Avengers: Doomsday may have dominated the conversation yesterday, but today is all about Netflix. The streamer has been hyping up its 2026 slate, confirming that TV series like Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, Man on Fire, and Bridgerton Season 4 will all be released in the first half of this year.
On the film side, Enola Holmes 3, War Machine, and Little Brother are among the titles coming to the streaming service. There's arguably nothing to get that excited about, and the rumoured announcement of a secret, second Stranger Things finale was, obviously, false.
We don't have a confirmed premiere date, but The Witcher's fifth and final season is heading to Netflix in 2026. Season 4 drew largely mixed-to-negative reviews from fans, somewhat overshadowing Liam Hemsworth's debut as Geralt of Rivia.
Netflix has released a synopsis for The Witcher Season 5 today, revealing, "The time of the end is nigh: dark forces are aligning all across the Continent with villainous designs on Ciri. Even if Geralt and Yennefer can save their daughter and fulfill their last wish of reuniting as a family, they'll have to face obstacles — and enemies — the likes of which they've never faced before."
Alongside Hemsworth, confirmed cast members for the final season include Anya Chalotra (Yennefer of Vengerberg), Freya Allan (Princess Cirilla of Cintra), Joey Batey (Jaskier), and Laurence Fishburne (Regis).
Last November, it was reported that The Witcher Season 4 premiered on Netflix with 7.4 million views. That was a 51% decline from Season 3 and a massive 60% drop from Season 2, and pointed to a decline in interest and the obvious lack of desire many viewers had to see Hemsworth take over as Geralt of Rivia from Cavill.
The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich previously said this about how Season 4 and Season 5—which were filmed back-to-back—link up:
"We treated in the writer’s room season 4 and 5 as one large story. We knew we had to break it up in terms of how it would be launched on Netflix, but truly it’s the story of this family journey back together, and I think when we’re choosing specifically what details to include from the books, we look for a really sort of diverse sort of swath of things."
"I think obviously there are really important plot moments, but this goes kind of to the question you just asked Joey, which is we also make sure that there’s parts of the books that are just nothing but fun. We don’t want to leave all of those out either. This is where the writers are really helpful. They are scholars of the books. Everyone brings in their favorite stories, their most important passages, and we go through and we choose. And at the end of the day, it has to be 16 narrative episodes that feel cohesive."
The Witcher Season 5 will see Lauren Schmidt Hissrich return as showrunner. Executive producers include Steve Gaub, Mike Ostrowski, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Platige Films (Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko), and Hivemind Content (Jason Brown and Sean Daniel).
Check out a promo previewing Netflix's 2026 offerings in the player below.