[category]
[title]
It’s October, and all the stars are here! Including the guy who coined that phrase! Seriously, the month at Netflix is packed with big names. The biggest headline, perhaps, is Florence Pugh starring in an ambitious miniseries based on John Steinbeck’s immortal – and controversial – East of Eden. But there’s also Josh Harnett fighting water-based paranormal forces, Ben Affleck directing and starring in a crime thriller alongside Gillian Anderson, the returns of Keri Russell’s The Diplomat and Kristen Bell’s Nobody Wants This, an action comedy with Chris Evans and a slew of other stars, plus documentaries about the late Matthew Perry and the funny farm that was Canada’s SCTV. How big –or just good – all those movies, series and docs will turn out to be is as-yet-undetermined, but here’s certainly a lot to grab your attention. Here’s what we’re most looking forward to.
Recommended:
🇳 The best movies on Netflix
💻 The best Netflix original series to binge
📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2026 so far
East of Eden
Florence Pugh stars in this multipart adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel, Netflix’s second ambitious literary adaptation after One Hundred Years of Solitude. Pugh is Cathy Ames, the infamous, late-arriving protagonist of this decades-spanning masterwork, following Ames as she upturns the lives of two half-brothers in rural 19th century California.
Premieres Oct. 1
Who Is Martin Mull?
A movie about a dead guy, by a dead guy. Sorry if that sounds insensitive, but if you’re familiar with the non-Full House work of Bob Saget, who directed this documentary about fellow comedic actor, the late Martin Mull, then you know he wouldn’t take offense – and neither would Mull, come to think of it.
Premieres Oct. 7
Below
Josh Hartnett is trapped… on a boat, this time, in Newfoundland, as he attempts to rid the local waters of a supernatural evil. Sounds very SyFy, but the trailer gives off a whiff of pseudo-prestige.
Premieres Oct. 8
Animals
Ben Affleck and Netflix: name a better duo, we’ll wait. Following up on The Rip from earlier this year, Big Ben is back – both in front of and behind the camera this time – for another crime thriller. Here, he’s an LA mayoral candidate whose secrets risk being exposed after his son is kidnapped. Gillian Anderson plays his wife, and Kerry Washington and Steve Yeun are there, too. All right, we’re listening.
Premieres Oct. 9
Haunted Hotel season 2
‘Bob’s Burgers meets Hotel Transylvania’ is the elevator pitch for this adult animated series from Rick and Morty alum Matt Roller, now entering its second season. Eliza Coupe voices a single mother operating a struggling hotel overrun by ghouls and ghosts, including that of her own brother, voiced by the never-not-funny Will Forte.
Premieres Oct. 9
Free Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1975 in a trial widely considered unfair, was a political cause celebre for decades before he was finally pardoned by President Biden in 2025. This doc traces his long journey to justice.
Premieres Oct. 12
The Diplomat season 4
Keri Russell returns to her Emmy-nominated role as Kate Wyler, newly appointed US ambassador to the United Kingdom, in this soapy thriller steeped in international intrigue.
Premieres Oct. 15
Sacrifice
In this comic thriller, Chris Evans is a spiraling movie star kidnapped by a radical organization determined to save the human race by killing off three important members of it. Directed by French music video director Romain Gavras, it looks something like a hybrid of Jay Kelly, Bugonia and the second Knives Out. What that adds up to is TBD, but with Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Sam Richardson, Salma Hayek and John Malkovich also in the cast, it’s got a decent chance of succeeding.
Premieres Oct. 16
The Disciple: A Wu-Tang Fable
This doc traces the odd path of Cilvaringz, the Dutch-Morrocan producer who ended up playing a hand in the creation of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the Wu-Tang Clan album that became infamous when its lone copy ended up in the hands of pharma douche Martin Shkreli.
Premieres Oct. 16
Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald
Hey, another dead guy! Again, don’t worry – Norm Macdonald wouldn’t mind, we’re pretty sure. Judd Apatow produced this doc about the late, dryly subversive funnyman who could, at this point, easily be called the internet’s favorite comic, if not just everyone’s favorite in general.
Premieres Oct. 16
The New Stanford Prison Experiment
In the 1970s, Stanford University stuck a bunch of random folks in a jail, assigning some to act as prisoners and others as guards, and observed the psychological fallout. Naturally, that concept is now being turned into a reality competition show. A billion people watched Squid Game but apparently learned nothing.
Premieres Oct. 20
Nobody Wants This season 3
Nobody Wants This? Seems unlikely, given that we’re now on season 3. This sharply observed romcom stars Kristen Bell as an unreligious sex podcaster who falls for a handsome young rabbi, played by Adam Brody. Sarah Silverman is the big cast addition as another rabbi helping Bell’s character, Joanne, in his conversion to Judaism.
Premieres Oct. 22
Lupin season 4
Omar Sy’s master thief returns after three years for the fourth part is this French crime thriller, one of Netflix’s more underrated cult-classic shows.
Premieres Oct. 23
Paralyzed By Hope: The Maria Bamford Story
Ask in-the-know comedy nerds to name the best standup of a certain generation, and many will name Maria Bamford. This doc chronicles her career, along with her mental health struggles.
Premieres Oct. 23
The One About Matthew Perry
The death of Friends star Matthew Perry in 2023 stunned Hollywood. This docuseries explores his life, career and the long battle with substance abuse he ultimately ended up losing.
Premieres Oct. 27
SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of
Maybe you’ve never heard of SCTV – it was the Canadian Saturday Night Live, more or less – but you definitely know a few of the names it launched to stardom, like John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Martin Short… y’know, just some of the funniest people to ever live. In any case, this doc will catch you up.
Premieres Oct. 30
Everything coming to Netflix in October 2026:
Available October 1:
“Crazy Rich, Incredibly Broke”
“East of Eden”
“The Ramparts of Ice” Season 2
“21 Jump Street”
“22 Jump Street”
“8 Mile”
“A Haunted House”
“A Haunted House 2”
“A Madea Family Funeral”
“Ad Astra”
“Angels & Demons”
“Are We There Yet?”
“The Bourne Identity”
“The Bourne Legacy”
“The Bourne Supremacy”
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
“Bring It On”
“Call Me by Your Name”
“Cowboys & Aliens”
“Crimson Peak”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“The Da Vinci Code”
“The Devil Wears Prada”
“Dracula”
“The Equalizer”
“Evil Dead”
“Friday the 13th”
“Happy Death Day 2U”
“Horton Hears a Who!”
“The Huntsman: Winter’s War”
“Hush”
“I Know What You Did Last Summer”
“Jason Bourne”
“Lake Placid”
“Love Actually”
“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”
“The Menu”
“Moonlight”
“NCIS” Seasons 20–22
“Ouija”
“Ouija: Origin of Evil”
“Pearl Harbor”
“Point Break”
“The Prestige”
“Psycho”
“Psycho II”
“Psycho III”
“Red Dragon”
“Seven Years in Tibet”
“The Sixth Sense”
“Split”
“The Strangers”
“Top Chef VIP” Seasons 3–4
“Twilight”
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1”
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2”
“The Way Home” Season 4
“Underworld: Blood Wars”
Available October 2:
“#Love”
“Schumacher ’94 — The Birth of a Legend”
“Tyler Perry’s Doing Life”
Available October 3:
“Ranma1/2” Season 3
Available October 4:
“Blue Box” Season 2
Available October 5:
“The Boogeyman”
“Lorne”
“Mayor of Kingstown” Seasons 1–4
“Super BOOMi” Season 1
Available October 6:
“All American” Season 8
“Love Village” Season 3
“Mojo Brookzz: I Know You Lying”
“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”
Available October 7:
“Inside The Circle”
“Less of a Stranger”
“Real Men” Season 2
“Who Is Martin Mull?”
Available October 8:
“Below”
“Unicorn Academy: Secrets Revealed” Chapter 2
Available October 9:
“Animals”
“Haunted Hotel” Season 2
“Is It Cake? Halloween” Season 2
“Take Charge of My Heart”
Available October 10:
“100 Days of Deception”
“The First Monday in May”
Available October 12:
“Fire Spike” Season 1
“Free Leonard Peltier”
“Señora Acero” Seasons 1–5
“Wayne” Season 1
Available October 13:
“Solar Opposites” Season 6
“The Trap”
“TYSON”
Available October 14:
“Cocaine Bear”
“Love Is Blind” Season 11: Boston
Available October 15:
“Hollywood Arts”
“The Diplomat” Season 4
“The Storm”
Available October 16:
“The Disciple — Netflix Documentary”
“Heat”
“The Fate of the Furious”
“Money Trap: The Karun Treasure”
“Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald”
“Sacrifice”
“Seriously Single Too”
“Therapy Done Right”
Available October 20:
“Blindspotting” Seasons 1–2
“Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2”
Available October 21:
“Emily”
“Gladiator”
“Gladiator II”
“The Mothers of Penguins” Season 2
“The New Stanford Prison Experiment”
“Six Kings Slam” Season 2
Available October 22:
“Bottle Shock”
“Couldn’t Agree Less with Allison & Isaac”
“Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?”
“Nobody Wants This” Season 3
Available October 23:
“Fading Grandeur”
“Lupin” Part 4
“Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story”
“Surviving Hurricane Otis”
Available October 26:
“Minimum Wage”
Available October 27:
“Dangerous Liaisons” Season 1
“The One About Matthew Perry”
“Zainab Johnson: Toxically Optimistic”
Available October 28:
“Champions”
Available October 29:
“Balaraw: Blood Island”
“You, Me, Us”
Available October 30:
“A Couple of Lies”
“Akka”
“Beat Luke Littler”
“The Birthday Gift”
“Collision Course”
“How to Ruin Diwali: Meet the Parents”
“SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of”