Netflix Develops New Sesame Street Film, Extends Series Through Season 62

Netflix is developing a new Sesame Street film with Rideback and Sesame Workshop while extending its series deal through Season 62, anchoring a broader kids and preschool slate refresh that also expands the Gabbys Dollhouse franchise, Deadline and TheWrap reported Thursday.

Plot details for the movie remain under wraps. It would be the first theatrical-scale Sesame Street feature since The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999), following 1985s Follow That Bird. On the series side, Season 57 Volume 4 premieres Nov. 23, with Volumes 5 and 6 due in 2027, and the licensed CGI series Mecha Builders arrives Oct. 26signals that Netflix is treating Sesame Workshop as a multi-year franchise partner rather than a one-off licensing stop.

The Gabbys Dollhouse universe grows again with mixed-media companion series Doozies Doghouse, starring Gabbys sister Doozie, premiering Nov. 9. Cooking spinoff Gabbys Dollhouse: Makers and Bakers bows Dec. 9 with four holiday episodes hosted by Laila Lockhart Kraner as Gabby and judges Aidy Bryant, Justin Willman, and Melissa Villaseor, with more episodes planned for 2027. Creators and Netflix executives have pointed to Gabby’s unusually long preschool shelf life as kids stay with the show longer than typical age-band titles.

Fresh originals round out the announcement. Matthew Fernandes’ preschool series Puppy Piratesfour heroic hounds sailing to fetch lost treasure and stuffiesis in the works with a premiere date TBA. Bad Dinosaurs, from Joel Veitch, Alex Mallinson, and David Shute, was renewed for Seasons 2 and 3 with eight episodes each. Netflix Playground, the streamers kids gaming app, adds Trash Truck (Oct. 27) plus Numberblocks: Hide and Seek and KPop Demon Hunters: Ready, Set, Shine (both Sept. 29).

Speaking exclusively to TheWrap, Heather Tilert, vice president of animation series for kids and preschool, said Sesames performance has been “super resonant with families, especially in English-speaking markets while still finding audiences elsewhere. She framed Netflix Kids strategy as building chain links across agesfrom a childs first screen time through graduation out of a kids profilerather than chasing a single viral preschool hit.

That curation mindset also explains Netflix’s licensing of YouTube-native creators such as Ms. Rachel, Danny Go!, and Mark Rober, whose libraries now sit among the service’s most-watched kids titles. Tilert said the team looks for passionate creators with clear audience connection and fills category gapsDanny Go! arrived when Netflix wanted more physical, movement-oriented preschool fare without building from scratch.

For studio and streaming desks, Thursdays package underscores how Netflix is stacking IP ladders: heritage public-media brands like Sesame, evergreen preschool franchises like Gabby, creator-led imports, and adjacent games inside Playground. Extending Sesame through Season 62 while greenlighting a new film gives Rideback and Sesame Workshop a dual theatrical-and-streaming runway rare in childrens media dealmaking.

With Volume 4 of the current Sesame season weeks away and Gabby spinoffs filling the NovemberDecember window, Netflix is lining up a dense holiday kids slate designed to keep family profiles activeand, executives hope, keep parents trusting the walled garden of Netflix Kids as the default preschool destination heading into 2027.