Netflix Is Rebooting an 80s Cult Classic as a Series With an Unexpected Twist

Sure, why not: Netflix is turning Clue into a reality competition series. Yes, the same Clue that started as a board game, became a 1985 cult comedy, and now wants you to guess who did it on TV while people run around completing challenges. Honestly, I did not have this square on my reboot bingo card.

What Netflix ordered

The streamer has given a series order to a Clue TV reboot that plays like a live-action whodunit game. Contestants will face a mix of physical and mental tasks while trying to solve the core Clue questions: who did it, where, and with what. Get it right and you add cash to the prize pot. Get it wrong and, well, you might not be sticking around.

Because the brand is the brand, the series will also bring in the classic suspects from the board game: Mrs. Peacock, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum — the whole ominous dinner-party crowd.

Creative team, cast, and a release window are all still being kept quiet. The show is being made with Hasbro, IPC, and B17 involved on the production side.

"Like so many families and friends over the years, we have gathered around the table trying to figure out who did it — making Clue a source of nostalgia that everyone shares," Netflix executive Jeff Gaspin said. "Thanks to the incredible vision of our partners at Hasbro, IPC, and B17, we are delivering a fresh, imaginative whodunit competition that will invite today's audiences into that iconic world."

How the game plays

Think deduction meets obstacle course. Players navigate both brain teasers and physical challenges, try to outmaneuver each other, and ultimately make their accusations about the culprit, the location, and the weapon. The show promises twists, fake-outs, and those classic red herrings along the way. If you like watching people talk themselves into the wrong answer with supreme confidence, you will eat this up.

About that rights maze

Here is the slightly messy part. Back in 2022, Ryan Reynolds was attached to a new Clue movie. That version seems to have fizzled. Then in April 2024, Sony Pictures picked up rights from Hasbro Entertainment to develop both a Clue movie and a television show. So how is Netflix making a Clue series?

The simplest explanation: Netflix's project is an unscripted competition, and unscripted rights can live in a different bucket from scripted film/TV rights. No one involved is spelling that out publicly, but that kind of split happens all the time in Hollywood. Translation: expect Sony to shepherd a scripted Clue movie (and possibly a scripted series) while Netflix runs the game-show version.

Quick refresher on the 1985 movie

The original film was a murder-mystery farce set in a mansion, with guests and staff cycling through rooms, weapons, and accusations until multiple endings tied it all together. It did not light up the box office, but it became one of those movies people quote forever at parties.

• Directed by Jonathan Lynn, who also co-wrote the script with John Landis
• Cast included Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren

Between the nostalgia, the built-in rules of the game, and the reality-competition format, this is one of those ideas that feels obvious once you hear it — and also a little chaotic in a potentially fun way. Now we just need the premiere date, the host, and to find out who gets blamed in the ballroom with the candlestick.