12 of the Best New Things to Stream in September 2022
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe long-awaited Hocus Pocus sequel drops before October. That’s the power of Halloween.
As the summer wraps up, let’s check in with all our favorite streamers. The second annual Disney + Day, a marketing event disguised as a ‘celebration,’ is set for Sept. 8. As you probably heard, everything is totally chill at HBO Max (no it isn’t). The big thing with Netflix is that it’s no longer the giant it once was, but one cool thing is they’re sticking to their guns and releasing a long-awaited film with its NC-17 rating intact. And although Hulu may be losing 61 seasons of shows in the Real Housewives franchise, at least they’re dropping a bunch of original content next month.
Ultimately, there’s something for everyone on at least one of your preferred streaming services in September. Here are all of the best movies, series premieres, or new seasons of returning favorites that will be available to stream in September. Titles are arranged chronologically by premiere date.
To describe Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis as simply another biopic would not do it justice. This movie is a deep-fried, over-the-top ice cream sundae, and the movie leans into it. Everything about this film is too much—and it rocks.
The story follows the life of Elvis Presley, played with overwhelming stamina of Austin Butler, from the star’s impoverished birth to unglamorous death. It’s a story of addiction on many levels, namely Elvis’s endless need for the public’s love and adoration. It’s a big movie, one that suits a movie theater experience, but you can check it out in your own home right at the top of the month with HBO Max.
While you should get excited to return to Middle-earth, don’t expect to recognize anyone there. Amazon’s new $1 billion Lord of the Rings series is set long before the events of the iconic trilogy. More specifically, Jackson’s six movies and Tolkien’s books all take place in an era of time called The Third Age, while this Prime Video series takes place in The Second Age. This means no Frodo, Sam, or Aragorn.
As The A.V. Club explains, ever since the show was announced in 2017, Prime Video’s take on The Lord Of The Rings has been a rife with discourse. Any take on such a gigantic fantasy franchise is going to come with the backlash of fans, whether those fans are expressing well-meaning concern or they’re straight-up toxic trolls. We’ll have to see how the creative team behind this Lord of the Rings lives up to nigh-impossible expectations.
Adding Pinocchio to the growing list of Disney live-action remakes gives new meaning to ‘I’m a real boy,’ huh? Unlike remakes of Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, this take on Pinocchio is straight-to-streaming and debuts exclusively on Disney+. This collaboration between Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks should not be confused with Guillermo del Toro’s much darker take on the puppet character (which premieres on Netflix sometime in December).
The last time we saw Thor in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, he’d decided to join Guardians of the Galaxy. Antics were sure to ensue. Although having Taiki Waititi at the helm seemed promising, as with most Marvel movies, Thor: Love and Thunder simply tries to pack too much in. At least this film is visually striking, if lacking in comedy and depth. Still, if you need your MCU blockbuster fix, or you need to put on a movie that your family won’t fight over, Thor: Love and Thunder is on Disney+ starting Sept. 8.
Revenge? Don’t mind if I do. This film is an absolutely over-the-top dark comedy about the cutthroat Gen Z high school world. Starring Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke, two wronged girls team up to mutually seek vengeance on each other’s tormentors. It looks like the film will deal with the idea of ‘cancel culture,’ especially in terms of Mendes going after a ‘fake-woke, misogynistic’ ex-boyfriend who leaked her sex tape. Do Revenge hits Netflix on Sept. 16.
Goodnight Mommy is an English-language remake of a creepy 2014 Austrian film of the same name. This version stars Naomi Watts as the titular mommy, an unsettling figure wrapped in bandages following a hospital stay. In the film two twin brothers (played by real-life twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti) visit their mother after her recent ‘cosmetic surgery’—except the boys are convinced she’s not their real mother. While the reason for the remake is unclear, it looks like this version will be properly creepy.
If you like What We Do In The Shadows, then you should get caught up on the absurd, critically-acclaimed Los Espookys. In the first season of this dark comedy we were introduced to a zany group of friends who are in the business of creating spooky, horror-inspired experiences for their clients. The new season finds Los Espookys leader and gore enthusiast Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco) haunted by the ghost of a murdered beauty pageant queen. Created by and starring Fred Armisen, Ana Fábrega and Julio Torres, season two is a long time coming due to a three-year pandemic delay. Plus, the series is bilingual (with subtitles) and features a predominantly Latino cast.
Everything is reboots these days, and it’s about damn time we made a meta show about it. Reboot comes from the real creator of Modern Family and follows a fictional Modern Family-ish sitcom cast who respond to the call for a long-awaited reboot. I’m drawn to the concept alone, but I’m particularly excited by the real-life cast, which includes Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer, Johnny Knoxville, Paul Reiser, Rachel Bloom, Calum Worthy, and Krista Marie Yu.
Starting Sept. 21, Disney+ will drop the first season of the fourth weekly series in the Star Wars universe, Andor. The prequel-to-prequel Rogue One, starring a returning Diego Luna, was originally slated to premiere in August before a last-minute delay.
Based on the best-selling YA novel by Angie Thomas (you might know her better for The Hate U Give), On The Come Up follows 16-year-old Bri (Jamila C. Gray), the daughter of a rapper whose career was cut short by gang violence. Now, Bri is doing her best to become a rapper in her own right while doing right by her father’s legacy. As she starts to find success, she also finds herself torn between the authenticity that got her this far and the ‘gangsta’ character that the industry wants her to be. Originally set to be shepherded by The Hate U Give director George Tillman, Jr., it was ultimately brought to the small screen by actress Sanaa Lathan making her directorial debut.
Netflix describes this Marilyn Monroe story as ‘boldly imaginative.’ I hope everyone keeps those keywords in mind in case this long-awaited NC-17 film is assumed to be anything close to biopic. Director Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of the Joyce Carol Oates novel inspired by (read: not accurately based on) the life of Marilyn Monroe stars Ana de Armas in the lead role. The film is a dark interpretation of what life could have been like for the real Marilyn Monroe, who is actually the real Norma Jeane Baker, who is ultimately a real, human woman who gets chewed up and spit out by her sex icon status.
And of course, people have opinions on Armas’s accent as she brings this version of Marilyn to life.
If people start to put Christmas decorations up in the fall, we should be able to start Halloween festivities in the middle of the summer. While I wait for that cultural norm to change, at least Disney+ is dropping a long-awaited Halloween sequel in September. The original Hocus Pocus is rightfully beloved (despite what some MediaDownloader editors may think). Now, Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler, and Sarah Jessica Parker all reprise their 1993 roles as the diabolical, over-the-top Sanderson sisters. Lock up your children.