The general objective of the work is to propose, examine, and study the innovations needed, providing a roadmap in order to place the next generation of wireless communication vision and concepts into technological reach. The main trends and directions are identified; relative challenges are addressed; and needed solutions are anticipated, proposed, and evaluated. In detail, to address the role of the antenna system in the wireless communication evolution, in the work at hand, we examine the challenges addressed by the increase in the degrees of freedom of the radiator systems. Specifically, we study the increase in the degrees of freedom provided by gMIMO, reconfigurable intelligence surfaces (RIS), holographic metasurfaces, and orbital angular momentum (OAM). Then, we thoroughly examine the impact that those potent technologies deliver to the mmWave, satellite, and THz wireless communications systems.