Netflix Producing New Drama Series Set in Famed Ski Town

Netflix is turning its attention towards ski towns and, no, we’re not talking about the company’s co-founder, Reed Hastings, and his purchase of Powder Mountain, Utah. 

A new series called Queenstown, set and shot in the titular New Zealand ski locale, following “a wealthy family at war with itself,” is in production, according to Tudum, Netflix’s companion site. 

While the press release was otherwise scant on plot details, it did add that beneath the glamour of Queenstown’s luxury ski scene, a privileged family and the people who work for them “collide over power, loyalty, and desire” across eight episodes. 

Could that mean White Lotus meets Succession? Perhaps. We certainly aren’t the only ones who’ve thought that ski towns and their often funky collisions between well-heeled clientele and hard-working resort operators might make for entertaining television. 

Queenstown stars Rufus Sewell and Frances O’Connor, who you may recognize from The Diplomat and Wednesday, respectively.

“Shooting our first locally commissioned series here in New Zealand is a huge moment for us,” Netflix Australia and New Zealand content director Amanda Duthie said, in part. “This is a bold, propulsive story of power, class and family set against the opulent world of a luxury ski town, and we can’t wait for our members to fall in love with this series the way we have.”

Tudum didn’t share a release date for Queenstown, suggesting those interested in the show “stay tuned for more updates as production ramps up.”

Located on New Zealand’s South Island, Queenstown sits below four well-known ski areas—Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Cardrona, and Treble Cone—making it one of the southern hemisphere’s premier ski hot spots for both locals and international visitors.

Once released, Queenstown will join a long lineage of ski town movie and TV show depictions. The ski town comedy was once a classic genre—look to Dumb and Dumber or Hot Dog…The Movie—that more recently got revived with Weak Layers, a project from comedian, actress, and director Katie Burrell. 

Even with these movies, though, there’s plenty of room for a fresh and, in this case, dramatic, take on what happens after the chairlifts stop spinning. Queenstown has the opportunity to do just that.

Related: One Man Is Preserving Freeskiing’s History, and It’s All Online