Change happens whenever there's the big need. To move towards another direction is to move towards a different philosophy and a rethinking is necessary to overhaul everything. Military airplanes have seen the most changes throughout history because of their need to fit into each scenario and war in order to win. We can now see that military fighters can now take-off vertically and they can be stealthy at the same time while carrying on board the most sophisticated electronic equipment ever seen.
Airlines, on the other side, saw the minor changes because their needs took less priority from governments to improve their design and efficiency, but it looks like that times are changing and the spot lights are now pointing towards a better use of civilian airplanes. The problems that today put so much pressure to the aviation industry can be translated into a single factor: fuel. It is now the principal obstacle that prevents a company into making more profits because of the outstanding costs of oil.
This prompted a reorganization of engineers into making civil airplanes better and more fuel efficient, much like cars they have to be lighter and burn less. So, drastic change comes with drastic ideas and the actual airplane shape might be soon something of the past.
It all started to shift on a different scale when the world saw for the first time a two stories airplane made b Airbus, the a380.
People thought that this project would never see the daylight because of their lack of imagination and poor vision of the future, yet this is the perfect outcome of French design that comes with praise from all around the world. We all thought that the 747 "Jumbo Jet" would never be surpassed and this is proof that who doesn't dare can't achieve their ultimate goal. Boeing is now baffled with what to do to compete against the Airbus to avoid staying in the shadow and will most likely build a longer version of the 747 to increase payload and passenger capacity.
Although Airbus opted for seat capacity with a staggering configuration that can go from 525, 644 and 853 passengers in three different settings; we must also think that capacity isn't everything. What about speed? To perform well an aircraft must win certain aerodynamic aspects like drag and weight, these two factors combined together are the result of fuel consumption.
The Finnish airline Finnair has made few projects on the paper regarding a total change in aircraft design with an emphasis on supersonic and passenger capacity.
The A600-850M is s prototype designed to increase travel speed with a reminiscences of the now defunct Concorde. It can carry 600 to 800 passengers while traveling up to mach 4.5 for intercontinental flights.
But unfortunately we won't see it anytime soon because it is schedules for a 2093 project.
On the other hand what we might see sooner is airplanes with a more familiar look with few changes that will increase their efficiency and cut fuel consumption.
It is a project to replace the common turbofan engine with turbo propellers placed in the rear to reduce drag. The wings will be connected with the tail section via the elevators (the horizontal surfaces of the tail) making it into a loop, eliminating the induced drag on the tip of the wings in todays jets that also increase the use of fuel beside creating normal drag. The design also includes covering the upper parts of the wings with solar panel to help reduce the output of the normal engines.
The illustration here is another project that Boeing is exploring to reduce fuel burn, this will be probably the first step before building airplane with connected wings like the rendering in the picture above.
Bigger airplanes will have different shape and engine configuration due to the increase of all the factors that affect flight on a normal airplane. Here is a rendering of an hypothetical "flying body" which will generate most of the needed lift from the body rather from the wings. The central section (body) will present a significant change in the aeronautical industry when dealing with passengers and services on board. 
This future airplane will have the capacity to carry something like 1000 passengers or more while traveling at a speed faster than the actual jets. The key to a next-gen airplane is the implementation of modern materials for the construction that can be used also for the interiors, like seats and galleys. Lightweight materials used to build wings to make them more elastic and adaptable to flight speed will save fuel, using less and less aluminium which is and expensive metal to purchase and also heavier.
But the real problem of creating bigger aircraft is dealing with the passenger response and their time spent on board as well as security, in fact many airlines now believe that with the increasing size of planes comes the risk of threats to passengers from attackers and placing marshals or security officers disguised like normal passengers is something that must be considered to prevent any accident in flight. Rethinking is necessary when planes will have different shapes because the difficulties in design come with security features like placing the right amount of emergency windows at the right places. This is what determines the success or failure of an aircraft manufacturer.
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