Published Aug 20, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT
Adam Blevins began working in the entertainment industry in 2022 as a Staff Writer for Agents of Fandom, where he progressed to Senior Editor and interviewed talent from Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He joined Collider as a News Author in April 2024, was promoted to a Senior position in December 2024, and has written over 3,000 articles for the site, including exclusives relating to Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and more. He primarily writes about the latest box office numbers and the hottest movies and TV shows on streaming, while also covering superhero and sci-fi news. He has completed a set visit for The Chosen and even has several months of experience writing Gaming Features at ScreenRant. You can find him on X, LinkedIn, and Muckrack.
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Netflix has had another successful year in 2026, with some projects even big enough to crack the streamer’s all-time top 10 most-watched list. The film in question with enough views to do so was War Machine, the sci-fi thriller starring Alan Ritchson from Reacher that fell just short of 140 million views during its first 90 days on streaming — still impressive, nonetheless. Netflix subscribers were also treated to another massive blockbuster with the premiere of Apex, the survival thriller co-starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton. While the film didn’t earn enough views to make the all-time top 10, it’s still been one of the most-watched movies of the year on streaming. Netflix is eyeing a big second half of the year as well, with several exciting new releases on the way before the calendar turns to 2027.
Netflix has invested more and more in its slate of animated content in the last few years, and it’s paid off in style, with new hits regularly landing in the top 10 as they hit the platform. One of Netflix’s tried and true animated hits to emerge a few years ago was Blue Eye Samurai, which premiered on November 3, 2023. This evening, Netflix unleashed trailers for some of its most popular animated projects, including Blue Eye Samurai, also announcing that the highly anticipated second season will officially begin streaming in January 2027. An official announcement date, along with the first full-length trailer, is expected to be released before the end of the year. The show features big names in key roles like Brenda Song, Randall Park, and even Kenneth Branagh, who have featured in other projects like Running Point, WandaVision, and Dunkirk.
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Netflix’s official synopsis for the first season of *Blue Eye Samurai *reads as follows: “In 17th-century Japan, when borders are closed to the outside world, citizens would never see a face that was not Japanese, except in rare cases of illegal trade. Our hero, Mizu (Erskine), knows there were only four white men in Japan at the time of her birth and sets off to kill these men, one of whom might be her father, who made her a “creature of shame.” But revenge is not an option for women, so Mizu must forge her revenge quest while hiding her gender as well as her blue eyes.
Mizu is joined on her journey by Ringo (Masi Oka), an overeager soba maker who dreams of greatness; Taigen (Darren Barnet), a pompous samurai whose rivalry leads to an uneasy truce; and Princess Akemi (Brenda Song), Taigen’s betrothed, whose gilded life seems a foil to Mizu’s. Her revenge quest leads us across Edo-era Japan in a provocative series that immerses the viewer in vivid adult animation with a live-action edge.”
*Blue Eye Samurai *Season 1 earned near-perfect scores of 97% from critics and 93% from audiences on the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. The show was written and created for TV by Michael Green. Amber Noizumi and Yana Bille. Check out Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Season 2.
Blue Eye Samurai ](/tag/blue-eye-samurai/)
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Michael Green, Amber Noizumi
Michael Green, Amber Noizumi