Logo text
After more than 10 years of streaming content into the country, Netflix has begun production of its first-ever original series in New Zealand. The company revealed on Friday Queenstownan eight-episode drama set amidst the luxury ski scene of the titular South Island resort.
Unfolding amid the financial sheen of the city’s elite ski resorts, 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 puts it, “a wealthy family at war with itself.” Production is currently taking place on location in Queenstown itself.
Queenstown Created and written by Chloe Stearns (The wolf is like me, Fallen girls, Evergreen), which executive produces. Glendin Evin (Lost Flowers by Alice Hart, Penguin Bloom) serves as lead director and executive producer with New Zealand director Roseanne Liang (Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender) Also guidance.
Emmy Award Nominee Rufus Sewell (Diplomat, scoop, father(He leads the band alongside Francis O’Connor)Wednesday, Missing people), Australian actress Alicia Debnam-Carey (Apple cider vinegar, Lost Flowers by Alice Hart, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova) and New Zealand actor Te Kohei Tohaka (War chief, Conversion, Coca).
“Filming our first locally commissioned series here in New Zealand is a big moment for us,” said Amanda Duthie, Netflix Director of Content for Australia and New Zealand. “This is a bold, uplifting 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 do.”
Judy Matterson (Dry, Lost Flowers by Alice Hart) — which launched its Silent Firework banner in 2024 after exiting Bruna Papandrea’s Made Stories — and executive produces alongside Libby Doherty (bluish, Crazy fun park) from Runaway Unicorn, with Jeremy Platt and Erica North completing the executive producing team.
In a joint statement, Matterson and Doherty praised Stearns as an “extraordinary new voice” — and predicted the series would become “audiences’ next obsession.”
This commission represents a notable step for Netflix’s original strategy Down Under, which has so far focused on Australia with significant success including High heartbreak, The boy swallows the universe and Apple cider vinegar. By contrast, New Zealand has long served the broadcaster primarily as a spectacular production location – Sweet tooth And an Oscar for Jane Campion Dog power Both were filmed there – without hosting a local series of its own. the Queenstown The production is supported by the New Zealand Film Commission and the country’s Screen Productions Discount. A premiere date has not yet been announced.
