A fantastic year of series is behind us and Netflix produced lots of highlights again in 2024. But what innovations can series fans look forward to on Netflix in 2025 that promise fresh stories in addition to dozens of new seasons of hits like Stranger Things, The Witcher or Wednesday?
We took a look at the over 100 new Netflix series in 2025 and one Selection of 20 upcoming series highlights put together that are supposed to start this year and that you should definitely make a note of. Whether you like science fiction, exciting crime novels, gripping thrillers or epic westerns: there is something for every series taste.
1. Netflix highlight 2025: Adolescence
In Adolescence, 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested for allegedly murdering a classmate. But the dark subject matter is not the only exciting thing about the British miniseries. After lead actor Stephen Graham and director Philip Barantini already appeared in the one-shot film Yes, Chef! worked together, each of the four episodes of their Netflix project is told in a long sequence without editing.
2. Netflix highlight 2025: American Primeval
If you already miss Yellowstone and its rough prequel 1883, you should make a note of this western series. American Primeval highlights brutal conflicts in the 19th century Wild West through the stories of diverse characters from different cultures and religions. Well-known stars like Taylor Kitsch, Dane DeHaan and Betty Gilpin are in front of the camera. The series was written by The Revenant author Mark L. Smith. Directed by Peter Berg.
3. Netflix highlight 2025: Bet
Netflix has already produced several successful live-action adaptations of manga and anime. After One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho and Alice in Borderland, what awaits us next is the English-language film adaptation of the manga series Kakegurui about an elite boarding school where the children of rich parents determine the social hierarchy at the school through gambling. Simon Barry, the creator of the fantasy series Warrior Nun, is behind the project.
4. Netflix highlight 2025: Black Rabbit
Three years after the end of Ozark, Jason Bateman returns to star (and direct) a new Netflix series alongside Jude Law. In Black Rabbit, Bateman doesn’t play a criminal genius, but rather the shattered Vince, who throws his brother’s life in New York into chaos.
5. Netflix highlight 2025: Bone Palace
With the spy thriller Bone Palace we could soon be expecting a kind of German The Night Agent. We follow two former BND agents (Felix Kramer and Susanne Wolff) who monitor a safe house in Berlin. When their cover is blown one day, they find themselves directly in the crosshairs of vengeful spies and assassins.
6. Netflix highlight 2025: Cassandra
The miniseries Cassandra will soon show us what a Black Mirror episode from Germany could look like, in which a small family’s new home soon turns into a nightmare. Because the oldest smart home in Germany is not only equipped with retro charm and screens in every room, but also an artificial intelligence that, after 50 years of loneliness, can finally serve a new family – and never wants to let them go.
7. Netflix highlight 2025: Department Q
Crime fans are familiar with the cases of Special Department Q from six film adaptations of the Danish Carl Morck series by the writer Jussi Adler-Olsen. The original is now getting an English-language adaptation on Netflix, which has investigator Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) reopening old murder cases in Edinburgh, Scotland, no longer in Copenhagen. Behind the series remake is Scott Frank, who previously produced the series Godless and The Queen’s Gambit for Netflix.
8. Netflix highlight 2025: Eternauta
A particularly exciting science fiction series on Netflix comes from Argentina and is a film adaptation of the comic El Eternauta, first published in 1957, in which a deadly snowfall wipes out all life that touches it. A group of survivors must now fight for the future of humanity in this alien-created post-apocalypse. Since 1968, numerous attempts to film the material have failed – until now.
9. Netflix highlight 2025: House of Guinness
With Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight impressively brought the rough Birmingham of the 1920s and 30s to life. With House of Guinness, the series creator now turns to the world of 19th century beer brewers and creates a complex family portrait of four siblings whose lives are steered into new directions after the death of their father Benjamin Guinness.
10. Netflix highlight 2025: Beyond Eden
After blockbuster appearances in the MCU and Dune universe, Florence Pugh can next be seen in her first leading role in a Netflix series, which adapts John Steinbeck’s classic novel East of Eden as a miniseries. Also joining the cast of the epic family saga are Challengers star Mike Faist, Ciarán Hinds and Christopher Abbott.
11. Netflix highlight 2025: Last Samurai Standing
One of the most exciting Japanese Netflix productions launching in 2024 is the action series Last Samurai Standing, which takes place in a brutal battle royale in 1878. In it, 292 fierce samurai compete against each other to win prize money of 100 billion yen.
12. Netflix highlight 2025: Man under fire
AJ Quinell’s novel Man Under Fire has already been the inspiration for two feature films. Action thriller fans are particularly familiar with the 2004 version, in which Denzel Washington as ex-soldier John W. Creasy has to save a young Dakota Fanning. The Netflix new edition with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II wants to go further and also adapt other books in the five-part Creasy novel series.
13. Netflix highlight 2025: Monster: Ed Gein
The true crime series Dahmer – Monster and Monster: Lyle and Erik Menendez were incredible successes for Netflix and the next “season” will start in 2025. The new miniseries in the monster anthology follows the story of notorious murderer Ed Gein, portrayed by Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam.
14. Netflix highlight 2025: Out of the Dust
Fans of psychological thrillers and cults should note the new series Out of the Dust, which counts Sex Education star Asa Butterfield as well as Christopher Eccleston and Fra Fee in the cast. The story follows an escaped prisoner who seeks refuge with a Christian community and ends up right at the center of a dangerous cult.
15. Netflix highlight 2025: Pulse
Is the Netflix version of Grey’s Anatomy coming soon? Pulse is a hospital series that follows the medical and romantic emergencies of the staff at a clinic according to the case-of-the-week principle – not in Seattle, but in sunny Miami. The cast includes Willa Fitzgerald (Reacher), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Jessica Rothe (Happy Deathday) and Justina Machado (Six Feet Under).
16. Netflix highlight 2025: The Abandons
If you haven’t gotten enough of the Wild West of the 19th century after the January launch of American Primeval, then the new series project from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter will quench your Western thirst. The story takes you to the 1850s and follows a matriarch (Lena “Cersei” Headey) who, together with her four adopted children, has to defend her estate in Oregon against greedy aristocrats.
17. Netflix highlight 2025: The Boroughs
There are two reasons why series fans should look forward to The Boroughs. On the one hand, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer are behind the project as producers. The series creators are also exciting: The sci-fi story about a group of pensioners who are confronted with an extraterrestrial threat was developed by Jeffrey Addis and Will Matthews, who previously created the breathtaking fantasy epic The Dark Crystal for Netflix brought.
18. Netflix highlight 2025: The One Piece
After the live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s legendary pirate saga, Netflix will soon be releasing an anime remake of One Piece. In contrast to the anime series, which has been running since 1999, the beginnings of Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Gang from the Eastblue saga are retold in a tighter 25-episode form and with a new animation style.
19. Netflix highlight 2025: The Residence
Will The Residence be Netflix’s next big hit? The chances are good, because producer Shonda Rhimes has scored a hit every time with her previous Netflix productions Bridgerton, Inventing Anna and Queen Charlotte. In this whodunnit crime series with a difference, we follow a detective who has to solve a murder in the most famous mansion in the world: the White House.
20. Netflix highlight 2025: Zero Day
Robert De Niro as a retired US president who returns to action after a global cyber attack: That alone is enough to know that Zero Day could become a Netflix highlight. Do you need any more reasons? Jesse Plemons, Connie Britton, Lizzy Caplan, Dan Stevens and Angela Bassett (as the current president!) are also part of the well-known cast of the six-part conspiracy thriller series.
We’ll introduce you to a few series highlights in the podcast that you don’t have to wait for:
Podcast: The best series of 2024 in review
From series blockbusters to absolute insider tips: In the Moviepilot podcast, we introduce you to the 24 best series that were to be discovered in 2024.
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Whether it’s the high-flying video game Fallout, a fantastic return of The Walking Dead, the visually stunning Arcane finale or brilliant sci-fi discoveries: as series fans, you shouldn’t miss these highlights on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Co.