The latest update to PHP, the programming language which powers a lot of WordPress, was released on Nov 26, 2020. We can expect a
We can expect a lot of changes as WordPress and the plugin and theme developers incorporate the extensive code changes they’ll be required to make – and we’ll see a much more secure PHP. It has been predicted that a good number of plugins and themes will not be compatible, and that some developers will drop support of their creations rather than go through the work required to make them function.
Fortunately it’ll be a while before PHP8 hits at the user level, though WordPress 5.6 (currently scheduled for release December 8th +/- a few days) aims to be PHP8 compatible. But most web hosts will still need to test PHP8 versions on their equipment before rolling it out for general consumption, and plugin and theme developers will also need to do extensive testing and possibly rewrite a lot of code.
PHP is on a 2-year upgrade cycle; version 8 will be actively updated for the next two years and will then get one year of security upgrades after that.