diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index 5c33172..0e0c645 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ on:
     branches:
     - master
     - "3.0"
-    - "2.16"
+    - "2.17"
     paths-ignore:
     - "README.md"
     - "release-notes/*"
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ on:
     branches:
     - master
     - "3.0"
-    - "2.16"
+    - "2.17"
     paths-ignore:
     - "README.md"
     - "release-notes/*"
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        java_version: ['8', '11', '17']
+        java_version: ['8', '11', '17', '21']
         joda_version: ['2.9', '2.10.14', '2.12.2']
         os: ['ubuntu-20.04']
     env:
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0b939bc..e686b89 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -9,12 +9,12 @@
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson</groupId>
     <artifactId>jackson-base</artifactId>
-    <version>2.16.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.17.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   </parent>
   <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype</groupId>
   <artifactId>jackson-datatype-joda</artifactId>
   <name>Jackson datatype: Joda</name>
-  <version>2.16.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <version>2.17.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <description>Add-on module for Jackson (https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson) to support Joda (https://www.joda.org/joda-time/) data types.
   </description>
diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
index 6c251f8..97344c2 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ Project: jackson-datatype-joda
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+2.17.0 (not yet released)
+
+-
+
 2.16.0 (15-Nov-2023)
 
 No changes since 2.15