The heavy-ion programme at the LHC after the Long Shutdown~2 (LS2) will profit from a significant increase in the
total integrated luminosity in Pb--Pb collisions, with more than 10~nb$^{-1}$ having been requested by the experiments, compared to $\sim 0.1$~nb$^{-1}$
collected in Run-1 and the expected $\sim 1$~nb$^{-1}$ of Run-2. The four major LHC experiments (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) are developing
specific upgrade strategies, aiming to exploit the full potential of the LHC heavy-ion programme after LS2. The most relevant aspects of
these upgrade programmes are revised in this contribution, together with some selected items from the foreseen physics programme.