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Netflix has a big problem in the pipeline. It is, admittedly, a very good problem to have. See, their 2025 is going to be absolutely jam-packed with new seasons of some of their biggest hits. We’re talking new episodes of at least five different shows that rank among their most popular series, meaning 2025 could be the year Netflix finally catches up with the backlog caused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

During an earnings call in late July 2024, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed what most of us had already assumed – Stranger Things season five isn’t coming out until sometime in 2025. This isn’t surprising since they posted in July 2024 that they were only around halfway through filming the season. Already Netflix has confirmed that 2025 is giving us: 

• Cobra Kai Season 6 – Part 3
• Stranger Things Season 5
• One Piece Season 2
• Wednesday Season 2
• Sandman Season 2

This is a remarkably packed line-up for the streamer and equates to a major release close to every two months, and that is before we potentially get the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2025 as well. It is certainly a more packed release schedule than we saw in 2024, where there were frequent lulls in between major releases for the streamer. While we have to give some credit to Netflix for growing their slate of original programming over the years, a big reason they’re releasing so many shows so quickly is that they’ve had a backlog of shows coming out.

It is perhaps the most visible evidence of how the 2023 Hollywood strikes absolutely decimated original programming for Netflix. Both Wednesday and Stranger Things were massively impacted by the strikes, with production either halting completely or never starting on new seasons despite their previous seasons taking the top two spots in Netflix's all-time streaming charts.

Similarly, writing on Cobra Kai season six and production on Sandman season two both came to a screeching halt when Hollywood writers went on strike in 2023. The only show on this list that wasn’t directly impacted by the strikes was One Piece, which came out just as the actors’ strike was ending – which prevented the cast from doing any major publicity for it.

What does this all tell us? For one, we know that 2025 is going to be a massive year for Netflix, though we worry about them trying to release everything so that the likes of Stranger Things and Wednesday don’t suck up all the oxygen from the other shows. Those two shows are likely to dominate the top of the Netflix charts for at least a month after their initial release, meaning that anything released in the two months before or after will be impacted. This is probably why Avatar: The Last Airbender’s second season won’t be out until 2026 – there is just too much happening in 2025.

But it also tells us that the strikes by Hollywood writers and actors that brought the industry to a halt in 2023 were actually very effective. Except for One Piece season two, all of these shows should have come out either in late 2023 or sometime in 2024, which would have felt like a more sustainable release schedule. Rather than sit on completed shows, Netflix is pushing a lot of content out – potentially to the detriment of its other shows.

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