With nearly 150 million subscribers around the world, Netflix has a commanding lead in the streaming wars. But it’s also facing heavy competition from deep-pocketed conglomerates like Disney, Apple, and AT&T, and an ongoing wave of narrow, targeted streaming sites like CBS All Access and DC Universe, which can draw on popular existing franchises for original content. As fewer companies are willing to license out their films and shows to other streaming sites, Netflix is pouring billions of dollars annually into its own original content. Follow along with The Verge as we look at Netflix’s new films and shows, its evolving strategies against new entrants in the market, and how it’s leveraging its technological and marketing lead.
Squid Game: Unleashed, a “multiplayer battle royale game,” will be released for Netflix subscribers on December 17th, nine days before the launch of season 2 of the show.
Honestly, I don’t think Unleashed looks very good. But Netflix’s mobile games lineup has certified bangers like The Rise of the Golden Idol, so if Unleashed is a bust, there’s other things to play.
Is it a reality show? A mockumentary? A desi Entourage? Maybe a serialized reboot of Om Shanti Om? Whatever this untitled Indian “multi-genre” series is, it’s coming in 2025. Netflix is seeing huge viewership in global markets.
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There’s a reason Netflix is investing so much in Korea, and it’s not just because of Squid Game: the streamer says that 80 percent of its users are watching Korean programming. In fact, while detailing its upcoming slate of international movies and shows, Netflix revealed how global its audience is, claiming “more than 70 percent of all viewing on Netflix is either with subs or dubs.”
Despite the glitches in its Tyson-Paul livestream that pulled in more than 60 million viewers, Netflix is pushing forward to another major live event with two exclusive NFL broadcasts on Christmas Day.
And now the streamer has announced that Beyoncé will perform at halftime of the second game, as the Houston Texans host the Baltimore Ravens starting at 4:30PM ET on December 25th.
Act One of Arcane’s final season closed out on a shot that lent even more credence to fans’ theories about how Warwick might be introduced into the series. And it seems like after Act Two drops this weekend, we’ll know how the werewolf came to be.
Between being paid a pittance for creating Squid Game and losing multiple teeth from stress during the first season’s production, it would be understandable if Hwang Dong-hyuk had walked away from his hit franchise.
But in a new interview with The BBC, he explains that the streamer’s choice to finally push some serious cash his way is what brought him back for season 2.
Arcane’s final season puts an even finer point on its story about revolutionary war.
At 18 episodes, the League of Legends spinoff has become the most expensive animated series ever produced, Variety reports. Despite the heavy spending and the earlier-than-expected series finale, Riot co-founder Marc Merrill told Variety that the company’s “ambitions in entertainment haven’t changed:”
What did change as we learned more was our expectations of ourselves: We realized that getting it right takes a lot more time than we’d originally expected, and so we recalibrated our development, output goals and teams with that in mind.
Though Netflix insists that it has been following tax law to the tee, the BBC reports that the streamer’s European headquarters in Amsterdam and its office in Paris were raided as part of an investigation into whether it has been “covering up serious tax fraud and off-the-books work.”
When Netflix picked up the streaming rights to the sci-fi series, there was hope that it would lead to a renewal for season 2. Unfortunately, according to co-creator Joe Bennett, that’s not the case — though they aren’t giving up yet. “There is more story to be told,” he said, “we are ready to make another season.” Here’s a teaser of what that might look like.
During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sarandos was asked which series he wished Netflix produced:
I love The Bear. I wish that was one of ours. Ted Lasso spoke to the time really well. People were looking for something light and fun, and it was just that.
You can check out the full interview below.
Netflix has renewed Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft for a second season that will follow as Lara (Hayley Atwell) “discovers a trail of stolen African Orisha masks.” Sounds like the show might be gesturing towards a bit of Britain’s real-world history of looting the continent.
“Slide rows of scrambled letters to spell words in this thought-provoking word puzzle game from TED,” according to the App Store description for the new game, TED Tumblewords. Seems like the game is trying to be Netflix’s Wordle.
The new game is set to launch on November 19th on Android and iOS, though you’ll need a Netflix subscription to be able to play it.
It’s one thing for Netflix to split Arcane’s upcoming final season into a three-part event, but the streamer has some nerve to keep dropping these banger trailers so close to the show’s return next month.
It’s been a good long while since Wallace and his good friend Gromit help put noted criminal Feathers McGraw in jail at the end of Aardman’s The Wrong Trousers. But in the new trailer for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl — out January 3, 2025 — the villanous penguin seems to finally be free from his lengthy imprisonment and dead set on striking back at the rubes who put him away.
Into every generation, a(t least one) fictional girl destined to save the world from demons is born, and the latest addition to the Buffy-inspired canon comes by way of Echo Wu’s Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld.
The show hits Netflix on December 5th.
Netflix’s Greek myth-inspired drama Kaos seemed like it had quite a bit (like Jeff Goldblum) going for it, but Variety reports that the show has been canceled after just one season.
Remember when Joe and Anthony Russo snatched up the rights to adapt Simon Stålenhag’s The Electric State?
Netflix does, and the streamer has just released a handful of new images from from the movie, which tells the story of “a young woman (played by Millie Bobby Brown) who embarks on a perilous journey across the robot-ravaged US, accompanied by a mysterious toy robot and a roguish smuggler (Chris Pratt).”
Well, it will soon, at least. The latest teaser for Squid Game season 2 shows everyone’s favorite face slapper getting ready for a long day at work. The new season drops on Netflix on December 26th.
If Seong Gi-hun / Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae) had just walked away with his winnings, his life might be peaceful, but in this teaser from Squid Game’s upcoming second season, there’s an entire army of Masked Men that seem hellbent on killing him.
While Netflix has yet to officially announce who will be voicing / portraying Tony Tony Chopper in the second season of its live-action One Piece adaptation, the (CGI) anthropomorphic reindeer makes a brief appearance in this new behind-the-scenes video.
