Netflix Movies Coming In 2023 That Should Be On Your Must-Watch List

From buzzworthy biopics to high-profile action thrillers, Netflix is roaring into 2023. Here are 25 of the most-anticipated films coming our way on Netflix this year. After finding critical success with 2020's Extraction, director Sam Hargrave is back, along with the Russo Brothers, with Extraction 2. Due to hit Netflix sometime in 2023, Extraction 2 will again focus on Chris Hemsworth's Tyler Rake, a black ops mercenary tasked with a life-or-death mission. "With the title of "2" behind your nam

e, you have to bring at least twice the action." Extraction was a refreshing entry in the action genre, and Hemsworth delivered a career-defining performance, for which he received praise from audiences and critics alike. The film became one of Netflix's most-watched originals ever, reaching 99 million households in its first month on the streaming service. "You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it." Besides Hemsworth, a definitive cast list hasn't been made public

, though Golshifteh Farahani is set to reprise her role of Nik Khan, Tyler's partner. No release date has been pinned down, but filming is said to have wrapped last April. It's been 23 years since Peter Lord and Nick Park created Chicken Run, a triumphant piece of stop-motion animation. Chicken Run remains the highest-grossing stop-motion film ever, raking in over $227 million at the box office. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget was greenlit in 2018 by StudioCanal, and Netflix acquired the rights

in 2020. The film will focus on Ginger and her friends after they escape Tweedy's farm. "Is it as good as you imagined?" "No." "No?" "It's better." Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, and Lynn Ferguson are the only original actors to reprise their roles from the first movie. But given the critical response to the first film, we should expect another brilliant, entertaining story from Lord and Park. Adaptations of books by renowned children's author Roald Dahl have often become movie classics. Beginn

ing with 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory all the way to Roald Dahl's The Witches " in 2020, Dahl's work has been a linchpin in cinema for five decades. In 2021, Netflix acquired the rights to the Roald Dahl Story Company, paying over $680 million dollars for the author's bibliography. First up is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, helmed by acclaimed director Wes Anderson. Published in 1977, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar follows Sugar, a gambler who dares to use meditation to co

unt cards. Anderson's adaptation will explore the destruction of greed that Dahl's adult-skewed fairy tale examined. With Benedict Cumberbatch set to play Sugar, and a supporting cast of Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar should be a marvelous entry in the Dahl cinematic universe. Though it hit theaters for a limited release on December 23, Scott Cooper's The Pale Blue Eye was the first original movie to stream on Netflix in 2023. Netflix seems to be s

tarting the year off with a lot of corpses and conspiracies. The Pale Blue Eye doesn't skimp on brutality, which adds another layer of darkness to Cooper's period piece. "It is a whodunnit." "It's a fictional story about a series of murders that take place at West Point." Set in 1830, The Pale Blue Eye follows Augustus Landor, played by Christian Bale, as he investigates murders within the U.S. military, alongside a young Edgar Allan Poe, played by Harry Melling. "With enough patience, a suspect

will often interrogate himself." The movie is based on Louis Bayard's 2003 novel of the same name and has a terrific cast that includes Gillian Anderson and Robert Duvall among many other standouts. Fans of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise have been waiting 28 years for another installment and, in 2023, their time will finally come. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley marks another turn in Murphy's ongoing career renaissance. Hoping to capitalize on the acclaim he received for his performances in Dole

mite Is My Name and Coming 2 America, audiences can only hope that the comedian can slip back into the persona of his most beloved character. "Yes, you have a reservation for an Axel Foley." The story follows Axel as he comes back to Beverly Hills to sniff out corruption in his old police department. "Can you put this in a good spot? All this s— happened the last time I parked here." Many of the franchise's original cast, including Judge Reinhold and Bronson Pinchot, are set to return, while Tay

lour Paige, Kevin Bacon, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will take on brand new characters. Beverly Hills Cop has a storied legacy, with the original film consistently labeled as one of the funniest movies ever made, so Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley has a lot to live up to. It'll be exciting to see the old gang back in action for the first time in almost 30 years. Not much is known about the film adaptation of Matt Kindt's comic book series Dept. H, though it's set to hit Netflix sometime this year. Al

ice Waddington is slated to direct the film, her first credit since her feature debut, Paradise Hills, in 2019. Dept. H revolves around Mia, a special investigator hired to derail a saboteur's plan at a deep sea research facility. The series traverses a long, complicated crime scene that plays out like a nautical game of Clue, where suspects must prove their innocence while surviving against the creatures surrounding them. How Waddington will condense Kindt's work into one feature film will be s

omething worth keeping note of. No cast list has yet been released. Kindt's series ran for almost two full years. Given that the comic doesn't have the biggest fanbase, that leaves the door wide open for Waddington to make the source material her own. It's one of the most-anticipated Netflix releases and comic book adaptations of 2023. In one of Netflix's most high-profile releases of 2023, Tom Harper's Heart of Stone has garnered a lot of attention thanks to its illustrious cast, which includes

Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan in the leading roles. Heart of Stone will be Harper's first directorial effort since The Aeronauts in 2019. The story revolves around Rachel Stone, a CIA agent navigating altercations with dangerous global powers. "Rachel Stone lives off the adrenaline. She's addicted to it." Most of the plot is being kept under wraps. We just know that it's a spy action thriller. Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi, and Alia Bhatt are set to play supporting roles. Writte

n, directed, and starring Jerry Seinfeld, Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story is one of Netflix's most anticipated comedies of the upcoming year. Seinfeld has directed before, including episodes of his own show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and two of Colin Quinn's stand-up specials. Netflix won the rights to the film in 2021, the premise of which stems from Seinfeld's own joke about the Pop-Tart's inception. "They can't go stale, 'cause they were never fresh." In the story, two breakfast cereal

titans, Kellogg's and Post, duke it out, competing to make the first ever mass-produced breakfast pastry in the Vietnam War-era Midwest. Unfrosted has an Olympic-level cast signed on already, including Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, and Bobby Moynihan, to name just a few. "It's like 15 stand-up comics are in this." What will come of a film brimming with some of the 21st century's greatest comedians? "You know, in my world, the wronger something feels, the righter it is." In what will be his seco

nd release through Netflix within a year, Jonah Hill has teamed up with black-ish creator Kenya Barris to make You People. Hill and Barris co-wrote the script together. The film examines the intersection of culture disparities with modern love plus a sprinkling of generational issues added to the mix, as Hill and Lauren London play an interracial couple meeting each others' families for the first time. "So do you hang out in the hood all the time or do you just come up here for our food and wome

n?" As Hill and London's in-laws-to-be are Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and David Duchovny. Considering Barris's success with black-ish and Hill's ability to perfectly blend comedy and drama, You People is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing releases of 2023. Netflix's catalog in 2023 won't be short of action films, though Havoc might end up being one of the streamer's best of the year. Directed by Gareth Evans, who last helmed Apostle in 2018, Havoc will mark the first n

on-Venom performance by Tom Hardy since Capone in 2020. Havoc focuses on the aftermath of a bad drug deal, when Hardy's detective character, Walker, must survive within the dark underbelly of crime in his city. Walker is tasked with saving the kidnapped son of a high-ranking politician while watching his home unravel from the vices of greed and corruption. As with many of Netflix's upcoming releases, Havoc has a promising cast, highlighted by Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Cornwell, a

nd Jessie Mei Li. Evans is a relatively unproven director, but this film could completely change all that. Hardy is an exemplary leading man, so Havoc shouldn't have any trouble finding its audience, especially viewers who are fans of Netflix's blockbuster action flick, Extraction. Director Rawson Marshall Thurber has been tapped to helm Netflix's new dystopian thriller The Division. It's his first credit since Red Notice in 2021, although he's perhaps best known for directing the comedies Dodge

ball: A True Underdog Story and We're the Millers. The Division details how a futuristic, fast-spreading virus is being contracted through people handling paper money. The events reach an apex on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, in New York City. What unfolds is the dissolution of society amid a great viral catastrophe, in which the fate of the country rests in the hands of civilians who must fight against bio-terrorists while the government races to find a cure. As of right n

ow, the only cast members confirmed are Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal. Chastain and Gyllenhaal are two of the most reliable leading actors working in Hollywood right now, so The Division should be a thrilling story to watch. Step Up: All In and Pitch Perfect 3 director Trish Sie's next film is the romantic comedy Players, due to hit Netflix in late 2023. Netflix hasn't let too many cats out of the bag about Players. All we know is that it is a rom-com with a sports fan slant. A sportswrit

er, Mack, after years of flings and hook-ups, meets a woman who inspires him to settle down and go all in on a relationship. Tom Ellis and Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez are slated to play the movie's leads, while Damon Wayans Jr., Brock O'Hurn, and Joel Courtney will take on supporting roles. The last time we saw Ellis was in his leading role on Lucifer, while Rodriguez was in the Amazon Prime hit rom-com I Want You Back in 2022. The chemistry between Ellis and Rodriguez will be one to loo

k out for, as they are known for working within different genres. Netflix is hit or miss with rom-coms these days, but Players has a lot of potential. High in the Clouds is easily Netflix's most unique impending release. An animated feature based on a children's novel co-written by Philip Ardagh, Geoff Dunbar, and Paul McCartney in 2005, Netflix will release it in collaboration with Gaumont sometime this year. The book's illustrator, Geoff Dunbar, worked with McCartney on the 1984 animated movie

Rupert and the Frog Song. High in the Clouds focuses on Woodland, an animal home about to be demolished by humans. Wirral, a squirrel, is left orphaned by the destruction and goes on an adventure to find a new place to live. His destination is Animalia, a sanctuary for animals. Surprisingly adult, the book tackles themes of war, loss, and companionship, and the movie adaptation should do the same. The adaptation has been in development off-and-on since 2013, with a number of filmmakers in the m

ix to direct. Officially, Head over Heels creator Timothy Reckart will helm the film, with a script written by Jon Croker. McCartney will compose songs and an original score while also executive producing. Beatles fans and animation buffs alike are sure to adore this film, another addition to the still-growing legacy of McCartney, one of the world's greatest rock stars. In another comic book adaptation for Netflix, Jim Mickle, co-creator of the streaming titan's show Sweet Tooth, will direct his

own rendition of Donny Cates' God Country. Legendary Pictures is attached to the film, which marks another collaboration with Netflix, after the hit films Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 released in 2020 and 2022, respectively. "I am a detective. I'm a decipherer. And I'm a finder of lost souls." God Country follows Emmett Quinlan, a widower battling dementia. Emmett struggles with confusion, which often leads to violent outbursts that get him in trouble with local police and estrange him from

his family. After a tornado destroys his home in West Texas, Emmett is thought to be lost, and possibly dead, in the debris. Instead, the disaster renders him cured and an enchanted sword he found in the eye of the storm gives him superhuman strength. Far from the worlds of DC and Marvel, God Country aims to be a refreshing entry in the superhero genre. “No capes!” No cast list or plot for the film have yet been released, but Netflix aims to deliver it to audiences by the end of 2023. Based on t

he BBC psychological thriller of the same name, Netflix will be releasing a film adaptation of Luther in March. Written by series creator Neil Cross and directed by Jamie Payne, Luther will, as star Idris Elba noted in a conversation with Empire, "peel the onion back" on the character of Luther and broaden the scope beyond just the "gritty streets of London." "If you take me down, I'll take you down even faster and even harder." Luther enters an elite company of television shows turned into movi

es, joining Charlie's Angels, The X-Files, and Star Trek, among countless others. Elba will reprise the title role of Luther, a police detective who has to balance the horrors of his job with the genius of his procedural methods. Andy Serkis and Cynthia Erivo are set for supporting roles. Over the course of five seasons, Luther was well-received by audiences and critics alike. A BBC fan-favorite, Luther should make for a solid film adaptation, especially with the show's creator in charge of shap

ing the plot. Directed by George C. Wolfe, the sharp eye behind 2020's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Rustin is a dramatized biopic focused on the life of gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won the 2009 Oscar for best original screenplay for his Milk script, is on board to write, and Barack and Michelle Obama's company Higher Ground will oversee production. Rustin is set to place a big emphasis on Rustin's organization of the 1963 March on Washington. Colman

Domingo, who previously worked with Wolfe in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, is set to play Rustin. How Rustin will stack up against the seemingly never-ending list of biopics remains to be seen, but after his success with Ma Rainey, Wolfe appears to be the perfect man to tell the late activist's story. Produced by Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, Hollywood star Bradley Cooper will direct Maestro, a biopic about composer and humanitarian Leonard Bernstein. Cooper co-wrote the mov

ie with Josh Singer, who won an Oscar for best original screenplay in 2015 for his Spotlight script. "Leave something for the rest of us, Bradley Cooper." In addition to directing, Cooper will play Bernstein, with the film set to focus on the composer's life, especially his marriage to Felicia Montealegre, an actress who later became an anti-war advocate during the Vietnam War. Carey Mulligan will take on the role of Montealegre. A terrific supporting cast is already in place, with Jeremy Strong

, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, and Sarah Silverman set to appear. Cooper's choice to use a prosthetic nose in his portrayal of Bernstein has been met with a great deal of criticism. Canadian Jewish News reporter James Hirsh proclaimed that Cooper should not be playing Bernstein at all if he is unable to do so without the fake nose, a practical effect that plays negatively into cultural caricatures of Jewish people. Maestro will certainly generate buzz come awards season, but not without its controver

sies being held up to the light first. After helming the BBC film Marvellous, Julian Farino is returning to the director's chair for Our Man from Jersey. Mark Wahlberg is set to star, coming off his performance in Father Stu in 2022. The last time we saw Wahlberg's co-star Halle Berry was in the 2022 box office disaster Moonfall. "You are the unidentified source?" "Oh, yes." Our Man from Jersey tells the story of a blue-collar man becoming a hero overnight. Wahlberg's character, Mike, is a const

ruction worker, at least until his high school girlfriend Roxanne, played by Berry, convinces him to become a spy. Mike is a nice guy who doesn't have any interest in turning to the world of espionage, but it's not long before a do-or-die mission leaves him with no choice. J.K. Simmons, Jackie Earle Haley, Jessica De Gouw, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Alice Lee round out the cast, but few other details have been released by Netflix so far. Not much is known about Reptile yet, other than the fac

t that Grant Singer is slated to direct and the cast is full of names audiences likely wouldn't expect to see come together in the same movie. Reptile marks Singer's feature film debut, though he's spent the last nine years directing music videos for Sam Smith, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, and Troye Sivan. Reptile revolves around a man named Nichols, played by Benicio Del Toro, who is a New England detective working a mysterious case that quickly bleeds into his own personal life. The lines for Ni

chols are blurred, as he often can't tell what's real and what's not, which leads him down a dark path. The cast is brimming with big names, including Frances Fisher, Alicia Silverstone, Justin Timberlake, Eric Bogosian, Sky Ferreira, and Michael Pitt. Reptile will mark a reunion between Silverstone and Del Toro, who played each other's love interest in Excess Baggage in 1997. The Spy Kids franchise is one of the most successful live-action kids movie series of all-time, grossing over $550 milli

on worldwide over the course of four films. Spy Kids has remained dormant for 12 years, ever since creator Robert Rodriguez aimed to shift the story's focus away from Carmen and Juni Cortez, the stars of the first three films. "Thumb Thumbs and fooglies coming up the south hall." Spy Kids: Armageddon is meant to be a total reboot of the series, and Rodriguez has written the script and will be serving as director. The film will focus on how children are unintentionally helping a game developer ta

ke over the world through a destructive computer virus, and must then take matters into their own hands in order to save their families. The cast is lead by Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi, while Everly Carganilla, Connor Esterson, Billy Magnussen, and D.J. Cotrona round out the ensemble. Don't go into Spy Kids: Armageddon expecting it to be the Citizen Kane of kids espionage movies. It probably won't dazzle critics, but it'll be an action-packed adventure for families on movie night. Society of

the Snow is set to be one of the most dynamic films of 2023. The only Spanish language entry on the list, Society of the Snow is an adaptation of Pablo Vierci's book The Snow Society: The Definitive Account of the World's Greatest Survival Story, which details the experiences of the 16 survivors from the Andes flight disaster in 1972. Vierci's book is particularly emotional, as the author knew many of the survivors as a child and felt a particular connection to them. J.A. Bayona will translate

Vierci's story and documentation onto the screen. The story of the Andes flight disaster is legendary for how unfathomable the chances were that anyone could withstand the mountain range's treacherous conditions for 72 days, as well as the fact that the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism or starve. "As our friends were dying, they made us realize that we had an opportunity that they didn't. That we had a responsibility to live for them." The cast comprises mostly newcomers who don't

have any credits to their name, but interestingly, Carlos Páez, one of the real-life survivors of the flight and the youngest passenger on the plane, will play his own father in the film. Directed by MCU alums Anthony and Joe Russo, The Electric State is an adaptation of Simon Stålenhag graphic novel. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the brains behind the Chronicles of Narnia and Captain America franchises, penned the script, while horror filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti are slated

to produce. Not many details about the film have been announced, beyond the prolific ensemble cast, but the premise is said to focus on Michelle, a young girl who looks for her missing and estranged brother, who has sent her a robot from some great, unknown place. The Electric State will be half-live-action and half-animated. Frequent Netflix collaborator Millie Bobby Brown is set to play the lead role of Michelle, while Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Brian Cox, Giancarlo Esposito,

and Anthony Mackie are among the names rounding out the cast. Be on the lookout for Ke Huy Quan, who is fresh off his brilliant return to acting in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which has made him the best supporting actor favorite at the 2023 Academy Awards. After ceasing production on his hit series Mindhunter to create the blockbuster biopic Mank in 2020, David Fincher has returned to Netflix to direct The Killer, an adaptation of Alexis Nolent's graphic novel series of the same name. F

incher has been attached to Nolent's book since as early as 2007, the project bouncing from various production companies before landing at Netflix's feet. Only Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton have been announced as principal cast members. Audiences last saw Fassbender in 2019, when he played Magneto in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Swinton had a busy 2022, as she performed in Three Thousand Years of Longing and The Eternal Daughter, as well as voicing the role of the Wood Sprite in Guillermo del Tor

o's Pinocchio. "To save you, he became a real boy, and real boys don't come back." Nolent's series tells the story of a nameless assassin who makes calculated decisions quietly. Later revealed to be named Christian, he doesn't have many goals, except for making enough money to retire and leave the public eye completely. Nolent's work is meant to test the limits in which audiences can feel empathy for a bad person. If any director is capable of making that premise work on the big screen, it's Fin

cher, who found great success with dark, brutal dramas, including Fight Club, Zodiac, and Gone Girl. Audiences haven't seen Anthony Stacchi in the director's chair since 2014, when he co-directed The Boxtrolls with Graham Annable. "First things first. Off with the box." "Ahhhh!" Known mostly for his work behind the camera, Stacchi has built a long, storied career as a storyboard artist and visual effects creator. He got his start on Back to the Future in 1985, and has since worked on projects as

varied as Hook, James and the Giant Peach, Antz, and Ghost. The Monkey King focuses on the titular Monkey King, who must travel near and far to get his staff back from the wretched Dragon King. Screenwriter Steven Benchich, who wrote Brother Bear, Chicken Little, and Open Season, penned the script, his first since Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore in 2010. The Monkey King marks Benchich and Stacchi's first collaboration since 2006. A great cast is already in place, featuring BD Wong, Jim

my O. Yang, and Bowen Yang, and Stephanie Hsu. The Monkey King will mark the first performance for Hsu after Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is putting her in the conversation for best supporting actress at the Academy Awards, as per Variety. Matt Charman is back for his first feature film since 2015, when he co-wrote the script for Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies with the Coen Brothers. Charman secured an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay, but has been awfully quiet sinc

e. Charman's new movie, The Mothership, follows a single mother, Sara, played by Halle Berry, and her kids, who stumble upon an extraterrestrial on their property. Sara's husband disappeared without a trace a year earlier, and she believes her new discovery will help bring him, or the truth of his whereabouts, home. This marks Berry's second collaboration with Netflix in 2023, along with Our Man from Jersey, in which she stars alongside Mark Wahlberg. Molly Parker, Omari Hardwick, and Sydney Lem

mon are among the names that will round out the cast. Parker is set to have a strong 2023, as she will also play Mary Darling in Disney's Peter Pan & Wendy. Hardwick was last seen in the TV series Pieces of Her, while Lemmon appeared in Tàr, alongside Cate Blanchett. A release date hasn't been set yet, but expect The Mothership to arrive sometime in late 2023.