netflix

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Netflix quietly drops support for casting to most TVs

Apps, Google, google cast, netflix, smart tvs, streaming video, Tech / /

Have you been trying to cast Stranger Things from your phone, only to find that your TV isn’t cooperating? It’s not the TV—Netflix is to blame for this one, and it’s intentional. The streaming app has recently updated its support for Google Cast to disable the feature in most situations. You’ll need to pay for one of the company’s more expensive plans, and even then, Netflix will only cast to older TVs and streaming dongles.

The Google Cast system began appearing in apps shortly after the original Chromecast launched in 2013. Since then, Netflix users have been able to start video streams on TVs and streaming boxes from the mobile app. That was vital for streaming targets without their own remote or on-screen interface, but times change.

Today, Google has moved beyond the remote-free Chromecast experience, and most TVs have their own standalone Netflix apps. Netflix itself is also allergic to anything that would allow people to share passwords or watch in a new place. Over the last couple of weeks, Netflix updated its app to remove most casting options, mirroring a change in 2019 to kill Apple AirPlay.

The company’s support site (spotted by Android Authority) now clarifies that casting is only supported in a narrow set of circumstances. First, you need to be paying for one of the ad-free service tiers, which start at $18 per month. Those on the $8 ad-supported plan won’t have casting support.

Even then, Casting only appears for devices without a remote, like the earlier generations of Google Chromecasts, as well as some older TVs with Cast built in. For example, anyone still rocking Google’s 3rd Gen Chromecast from 2018 can cast video in Netflix, but those with the 2020 Chromecast dongle (which has a remote and a full Android OS) will have to use the TV app. Essentially, anything running Android/Google TV or a smart TV with a full Netflix app will force you to log in before you can watch anything.

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Benoit Blanc takes on a “perfectly impossible crime” in Wake Up Dead Man trailer

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Wake Up Dead Man garnered early rave reviews after screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, and an initial teaser released shortly after showcased Blanc puzzling over a classic locked-room mystery. The new trailer builds out some of the details without giving too much away.

Rev. Jud is the prime suspect in Wicks’ murder, since he loathed the man and hence had a clear motive, but he insists to Blanc that he is innocent. We learn that Wicks was wealthy, and this being a classic whodunit, we know the rest of the characters no doubt have their deep, dark secrets—one of which could have led to murder. And Johnson brings the humor, too, as Blanc, the groundskeeper, and Martha discover the desecration of Wicks’ tombstone with scrawled graffiti penises. “Makes me sick, these kids painting rocket ships all over his sacred resting place,” the unworldly Martha says.

Wake Up Dead Man will be in select theaters on November 26, 2025, and will start streaming on Netflix on December 12, 2o25. We can’t wait.

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Netflix drops a doozy of a trailer for Stranger Things S5

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We’re a few weeks away from the debut of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things—at least the first of three parts of it—and Netflix has dropped one doozy of a trailer that shows things looking pretty bleak for our small-town heroes of Hawkins.

(Spoilers for prior seasons below.)

As previously reported, S4 ended with Vecna—the Big Bad behind it all—opening the gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We’re getting a time jump for S5, but in a way, we’re coming full circle, since the events coincide with the third anniversary of Will’s original disappearance in S1. The fifth season will have eight episodes, and each one will be looong—akin to eight feature-length films. Per the official premise:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

In addition to the returning main cast, Amybeth McNulty and Gabriella Pizzolo are back as Vicki and Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzie, respectively, with Jamie Campbell Bower reprising his role as Vecna. Linda Hamilton joins the cast as Dr. Kay, along with Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

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It’s troll vs. troll in Netflix’s Troll 2 trailer

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Netflix’s international offerings include some entertaining Norwegian fare, such as the series Ragnarok (2020–2023), a surprisingly engaging reworking of Norse mythology brought into the 21st century that ran for three seasons. Another enjoyable offering was a 2022 monster movie called Troll, essentially a Norwegian take on the classic Godzilla formula. Netflix just dropped a trailer for the sequel, Troll 2, which looks to be very much in the same vein as its predecessor.

(Spoilers for the first Troll movie below.)

Don’t confuse the Netflix franchise with 2010’s Trollhunter, shot in the style of a found footage mockumentary. A group of college students sets off into the wilds of the fjordland to make a documentary about a suspected bear poacher named Hans. They discover that Hans is actually hunting down trolls and decide to document those endeavors instead, but soon realize they are very much out of their depth.

Writer/director André Øvredal infused Trollhunter with the driest of wit and myriad references to Norwegian culture, especially its folklore and fairy tales surrounding trolls. There are woodland trolls and mountain trolls, some with tails, some with multiple heads. They turn to stone when exposed to sunlight—which is why one of the troll hunters carries around a powerful UV lamp—and mostly eat rocks but can develop a taste for human flesh, and they can smell the blood of a Christian.

Directed by Roar Uthaug, the first Troll film is based on the same mythology. It had great action sequences and special effects and didn’t take itself too seriously. A young girl named Nora grows up with the mythology of Norwegian trolls turned to stone buried in the local mountains. An adult Nora (Ine Marie Wilmann), now a paleontologist, teams up with a government advisor, Andreas (Kim S. Falck-Jørgensen), and a military captain, Kris (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen), to take out a troll that has been rampaging across Norway, charting a path of destruction toward the heavily populated city of Oslo.

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Trailer for del Toro’s Frankenstein is pure macabre mythology

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Per the official synopsis:

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

In addition to Isaac, the cast includes Jacob Elordi as the Creature; Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza, who is engaged to Victor’s young brother William, played by William Kammerer; Lars Mikkelsen as Captain Anderson; Christoph Waltz as Heinrich Harlander, uncle to Elizabeth and wealthy financer of Victor’s experiments; Charles Dance as Victor’s father Leopold; Lauren Collins as Victor’s late mother Claire; David Bradley as the blind man; Sofia Galasso as the little girl; Ralph Ineson as Professor Krempe; and Burn Gorman as Fritz.

The trailer looks every bit as mythically epic and visually lavish as del Toro said he wanted for his version. “I remember pieces, the Creature says in a voiceover as footage plays out. “Memories of different men. Then I saw it. Your name. Victor Frankenstein. My creator. I demand a single grace from you. If you are not to award me love, then I will indulge in rage.”

We see lavish balls, Victor’s Gothic laboratory, a ship trapped in Arctic ice, and lots and lots of consuming fire—everything one could want in a Frankenstein movie from a master of macabre mythologies.

Frankenstein hits theaters on October 17, 2025. It will start streaming on Netflix on November 7.

poster art

Credit: Netflix

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They’re golden: Fictional band from K-Pop Demon Hunters tops the charts

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The fictional band Huntr/x, from K-Pop Demon Hunters, has a real-world hit with “Golden.”

Netflix has a summer megahit on its hands with its animated musical feature film, K-Pop Demon Hunters. Since its June release, the critically acclaimed film has won fans of all ages, fueled by a killer Korean pop soundtrack featuring one earworm after another. The biggest hit is “Golden,” which just hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 100 chart. (The last time a fictional ensemble topped the charts was in 2022 with Encanto‘s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”)

K-Pop Demon Hunters is now Netflix’s most-watched animated film of all time, and that’s not just because of the infectious music. The Sony Animation team delivers bold visuals that evoke the look and feel of anime, the plot is briskly paced, and the script strikes a fine balance between humor and heart.

(Spoilers below.)

The film deftly lays out the central premise in the first few minutes. In ancient times, demons roamed the Earth freely and preyed upon human souls, until a trio of women—gifted singers and demon hunters—created a magical protective barrier with their voices known as the Honmoon, trapping the demons behind it. The Honmoon has been maintained ever since by subsequent musical trios/demon hunters from each generation. The dream is that one day, the Honmoon will become so strong it will turn “golden” and seal away the demons forever.

Naturally the demons, led by their king Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun), don’t want that to happen, but the latest incarnation of demon hunters—a K-Pop band called Huntr/x—is close to accomplishing the Golden Honmoon. Rumi (Arden Cho) is the lead singer, Mira (May Hong) is the group’s dancer/choreographer, and American-born Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) is the rapper and lyricist. But Rumi harbors a secret: her father was a demon, and she is marked by the telltale purple “patterns,” which she keeps hidden from her bandmates.

Hoping to destroy the Honmoon once and for all, Gwi-Ma sends five of his demons to form a K-pop boy band, the Saja Boys, led by Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop). Their popularity soon rivals that of Huntr/x and threatens the Honmoon—just as Rumi’s patterns spread to her throat and weaken her singing voice.

How it’s done, done, done

Mira, Rumi, and Zoey take a timeout from fighting demons to carb-load with ramen. Netflix

That’s a big problem because their new hit single, “Golden” (performed by South Korean singer/songwriter Ejae), spans an impressive three-octave range, eventually hitting an A-5  on the chorus—a high note usually reserved for classically trained operatic sopranos. (Ejae’s performance on this song has impressed a lot of YouTube vocal coaches.) And the first live global performance of “Golden” is supposed to be the event that ushers in the Golden Honmoon. It’s a soaring, impeccably constructed “I Want” tune typical of Disney princesses.

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Netflix drops One Piece S2 teaser, renews for S3

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We have the first teaser for the second season of Netflix’s live-action series adaptation of One Piece, subtitled Into the Grand Line. The streaming platform also released some first-look images and announced that the series has been renewed for a third season.

(Some spoilers for S1 below.)

As previously reported, the original One Piece manga debuted in 1997, following the adventures of one Monkey D. Luffy, who heads a motley crew called the Straw Hat Pirates. There’s swordsman Roronoa Zoro, thief and navigator Nami, sniper and compulsive liar Usopp, and a cook named Sanji. They’re searching for the legendary One Piece, a mythical treasure that would make anyone who possesses it King of the Pirates. Monkey wants to be the Pirate King, but so do a host of other pirates with their own ships and crews.

An anime TV series based on the original manga premiered in 1999 and became a global hit; it was the most-watched TV show of 2022, even beating out Stranger Things. So Netflix decided to make a live-action version, which received critical and popular acclaim, particularly for its fidelity to the source material. Iñaki  Godoy stars as Monkey, who has rubber-like abilities thanks to accidentally ingesting a Devil Fruit. Mackenyu plays Zoro, Emily Rudd plays Nami, Taz Skylar plays Sanji, and Jacob Romero Gibson plays Usopp, son of an infamous pirate father named Yasopp. The S2 teaser features several new faces that will be familiar to fans of the manga and anime series.

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Review: The Sandman S2 is a classic tragedy, beautifully told

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I unequivocally loved the first season of The Sandman, the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s influential graphic novel series (of which I am longtime fan). I thought it captured the surreal, dream-like feel and tone of its source material, striking a perfect balance between the anthology approach of the graphic novels and grounding the narrative by focusing on the arc of its central figure: Morpheus, lord of the Dreaming.  It’s been a long wait for the second and final season, but S2 retains all those elements to bring Dream’s story to its inevitably tragic, yet satisfying, end.

(Spoilers below; some major S2 reveals after the second gallery. We’ll give you a heads-up when we get there.)

When Netflix announced in January that The Sandman would end with S2, speculation abounded that this was due to sexual misconduct allegations against Gaiman (who has denied them). However, showrunner Allan Heinberg wrote on X that the plan had long been for there to be only two seasons because the show’s creators felt they had only enough material to fill two seasons, and frankly, they were right. The first season covered the storylines of Preludes and Nocturnes and A Doll’s House, with bonus episodes adapting “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope” from Dream Country.

The S2 source material is drawn primarily from Seasons of Mists, Brief Lives, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake, weaving in relevant material from Fables and Reflections—most notably “The Song of Orpheus” and elements of “Thermidor”—and the award-winning “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from Dream Country. This season’s bonus episode adapts the 1993 standalone spinoff Death: The High Cost of Living. All that’s really missing is A Game of You—which focuses on Barbie (a minor character introduced in A Doll’s House) trying to save her magical dream realm from the evil forces of the Cuckoo—and a handful of standalone short stories. None of that material has any bearing on the Dream King’s larger character arc, so we lose little by the omissions.

Making amends

After escaping his captors, regaining his talismans, tracking down the rogue Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), and dealing with a Vortex, S2 finds Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) rebuilding the Dreaming, which had fallen into disrepair during his long absence. He is interrupted by his sibling Destiny’s (Adrian Lester) unexpected summons to a family meeting, including Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston), and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles).

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After 5 years in development, the Assassin’s Creed TV series is happening

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The long-running video game series Assassin’s Creed will get a live-action TV series adaptation. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter report that Netflix has greenlit the series after years of development hell; the intention to produce the series was announced in 2020.

The series had been through multiple creative teams even before it was greenlit, but Netflix settled on two co-showrunners. Roberto Patino, a writer on FX’s Sons of Anarchy and HBO’s Westworld, will join David Wiener, who led Paramount+’s Halo TV series as well as Fear the Walking Dead.

The two released a joint statement with the news that the show is moving forward:

We’ve been fans of Assassin’s Creed since its release in 2007. Every day we work on this show, we come away excited and humbled by the possibilities that Assassin’s Creed opens to us. Beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story—about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny and faith. It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance. But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time. And it’s about what we stand to lose as a species, when those connections break. We’ve got an amazing team behind us with the folks at Ubisoft and our champions at Netflix, and we’re committed to creating something undeniable for fans all over the planet.

Not many details are known about the series, beyond the obvious: like the games, it will follow a shadow war between the rival Templars and Assassins factions fought across centuries and cultures, with characters diving into genetic memory to experience the lives of ancestors who played pivotal roles in the war. There are no public details about characters or casting.

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Netflix’s first show with generative AI is a sign of what’s to come in TV, film

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Netflix used generative AI in an original, scripted series that debuted this year, it revealed this week. Producers used the technology to create a scene in which a building collapses, hinting at the growing use of generative AI in entertainment.

During a call with investors yesterday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that Netflix’s Argentine show The Eternaut, which premiered in April, is “the very first GenAI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix, Inc. original series or film.” Sarandos further explained, per a transcript of the call, saying:

The creators wanted to show a building collapsing in Buenos Aires. So our iLine team, [which is the production innovation group inside the visual effects house at Netflix effects studio Scanline], partnered with their creative team using AI-powered tools. … And in fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with visual, traditional VFX tools and workflows. And, also, the cost of it would just not have been feasible for a show in that budget.

Sarandos claimed that viewers have been “thrilled with the results”; although that likely has much to do with how the rest of the series, based on a comic, plays out, not just one, AI-crafted scene.

More generative AI on Netflix

Still, Netflix seems open to using generative AI in shows and movies more, with Sarandos saying the tech “represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper.”

“Our creators are already seeing the benefits in production through pre-visualization and shot planning work and, certainly, visual effects,” he said. “It used to be that only big-budget projects would have access to advanced visual effects like de-aging.”

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Linda Hamilton rocks Stranger Things’ S5 extended teaser

culture, Duffer brothers, Entertainment, netflix, Stranger Things S5, streaming television, Trailers / /

Netflix has finally released an extended teaser for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, airing late this year. It’s got everything we could hope for in terms of the conclusive showdown—spooky shots of the Upside Down bleeding into Hawkins, attacking demo-dogs, flamethrowers—plus an armed and dangerous Linda Hamilton taking on the monsters beside our plucky Hawkins crew.

(Spoilers for prior seasons below.)

S4 ended with Vecna—the Big Bad behind it all—opening the gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We’re getting a time jump for S5, but in a way, we’re coming full circle, since the events coincide with the third anniversary of Will’s original disappearance in S1. The fifth season will have eight episodes, and each one will be looong—akin to eight feature-length films. Per the official premise:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

In addition to the returning main cast, Amybeth McNulty and Gabriella Pizzolo are back as Vicki and Dustin’s girlfriend, Suzie, respectively, with Jamie Campbell Bower reprising his role as Vecna. Linda Hamilton joins the cast as Dr. Kay, along with Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

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Netflix will start showing traditional broadcast channels next summer

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In a move that further intensifies the reflection of the cable business it’s slowly killing, Netflix will start showing broadcast channels next summer.

The world’s largest streaming provider announced today that starting next year, all Netflix subscribers in France will be able to watch broadcast channels from TF1 Group, France’s biggest commercial broadcaster, which also owns streaming services and creates content. Financial Times (FT) reported that users will be able to watch all five TF1 linear channels.

Netflix’s French customers will also gain access to “more than 30,000 hours” of on-demand TF1 content in the summer of 2026, FT reported. TF1’s content selection includes scripted dramas, reality shows like The Voice, and live sports.

Before this announcement, Netflix and TF1 were already “creative partners,” according to Netflix, and co-produced titles like Les Combattantes, a French historical miniseries whose title translates to Women at War.

The companies didn’t disclose financial details of the deal.

Traditional media’s unlikely savior

In a statement, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters highlighted the TF1 deal as a driver of subscriber engagement, a focus that Netflix will increasingly emphasize with investors following its recent decision to stop sharing subscriber counts. Netflix claims to have “over” 300 million subscribers.

“By teaming up with France’s leading broadcaster, we will provide French consumers with even more reasons to come to Netflix every day and to stay with us for all their entertainment,” Peters said.

Meanwhile, TF1 gains advertising opportunities, as the commercials its channels show will likely attract more eyeballs in the form of Netflix subscribers.

“As viewing habits shift toward on-demand consumption and audience fragmentation increases, this unprecedented alliance will enable our premium content to reach unparalleled audiences and unlock new reach for advertisers within an ecosystem that perfectly complements our TF1+ [streaming] platform,” Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of TF1 Group, said in a statement.

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