on its young adult drama The Wilds, for their respective second seasons. Homeland’s Claire Danes and Loki‘s Tom Hiddleston must battle misogynistic souls on The Essex Serpent, beginning May 13 on Apple TV+. And lastly, Love, Death + Robots drops its third volume of zany and wacky short films on May 20 on Netflix.
You can read more about all these TV shows below — and you can discover the full list of series in a table at the very end. With that, here’s our TV guide to May 2022 to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+ Hotstar, Voot Select, and SonyLIV.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
When: May 5
Where: Voot Select
The first spin-off from the ongoing Star Trek: Discovery is a prequel to the first ever Star Trek series — and set on the USS Enterprise. It even follows many of the characters you know, naturally played by different actors given it’s been over 65 years now. Science Officer Spock (Ethan Peck, grandson of Gregory Peck) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) are in the lead, alongside Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), all of them returning from Discovery season 2.
If you’re wondering what happened to James T. Kirk, fret not. Strange New Worlds is set a decade prior to Kirk becoming Captain on the Enterprise. Kirk — played by Paul Wesley — will be joining season 2 of Strange New Worlds, which is already filming. Season 1 also features more faces from the 1960s, including Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura who’s a cadet right now, and Jess Bush as the nurse Christine Chapel.
That leaves Christina Chong who’s playing a character with a last name every Trekkie has heard of: La’an Noonien-Singh. Yes, she’s related to Khan Noonien Singh. Melissa Navia rounds off the Strange New Worlds main cast as Enterprise helmsperson Erica Ortegas. Akiva Goldsman — best known for Fringe and A Beautiful Mind — is co-creator alongside Trek universe architect Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet (The Man Who Fell to Earth).
New Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes will air weekly until July 7, with the 10-episode series harking closer to the tone and episodic structure of Gene Roddenberry’s beginnings with Star Trek: The Original Series.
Watch the Official Trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Tehran Season 2
When: May 6
Where: Netflix
Glenn Close joins the cast for the second season of this Israeli thriller that follows Mossad hacker-agent Tamar (Niv Sultan), who must plan a new operation after her attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear reactor failed — and nearly backfired — in the first season. Everyone she knows is now in jeopardy.
Shaun Toub, Shervin Alenabi, Arash Marandi, and Shila Ommi also return in their respective roles on Tehran season 2. The director Daniel Syrkin, and writers Moshe Zonder (also co-creator) and Omri Shenhar return in the exact capacities on the second season.
In typical Apple TV+ fashion, the eight-episode Tehran season 2 will air weekly until June 17, and it begins — also somewhat typically — with a two-episode debut on May 6.
The Wilds Season 2
When: May 6
Where: Amazon Prime Video
The teenage girls might have learnt that they are part of an elaborate social experiment, but they are still trapped on a mysterious deserted island, and hence, survival is key. Alongside, the second season reveals more test subjects on a second island filled with teenage boys — who have been part of the experiment all along — who must also fight for survival under the watchful eye of the experiment’s puppet master.
Sophia Ali, Shannon Berry, Jenna Clause, Reign Edwards, Rachel Griffiths, Mia Healey, Erana James, and Sarah Pidgeon return from season 1. Charles Alexander, Zack Calderon, Nicholas Coombe, Alex Fitzalan, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Aidan Laprete, Tanner Rook, and Reed Shannon are new to season 2. Sarah Streicher is the creator, with Amy Harris as the showrunner.
All eight episodes of The Wilds season 2 will premiere May 6 on Prime Video worldwide.
The Essex Serpent
When: May 13
Where: Apple TV+
Set during the Victorian era, a London widow (Claire Danes) moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. There, she forms a close bond with the village pastor and vicar (Tom Hiddleston) — an intriguing mix of science and religion — but after a tragedy, the locals accuse her of attracting the creature. Classic witch hunting. Adapted from Sarah Perry’s book of the same name.
Frank Dillane, Hayley Squires, and Clémence Poésy also star. Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant) directs The Essex Serpent. Anna Symon (Deep Water, Mrs. Wilson) is behind the adaptation. As with Tehran, the six-episode limited series kicks off with a two-episode debut on May 13, with new episodes dropping through June 10.
Modern Love Mumbai
When: May 13
Where: Amazon Prime Video
Six Indian directors — Vishal Bhardwaj, Hansal Mehta, Shonali Bose, Alankrita Shrivastava, Dhruv Sehgal, and Nupur Asthana — helm six different episodes that transplant the American rom-com anthology series from New York to Mumbai.
They follow a Muslim woman (Fatima Sana Shaikh) and a security guard (Bhupendra Jadawat), gay men (Pratik Gandhi and Ranveer Brar), immigrant mother and son (Yeo Yann Yann and Meiyang Chang), and a couple with an age gap (Sarika and Danesh Razvi) among others.
Wamiqa Gabbi, Naseeruddin Shah, Masaba Gupta, Prateik Babbar, Chitrangda Singh, and Arshad Warsi also star. The Hindi-language Modern Love Mumbai will be followed by Tamil-language Modern Love Chennai and Telugu-language Modern Love Hyderabad.
All six Modern Love Mumbai episodes will be released at once on May 13 on Prime Video.
Escaype Live
When: May 20
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
TikTok might be banned in India, but this Hotstar Specials original series feels inspired by it, just like the dozens of clones that populate App Store and Google Play. In it, Jaaved Jaaferi runs Escaype, a TikTok-like app that offers Rs. 3-crore prize money for its newest stunt. As six individuals push themselves to the limits to win that cash, limits are tested — both virtually and in the real world.
Siddharth plays an Escaype employee seemingly in charge of content moderation, Waluscha D Souza is a senior executive who believes Escaype is business first and entertainment second, and Shweta Tripathi Sharma is one of the aforementioned six. Swastika Mukherjee, Plabita Borthakur, Ritvik Sahore, Sumedh Mudgalkar, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Jagjeet Sandhu, Rohit Chandel, and Aadyaa Sharma also star.
Siddharth Kumar Tewary — a veteran of daily soaps from Star Plus’ Mahabharat to SET India’s Porus — is the creator and head writer on Escaype Live. All episodes will drop on Disney+ Hotstar and Hulu wherever available at once on May 20.
Love, Death + Robots Volume 3
When: May 20
Where: Netflix
David Fincher and Deadpool director Tim Miller return as executive producers on the third season of the Emmy-winning demented animated anthology series, which is promising continuations of at least two stories from the first season. If the teaser is to be believed, then the three robots from “Three Robots” shall return. And we might learn what happened to humans after the yoghurt from “When the Yogurt Took Over” took off into space.
We don’t know anything beyond that, including not a single (voice) cast member for Love, Death + Robots season 3. John Scalzi (“Three Robots”) has been confirmed as writer on a new episode — I’m guessing it’s the follow-up to “Three Robots” — but otherwise, we don’t have any knowledge of writers, directors, or animation studios either.
All Love, Death + Robots Volume 3 shorts will be available at once on May 20 for binge viewing.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
When: May 27
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are back. Seventeen years on from 2005’s Revenge of the Sith — the third and final chapter in the Star Wars prequel trilogy — the titular Jedi Master (McGregor) and his former protégé Anakin Skywalker turned Sith Lord Darth Vader (Christensen) will face off once again. The Disney+ Star Wars series is set a decade on from Revenge of the Sith, which puts it about a decade prior to 1977’s A New Hope, the first ever Star Wars movie.
Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse are also back, reprising their respective roles on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Edgerton plays Anakin’s step-brother and Luke Skywalker’s step-uncle Owen Lars, while Piesse is Luke’s step-aunt and Owen’s wife Beru Lars. Newcomers include Moses Ingram as ruthless and ambitious Inquisitor Reva / Third Sister, Indira Varma as an unnamed Imperial officer, Rupert Friend as the Galactic Empire’s Grand Inquisitor, and Sung Kang as the Inquisitor Fifth Brother.
Kumail Nanjiani, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Simone Kessell, Benny Safdie, Maya Erskine, and Rory Ross are also part of the six-episode Star Wars miniseries. Deborah Chow, who helmed two episodes of The Mandalorian season 1, is in charge of Obi-Wan Kenobi as director. Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) is the head writer and showrunner, following some behind-the-scenes hullabaloo.
While Obi-Wan Kenobi will stick to the Disney+ Wednesday rule for new episodes, the premiere — with two episodes — has been moved to a Friday. That means you will get three episodes in the first five days, with the Star Wars limited series wrapping up June 22.
Watch the Official Trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Next Star Wars Series
Stranger Things 4
When: May 27
Where: Netflix
After a nearly three-year long wait, Stranger Things is back. But in Hawkins, it’s only been six months. Stranger Things 4 is going to expand beyond small-town Indiana though. Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is magically alive and stuck in Russia. Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) and family — that includes Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) — are in California. While the rest of the gang is back in Hawkins.
Spring break will bring most of them back together, as they struggle with a “new and horrifying supernatural threat” in a bid to “put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down.” Fat chance if that actually happens, given Stranger Things 4 is the penultimate season. The Duffer Brothers have already announced a fifth and final season.
New main cast additions to Stranger Things include Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard, a caring man who works as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital; Eduardo Franco as Jonathan Byers’ (Charlie Heaton) new fun-loving pizza pie-delivering stoner best friend Argyle; and Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson, a metalhead who runs Hawkins High’s Dungeons & Dragons club.
Stranger Things 4 episodes are longer than ever — the creators have noted their “unprecedented length” more than once — and for the first time, they won’t all be available at once too. Five episodes, dubbed Volume 1, are out May 27, with the four-episode Volume 2 following five weeks later on July 1.
Watch the Official Trailer for Stranger Things 4
May 2022 web series and TV shows — full list
*expected date