Netflix apparently doesn’t want you to go outside again before 2022, given how much stuff they’re cramming onto their service in December: with new seasons of past breakouts, star-studded original films, comedy specials, and so much reality TV, who needs reality? Reality is depressing!
Without a doubt, the month’s biggest drop is season two of The Witcher (Dec. 17), the heavy metal answer to Game of Thrones that turned out to be the surprise worldwide genre TV hit of 2019. Based on the novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the series succeeds by embracing the weirder elements of epic fantasy, none of this “actually it’s more of a historical drama with light magic” shit. Just check out that trailer: we’ve got dragons and monsters of all sizes, giant tree people, a disturbingly alive flaming body, houses that move, and even a (gasp) foregrounded female protagonist in Ciri (Freya Allan), who will spend less time running this season and more time honing her powers alongside Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia. Fun but not jokey, serious but not dour, and decidedly weird. More fantasy like this, please.
And speaking of fantasy, Netflix is also debuting another season of Emily in Paris (Dec. 22), which I have not seen but which I have come to understand is the hate-watch that got a lot of you through the early part of the pandemic. And hey, the pandemic is…still not over, so you could probably use somewhere to channel your hate.
The year-end film slate is also worth highlighting, if only for two Oscar hopefuls. Don’t Look Up stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers who discover a large asteroid hurtling toward Earth and are increasingly disturbed when no one seems to take the threat seriously, which is funny because in real life governments always take such existential threats seriously and never totally drop the ball when billions of lives are at stake. Also the cast includes basically every Oscar winner writer/director Adam McKay (The Big Short) has ever met, which is pretty neat.
Far more low-key, if no less buzzy or star-packed, is The Power of Dog (Dec. 1), a grim-looking new western from New Zealand director Jane Campion (The Piano) that stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and lots more familiar faces.
If you want to watch a movie that might actually make you feel good, I can highly recommend Hilda and the Mountain King (Dec. 30), a feature-length continuation of the animated series Hilda, which is simply one of the most delightful pieces of children’s entertainment I have ever tried to force my kids to appreciate on as many levels as I do.
All that, plus a bunch of new comedy specials (including the first from national treasure Nicole Byer), more of the Great British Baking Show, and a bunch more holiday content, including a Shaun the Sheep Christmas special. I’m never going outside again!
Here’s everything else coming to Netflix at the end of 2021.
What’s coming to Netflix in December 2021
Table of Contents
Coming soon (no date announced)
Arriving Dec. 1
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: STONE OCEAN — Netflix Anime
- Kayko and Kokosh — Netflix Family
- Kayko and Kokosh: Season 2 — Netflix Family
- Lost in Space: Season 3 — Netflix Series
- The Power of the Dog — Netflix Film
- Are You The One: Season 3
- Blood and Bone
- Body of Lies
- Bordertown: Mural Murders
- Chloe
- Chocolat
- Closer
- Death at a Funeral
- Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
- The Final Destination
- Final Destination 3
- Final Destination 5
- Fool’s Gold
- The Fourth Kind
- Ink Master: Season 3
- Ink Master: Season 4
- Knight Rider 2000
- Knight Rider: Seasons 1-4
- Law Abiding Citizen
- The Legend of Zorro
- Life
- Looper
- The Mask of Zorro
- Minority Report
- Pet Sematary (1989)
- Premonition
- Sabrina (1995)
- Soul Surfer
- Stepmom
- Stuart Little 2
- Sucker Punch
- Think Like a Man
- Tremors
- We Were Soldiers
- Wild Things
- Wyatt Earp
Arriving Dec. 2
Arriving Dec. 3
Arriving Dec. 5
- JAPAN SINKS: People of Hope: Season 1 (episode 8)
Arriving Dec. 6
Arriving Dec. 7
Arriving Dec. 8
Arriving Dec. 9
Arriving Dec. 10
Arriving Dec. 11
Arriving Dec. 12
- JAPAN SINKS: People of Hope: Season 1 (episode 9)
Arriving Dec. 13
Arriving Dec. 14
Arriving Dec. 15
- Black Ink Crew New York: Seasons 3-4
- The Challenge: Season 12
- The Challenge: Season 25
- Elite Short Stories: Phillipe Caye Felipe — Netflix Series
- The Giver
- The Hand of God — Netflix Film
- Masha and the Bear: Nursery Rhymes: Season 1 Part 2
- Masha and the Bear: Season 5
- Selling Tampa — Netflix Series
- Teen Mom 2: Seasons 3-4
Arriving Dec. 16
Arriving Dec. 17
Arriving Dec. 18
Arriving Dec. 19
- What Happened in Oslo — Netflix Series
Arriving Dec. 20
- Elite Short Stories: Samuel Omar — Netflix Series
Arriving Dec. 21
Arriving Dec. 22
Arriving Dec. 23
- Elite Short Stories: Patrick — Netflix Series
Arriving Dec. 24
Arriving Dec. 25
Arriving Dec. 26
Arriving Dec. 28
- Word Party Presents: Math! — Netflix Family
Arriving Dec. 29
Arriving Dec. 30
- Kitz — NETFLIX SERIES
- Hilda and the Mountain King — Netflix Film
Arriving Dec. 31
What’s leaving Netflix in December 2021
Leaving Dec. 3
- The Last O.G.: Seasons 1-2
Leaving Dec. 4
Leaving Dec. 7
Leaving Dec. 8
- It Comes at Night
- Mariah Carey’s Merriest Christmas
Leaving Dec. 13
- Halt and Catch Fire: Seasons 1-4
Leaving Dec. 13
- Fifty: The Series: Seasons 1-2
- Saint Seiya: Seasons 1-6
Leaving Dec. 15
- Lee Daniels’ The Butler
- Maps to the Stars
- The Theory of Everything
Leaving Dec. 21
- Jacob’s Ladder
- Private Practice: Seasons 1-6
Leaving Dec. 25
Leaving Dec. 30
Leaving Dec. 31
- A Cinderella Story
- American Gangster
- Beethoven
- Beethoven’s 2nd
- Charlie’s Angels
- Cold Mountain
- Defiance
- The Devil Inside
- Do the Right Thing
- Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
- Double Jeopardy
- Forensic Files: Collections 1-9
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Parts 1-5
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Season 1
- Ghost
- Gladiator
- The Great British Baking Show: The Beginnings: Season 1
- House Party
- House Party 2
- House Party 3
- Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
- The Last Airbender
- Like Crazy
- Love Don’t Cost a Thing
- Love Jones
- The Lovely Bones
- The Machinist
- Magnolia
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- My Fair Lady
- Mystic Pizza
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Puss in Boots
- Rumor Has It…
- Serendipity
- Spy Kids
- Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
- Spy Kids 3: Game Over
- Stuart Little
- The Strangers
- Titanic
- Tommy Boy
- Underworld
- Underworld: Awakening
- Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
- What a Girl Wants
- What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
- Zodiac