Last month, Matt and Ross Duffer officially packed up their Upside Down Productions banner and headed off to new frontiers with Paramount after spending ten years building Stranger Thingsat Netflix. The brothers’ newest four-year overall deal kicked in with the end of their old pact in April, though they’ll still be involved with their original streaming home for a while. While they’ll focus on other feature films, television, and streaming projects under the now Skydance-owned banner, existing projects, like the recently renewed animated spin-off Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, will still be part of their itinerary. One such remaining series, an entirely new IP created and showrun by The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance helmers Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, is set to debut this month.
The Boroughs is another sci-fi horror mystery series executive produced by the Duffer Brothers that, as they previously teased at SCAD TV Fest last year, shares plenty of DNA with Stranger Things and a bit with Ron Howard‘s Cocoon. Instead of Hawkins, Indiana, the story unfolds in the New Mexico desert where the titular Boroughs lie. An idyllic retirement community where senior citizens can enjoy their golden years with some level of freedom, it seems like heaven, with pristine homes, well-manicured lawns, and plenty of activities. Alfred Molina‘s Sam Cooper sees it as little more than a well-dressed prison, but it soon proves to be much more terrifying than he could imagine.
With just over two weeks until the premiere, Netflix shared a new trailer set to David Bowie‘s “Golden Years” that pulls back the curtain on more of the monsters that come out at night. Like the first footage, it shows Sam’s begrudging arrival in the community, where everyone else has otherwise seemingly found happiness in what the Boroughs have to offer. However, his annoyance turns to fear as he starts seeing “impossible things” and nobody, save for a band of neighborhood misfits, believes him. Spindly hands and inhuman clicks hint at something otherworldly lurking just within the shadows. Sam joins with the other outcasts of the Boroughs to find both the wonders and the dark secrets of their community, knowing full well that knowledge of what’s really happening could put them all in grave danger.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
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🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
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01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
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02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
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03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
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05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
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06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
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08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
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Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
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The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
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You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
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You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
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You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
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Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
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You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
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To bring The Boroughs‘ formidable residents to life, a formidable ensemble was recruited for the occasion. Joining the Emmy-nominated Molina are Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters, Bill Pullman, Carlos Miranda, Jena Malone, Seth Numrich, and Alice Kremelberg. Additional cast members include Ed Begley Jr., Dee Wallace, Eric Edelstein, Rafael Casal, Mousa Hussein Kraish, Beth Bailey, Karan Soni, and Jane Kaczmarek. For Molina, this will be his first leading live-action television role since he starred in Prime Video’s short-lived mystery series Three Pines. It’s also a reunion for him and Netflix, after he lent his voice to the animated Greek mythology series Blood of Zeus as the titan Cronus.
The Boroughs open on Netflix on May 21. Check out the new trailer in the player above.
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Release Date
May 21, 2026
Network
Netflix
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Directors
Augustine Frizzell, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Ben Taylor
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