15 Net­flix Orig­i­nals to look out for in 2019

In case your diary wasn’t already full enough with release dates for must-see upcom­ing films and TV shows, we’ve scoured Netflix’s upcom­ing slate to bring you 15 Orig­i­nals we think could be worth catch­ing. It’s a pret­ty eclec­tic mix, too, with new projects from the likes of Ava DuVer­nay and Steven Soder­bergh all arriv­ing on the stream­ing site in 2019.

Eta 1 March

Chi­we­tel Ejio­for writes, directs and stars in this dra­ma about a Malaw­ian boy’s effort to build a wind tur­bine for his vil­lage, based on the true sto­ry of William Kamk­wam­ba. Hav­ing worked along­side the likes of Steve McQueen and Rid­ley Scott in the past, here’s hop­ing some of that mag­ic has rubbed off on Ejio­for for his first stint in the director’s chair. RM

Eta 22 March

We’ve been treat­ed to many a music film in recent years, what with Bohemi­an Rhap­sody dom­i­nat­ing the box office and recent Gold­en Globes, and A Star is Born gar­ner­ing nom­i­na­tions galore. Now, Jack­ass alum­ni Jeff Tremaine is tack­ling the sto­ry of how Möt­ley Crüe became one of the most suc­cess­ful – and noto­ri­ous – rock bands in his­to­ry. Amer­i­can rap­per Machine Gun Kel­ly joins Dou­glas Booth, Iwan Rheon and Daniel Web­ber in the cast. RM

Eta TBC

His sec­ond film of 2019, Steven Soderbergh’s High Fly­ing Bird con­cerns a sports agent pitch­ing an intrigu­ing and con­tro­ver­sial busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ty dur­ing a lock­out. Penned by Moon­light writer Tarell Alvin McCraney and star­ring the likes of Zazie Beetz and Kyle MacLach­lan, you can be sure this won’t be a run-of-the-mill sports movie. RM

Eta TBC

The ear­ly word on this ani­mat­ed com­e­dy is extreme­ly pos­i­tive. It fol­lows two 30-year-old ​“bird women” who live in the same apart­ment build­ing: Tuca (voiced by Tiffany Had­dish), a cocky, care­free tou­can, and Bertie (Ali Wong), an anx­ious, absent-mind­ed song­bird. BoJack Horse­man pro­duc­tion design­er Lisa Hanawalt cre­at­ed the 10-episode series, with Raphael Bob-Waks­berg lend­ing his ser­vices as exec­u­tive pro­duc­er. AW

Eta TBC

The Stephen King cin­e­mat­ic uni­verse ticks along with anoth­er offer­ing from West­world reg­u­lar Vin­cen­zo Natali. In Kansas, Patrick Wil­son and com­pa­ny hear calls for help, before dis­ap­pear­ing into the tall grass. Net­flix has a strong rep­u­ta­tion for doing obscure King prop­er­ties jus­tice, as was vis­i­ble in Gerald’s Game and 1922, so the prospect of the ser­vice tack­ling anoth­er is doubt­less promis­ing. RM

Eta TBC

Announced in August 2018, this eight-part series stars Paul Rudd in a dual role as a man who under­goes an exper­i­men­tal treat­ment in order to become a bet­ter per­son – only to find that he’s been replaced by a new and marked­ly improved ver­sion of him­self. Showrun­ner Tim­o­thy Green­berg has promised prat­falls aplen­ty from this high-con­cept dop­pel­gänger com­e­dy. AW

Eta TBC

The most suc­cess­ful blax­ploita­tion crossover movies ever made, Shaft has seen mul­ti­ple remakes and sequels down the years. In Ride Along direc­tor Tim Story’s lat­est iter­a­tion, Samuel L Jack­son dons the icon­ic trench coat once more to solve the mys­tery sur­round­ing the death of a friend. Con­sid­er­ing the tal­ent involved, we’re hop­ing jus­tice is done to this beloved char­ac­ter. RM

Eta TBC

Amer­i­can Dad! pro­duc­er Nah­natch­ka Khan makes her fea­ture debut with this roman­tic com­e­dy about two child­hood friends who grow up and fall in love. Khan’s accom­plished tele­vi­sion career inspires hope that she’ll han­dle the tran­si­tion to film just as suc­cess­ful­ly. Ali Wong and Ran­dall Park play the cou­ple in ques­tion, with Keanu Reeves adding sup­port. RM

Eta TBC

The Cen­tral Park jog­ger case is one of the most noto­ri­ous in US crim­i­nal his­to­ry, so the prospect of a drama­ti­sa­tion from Ava DuVer­nay (Sel­ma, 13^th) is a tan­ta­lis­ing one. The series, which is being writ­ten and direct­ed by DuVer­nay, will recount the 1989 arrest and sub­se­quent (incor­rect) pros­e­cu­tion of five black and Lati­no teens from Harlem for the rape of a white woman in the epony­mous NYC park. The series boasts an ensem­ble cast includ­ing Jovan Ade­po, Chris Chalk, Michael K Williams, Vera Farmi­ga, John Leguizamo, Felic­i­ty Huff­ma and Storm Reid. AW

Eta 25 January

Imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing his heavy met­al out­ing Lords of Chaos, Jonas Aker­lund returns with this adap­ta­tion of Vic­tor San­tos’ graph­ic nov­el. In what sounds like his take on John Wick, a mas­ter assas­sin is forced back into action to con­front a group of his sub­or­di­nates. Throw­ing Mads Mikkelsen into the mix, this has poten­tial to be a high­light of Netflix’s 2019 slate. RM

Eta TBC

Very lit­tle is known about Michael Bay’s upcom­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with Net­flix, besides it being their most expen­sive orig­i­nal to date, bud­get­ed at $150 mil­lion. Afford­ing the fre­net­ic direc­tor free-reign, as well as an all-star cast includ­ing Ryan Reynolds and Melanie Lau­rent, this will be one for adren­a­line junkies to keep their wary eye on. RM

Eta TBC

Music video direc­tor Chris Robin­son helms this dra­ma about a musi­cal prodi­gy and his man­ag­er shak­ing off their dif­fer­ences to free each oth­er from the demons of their past. Antho­ny Ander­son stars in what looks to be a col­lab­o­ra­tion per­fect­ly suit­ed to this actor-direc­tor pair­ing. RM

Eta 1 February

In what sounds like a dark update on Ground­hog Day, Russ­ian Doll sees Natasha Lyonne play a young woman who gets stuck in a mys­te­ri­ous loop of hav­ing to attend the same par­ty in New York City each night. The actor co-cre­at­ed this eight-part series along­side Amy Poehler and Leslye Head­land, who all serve as exec­u­tive pro­duc­ers. Most excit­ing­ly, it reunites Lyonne with her But I’m a Cheer­leader direc­tor Jamie Bab­bit. AW

Eta TBC

Eddie Mur­phy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the star of 1975’s blax­ploita­tion clas­sic Dolemite in this docu­d­ra­ma from Hus­tle & Flow direc­tor Craig Brew­er. Along­side Wes­ley Snipes and Kee­gan-Michael Key, and a script from Ed Wood writ­ers Scott Alexan­der and Lar­ry Karaszews­ki, this is shap­ing up to be a top­i­cal­ly unique doc­u­men­tary, and per­haps a vehi­cle for Murphy’s come­back. RM

Eta TBC

Ser­gio Pab­los takes up the direc­to­r­i­al reigns for the first time in this ani­mat­ed film about a post­man in a frozen north­ern town who acci­den­tal­ly comes across San­ta Claus. With a dis­tinct visu­al style and star-stud­ded voice cast, includ­ing Rashi­da Jones and JK Sim­mons, Klaus could be Netflix’s next ani­mat­ed hit. RM