After more than 10 years of streaming content to the country, Netflix has kicked off production on its first original series ever commissioned in New Zealand. On Friday, the company unveiled Queenstown, an eight-episode drama set amid the luxury ski scene of the titular South Island resort town.
Unfolding amid the moneyed gloss of the town’s ski-resort elite, the series follows a privileged family and the people who work for them as their lives collide over power, loyalty and desire — or, as Netflix put it, “a wealthy family at war with itself.” Production is underway on location in Queenstown itself.
Queenstown was created and written by Chloe Stearns (Wolf Like Me, The Falling Girls, Evergreen), who executive produces. Glendyn Ivin (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Penguin Bloom) serves as lead director and executive producer, with New Zealand filmmaker Roseanne Liang (Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender) also directing.
Emmy nominee Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat, Scoop, The Father) leads the ensemble alongside Frances O’Connor (Wednesday, The Missing), Australian actress Alycia Debnam-Carey (Apple Cider Vinegar, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova) and New Zealand actor Te Kohe Tuhaka (Chief of War, The Convert, Kōkā).
“Shooting our first locally-commissioned series here in New Zealand is a huge moment for us,” said Amanda Duthie, Netflix’s content director for Australia and New Zealand. “This is a bold, propulsive story of power, class and family set against the opulent world of a luxury ski town, and we can’t wait for our members to fall in love with this series the way we have.”
Jodi Matterson (The Dry, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) — who launched her Silent Firework banner in 2024 after exiting Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories — executive produces alongside Libbie Doherty (Bluey, Crazy Fun Park) of Runaway Unicorn, with Jeremy Platt and Erika North rounding out the exec producer team.
Matterson and Doherty, in a joint statement, hailed Stearns as “an extraordinary new voice” — and predicted the series will become “audiences’ next obsession.”
The commission marks a notable step for Netflix’s originals strategy Down Under, which has so far centered on Australia with hits including Heartbreak High, Boy Swallows Universe and Apple Cider Vinegar. New Zealand, by contrast, has long served the streamer primarily as a spectacular production location — Sweet Tooth and Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Power of the Dog both shot there — without ever hosting a homegrown series of its own. The Queenstown production is backed by the New Zealand Film Commission and the country’s Screen Production Rebate. A premiere date has yet to be announced.