You’ve heard of music festivals, but what about a TV festival? Tudum is a Netflix fan event and in 2023 it took the stature of such a festival. Huge crowd. Grand old tent. Even stage times for announcements.
It was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We saw some of the streamer’s biggest stars take to the stage to address fans, including Chris Hemsworth, who stars in the recently released Extraction 2.
But for those of us who can’t just hop on a plane to Brazil, Tudum 2023 was all about announcing the details of upcoming Netflix movies and TV shows. There’s a lot in slate. We’ve dug through a lot to pick the seven to watch out for.
New Netflix Movies and Shows
Netflix’s adaptation of Chinese sci-fi novel The Three Body Problem isn’t due out until early 2024, but it looks classy and impressive in this latest teaser trailer. It’s a series of seemingly unrelated clips from the show that seem to set the bar pretty high for the quality of the CGI effects for the rest of the show.
It’s an alien invasion story based on a trilogy of novels by Liu Cixin, although it looks like the show may focus on the plot of the first book. Tencent produced a 30-episode adaptation earlier this year in China, but the Netflix version appears to have much higher production standards.
2. Stranger Things Season 5
The next season of Stranger Things didn’t have a big flashy reveal at Tudum 2023. But there was one major announcement. The series will star Linda Hamilton, who starred in The Terminator films.
When does the season come out? We do not know. However, the Duffer Brothers, the show’s creators, have said that this will be the show’s final season in its current form.
The first season of Squid Game remains the most watched set of content in its first 28 days, amassing 1.65 billion hours. So of course there would be a second season. Netflix has not announced a release date, but has revealed some of the cast members who will be joining the beloved seasons, such as Gong Yoon and Lee Jung-jae.
Yim Si-Wan, Kang Ha-Neul, Park Sung-Hoon and Yang Dong-Geun are among the new names joining Season 2. The series is expected to air on Netflix sometime in 2024. We’re more interested in how Netflix will makes this work dramatically without just ending up as a retread of the first season. To keep things interesting, Netflix will start streaming a reality game version in November, called Squad Game: The Challenge.
We got to see yet another The Witcher Season 3 trailer as part of Tudum 2023. It’s a three-minute battle scene that includes brawling, sword fighting, magic, and teleportation portals. And liberal use of the Witcher’s Sign’s own spells.
This will be Henry Cavill’s last run on the show, with Liam Hemworth set to take over the role in the future. Season 3 will be split into two halves. The first one lands on June 29th, the second half on July 27th.
Zack Snyder’s “giant atmospheric space adventure” will be released in December, and this behind-the-scenes clip from Tudum 2023 offers a few glimpses of what we can expect. It’s the story of a moon colony taking a stand against far more technologically advanced invaders, with the help of an inexperienced band of warriors.
Rebel Moom stars Charlie Hunnam, Sofie Boutella and Jena Malone. However, there’s no word on the behind-the-scenes preview about Rebel Moon’s most impressive part. It’s apparently being split into two films, with a combined budget estimated at $166 million.
You might not know about One Piece if you’re not a fan of comics, but it’s kind of a deal. It is the best-selling manga of all time, selling over 500 million copies. And it still goes on. In September 2022 the entire edition was printed in a single book comprising more than 21,000 pages and costing 1900 euros.
However, Nefflix’s take on One Piece is quite different from the original. It’s a live action show, not one that sticks close to the comic book with an animated look. However, even this trailer shows off some of the comic’s signature pieces, such as the main character’s ability to stretch his arms long distances. It also shows us a glimpse of a giant sea monster. One Piece is expected to be released on August 31st.
7. Avatar The Last Wind Fighter
Netflix has confirmed the Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation is coming in 2024. This series was announced in 2018. One of the major delays was caused by the creators of the original animated series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who left the project.
All we have to go on for now are some production shots, some of which have an almost AI-generated sheen. Or maybe we’re just paranoid about the truth of what we see online these days. The teaser trailer does not contain scenes from the show itself. However, it certainly has to be better than M. Night Shyamalan’s bad adaptation, which came out in 2010.
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