Netflix reveals 6-part thriller limited series Below with Josh Hartnett

Polygon RSS Feed✍ Michael McWhertor📅 July 28, 2026⏱ 3 min read(24 days ago)

Overview & Key Takeaways

Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis, and Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton lead Below, a new twisty thriller coming to Netflix in October.

We're awash in underwater creature features in 2026, thanks to shark horror movies like Thrash, Deep Water, The Devil's Mouth, and Chum. But Netflix's new thriller Below appears to be taking a different approach, relying on a more mysterious underwater monster that plagues a quiet Newfoundland town. Whatever unseen beast is haunting the residents in Below appears to be gobbling up entire houseboats.

Netflix's six-part suspense thriller Below stars Josh Hartnett (Trap, Oppenheimer), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things, The New Mutants), and Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven, The Martian). Hartnett plays a fisherman named Calvin Penney who's haunted by his father's death, with Heaton cast as Calvin's son Wade. Hartnett's character appears to be the glue holding the small town together while it's terrorized by an unidentified sea creature, with Davis cast as a visiting marine biologist.

Adding extra stress to Calvin's life in this small Newfoundland town is son Wade's behavior. In the trailer, we see a naked Heaton giving a massive iceberg a full-frontal showcase before passing out. Something tells me young Wade's got a psychic connection to whatever's underneath the ocean's surface.

Here's Netflix's official description of Below, which starts streaming in October:

Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett) is a big‑hearted but stubborn fisherman living in a small Newfoundland town, who’s still haunted by his father’s mysterious death from decades ago. When an unidentified sea creature begins terrorizing his hometown, Calvin must fight to hold his close-knit community together. Determined to keep his son Wade (Charlie Heaton) and the rest of his family safe, he teams up with a visiting marine researcher (Mackenzie Davis) to confront the creature and reveal the island’s buried secrets before it’s too late. Blending local myth, thrilling suspense, and heartfelt humour, this twisty six-part limited series dives into themes of family, community, and change - both terrifying and inevitable.

Below comes from creator Jesse McKeown, who has previously written for Netflix's The Sinner and The Umbrella Academy.