It’s been a while since we last did a big news roundup for Netflix news but this week was so busy that we figured it’s worth doing again. Here are all the big Netflix headlines you may have missed over the past 7 days.
Rather than recapping the week by day, we’re just going to do some general headlines. Let us know in the comments if you prefer this format or whether we should revert to the daily recap.
Disney+ Closing Gap to Netflix in Subscriber Numbers
Disney+ reached 116 million subscribers in the last quarter meaning the gap to Netflix is growing increasingly smaller at least on global subscribers.
As The Entertainment Strategy Guy points out, Disney has actually likely already beaten Netflix in the United States with 69.1 million subs vs the 66.8 million Netflix subs.
Netflix Clampdown on VPNs continue
Netflix rolled out a new VPN clampdown over the past few weeks and it’s causing havoc for those both using VPNs and even those without. Countless Reddit threads and even articles are going up saying that even people’s residential IP addresses are getting caught up in the madness. With the clampdown, we suggest not to bother at all with VPNs.
Netflix Getting Exclusive JoJo Bizarre Adventure Series
Last weekend, Netflix revealed it would be getting the upcoming JoJo Bizarre Adventure series exclusively. That’s ultimately odd given that the series has been yo-yo-ing on and off of Netflix for the past year.
The new series labeled STONE OCEAN (but is effectively season 5) will drop in December 2021.
Huge casting call for Netflix reality series
Netflix’s push into reality shows continues with a giant effort announced on Monday to get you to star in their upcoming lineup of shows.
In addition to the casting call site (which gets tagged as phishing by my antivirus program), they revealed a bunch of renewals.
They’re currently casting for:
- Nailed It! Season 6
- Queer Eye Season 6
- The Circle Seasons 3, 4 & 5
- Love is Blind Seasons 2 & 3
- Dream Home Makeover Season 3
- Floor Is Lava Season 2 & 3
- Get Organized with The Home Edit Season 2
- Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo Season 2
- Indian Matchmaking Season 2
Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast & Crew Revealed
After last years rather terrible news that the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender would be leaving the Netflix project, we finally got some more upbeat news on Thursday.
The main cast members were revealed alongside some of the team behind the scenes (many of the names we’d already reported on throughout 2020 and 2021).
The cast for Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is expected to be confirmed later today with @AvatarNews_ first reporting the castings last week!
Gordon Cormier as Aang
Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara
Ian Ousley as Sokka
Dallas Liu as Zukohttps://t.co/Z1s3kpSiSG pic.twitter.com/WacMHvfXYE— What’s on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) August 12, 2021
Cooking Show High on the Hog Renewed for Season 2
Shadow and Act got the scoop on the cooking show looking at “How African American Cuisine Transformed America” will be returning for a full second season.
In a statement, Roger Ross Williams said: “It has been wonderful to see the powerful reaction audiences had to our first season and we hope to further amplify and empower the Black culinary story and experience.”
Grace and Frankie Gets Surprise Drop on Netflix
Grace and Frankie is currently deep in filming for its final bumper 16 episode season right now but in a twist of events, the first four episodes have dropped on Netflix globally on August 13th, 2021.
More surprises like this please Netflix!
More The Movies That Made Us coming in 2021 and update on Down to Earth with Zac Efron
We nabbed an interview with Brian Volk-Weiss who provides us with some updates on Nacelle Company’s output on Netflix.
He confirmed to us that:
- More episodes of The Movies That Made Us (likely Christmas episodes) will be with us before the end of the year.
- Down to Earth with Zac Efron is in post-production for three months and aimed to be delivered to Netflix by close of 2021.
Power Creator Moves to Netflix
Lionsgate can’t catch a break at the minute. In recent months they’ve lost the big Sony output deal and now they’ve lost one of their most prolific creators.
On August 11th, Courtney A. Kemp who has been involved in Power announced that she’s entered a “multi-year creative partnership” with Netflix.
Could Hotel Transylvania 4 come to Netflix?
News came on Thursday that Sony is currently looking to move (and did move in the case of Venom) its big titles from its theatrical releases given the rising delta variant.
Deadline reported that Sony could be eyeing selling the fourth Hotel Transylvania movie (which notably doesn’t include Adam Sandler) to a streamer. Given Netflix has been the buyer of three Sony animated movies this year (The Mitchells vs The Machines, Wish Dragon, and most recently Vivo) could Hotel Translyvania follow suit?
Trailer of the Week – Midnight Mass
We’re huge fans of Mike Flanagan here at What’s on Netflix. In fact, we believe he’s one of the best creators to have signed with Netflix under an overall deal with a superb slate of content available on or soon to come to Netflix.
Released on Monday, the first teaser trailer gives you a look at the isolated island you’ll be heading into in the new limited series coming to Netflix on September 24th.
Rumor of the Week – Dishonored Netflix Project
Netflix is going all-in on video games, that we know. However, this week, a rumor from Giant Freakin Robot suggests that the Bethesda video game Dishonored from Arkane Studios could be next.
Pinch of salt on this one of course but given the wide range of video game projects we’ve heard about yet to be announced, it could very well be true.
Other Netflix Headlines for This Week
- Kids Cosmic set its second season release date for September 7th with a third season also confirmed
- Into The Night season 2 set a September 8th release.
And finally, before you go, check out an opinion piece we published yesterday which argues Netflix really needs to be leaning in on its established social media brands within the app in future years.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!