Below Netflix: Release Date, Cast, Plot, Trailer and Filming Locations

Below premieres on Netflix on October 8, 2026. The six-episode limited thriller stars Josh Hartnett as Newfoundland fisherman Calvin Penney, Charlie Heaton as his son Wade and Mackenzie Davis as marine researcher Fonda Howander. The story follows a small coastal community fighting a mysterious sea creature while confronting family fractures and buried local secrets.

Below is one of Netflix’s most distinctive upcoming thrillers because it combines a creature feature with a family drama rooted in coastal Newfoundland. Rather than placing an anonymous monster in a generic town, creator Jesse McKeown builds the story around a fishing community whose identity and livelihood are already under pressure before something dangerous appears in the water.

The series has a compact six-episode format and a cast led by Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis and Charlie Heaton. Netflix’s first-look material presents a story that mixes local myth, suspense, humour and an emotional conflict between a stubborn father and the family he is struggling to keep together.

Below should appeal to viewers who enjoy Netflix mysteries such as I Will Find You but want a stronger supernatural and maritime element.

What is Below about?

Below follows Calvin Penney, a big-hearted but stubborn fisherman living in the Newfoundland community of Snooks Arm. Calvin is still haunted by the mysterious death of his father decades earlier. He also faces a more immediate problem: his family is fractured, his community’s traditional way of life is disappearing and his son Wade does not simply accept Calvin’s decisions.

The crisis becomes far more dangerous when an unidentified sea creature begins terrorising the town. Calvin decides that protecting the community is his responsibility, even though the people around him do not always trust his judgement. He teams up with visiting marine researcher Fonda Howander, whose scientific knowledge may help identify the threat and explain why it has appeared.

The investigation also exposes secrets connected to the island and Calvin’s family history. Netflix describes the series as a blend of local myth, suspense, heartfelt humour and themes of family, community and inevitable change. That description suggests the creature is not the only source of conflict. The town must also decide what it is willing to preserve and what it can no longer control.

Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney

Josh Hartnett leads Below as Calvin Penney, a fisherman from Snooks Arm who is generous, stubborn and burdened by a history of personal loss. Netflix describes Calvin as a single father of three who is desperate to keep his fractured family together. His father’s unexplained death has left him with the belief that tragedy follows him and that even his own community may no longer see his value.

That background gives the sea-creature plot an emotional centre. Calvin does not take responsibility because he is a fearless specialist. He takes it because fishing, family and the town are the remaining pieces of an identity that already feels unstable. Protecting them becomes a way to prove that he still belongs.

Hartnett has experience with both intimate drama and genre storytelling. His credits include Penny Dreadful, Trap, Oppenheimer, Black Hawk Down, The Virgin Suicides and the creature horror movie 30 Days of Night. Below gives him a role that can use his understated intensity while allowing more humour and family vulnerability than a straightforward monster hunter would provide.

Mackenzie Davis as Fonda Howander

Mackenzie Davis plays Fonda Howander, the visiting marine researcher who teams up with Calvin. Fonda brings scientific expertise to a community shaped by lived knowledge of the sea, local stories and traditions. That difference creates an obvious source of tension, but it also makes the partnership useful. Calvin understands the town and its history, while Fonda can examine the creature and the environmental clues around it.

Davis is known for Station Eleven, Halt and Catch Fire, Speak No Evil, Terminator: Dark Fate and Black Mirror. She is especially effective in stories where intelligent characters must remain emotionally present during extraordinary events. Below appears to use that strength by making Fonda more than an outsider who arrives with answers. She must earn trust and recognise that scientific evidence does not automatically resolve a community’s fear.

Charlie Heaton as Wade Penney

Charlie Heaton plays Wade Penney, Calvin’s son. Wade is central to the family stakes because Calvin’s need to protect him can easily become another form of control. The series can therefore explore whether Calvin is fighting the creature for his family or using the emergency to avoid listening to what his family needs from him.

Heaton is best known as Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things, where he played another young man shaped by a small community, family responsibility and a supernatural threat. Below places him in a different coastal culture and a more adult father-son conflict, but viewers who recognise his ability to play quiet tension may see why he fits the role.

Willow Kean, Ruby Stokes and Rohan Campbell as the Penney family

Willow Kean plays Ruth Penney, Ruby Stokes plays Mary Penney and Rohan Campbell plays Jay Penney. Netflix has not yet published extensive character descriptions for all three, but their shared surname makes the family structure one of the series’ most important elements.

Ruby Stokes is familiar to Netflix viewers from Lockwood & Co., while Rohan Campbell has appeared in Halloween Ends and The Monkey. Willow Kean’s credits include The King Tide and Away from Everywhere. Together, they give the Penney family enough range for Below to operate as an ensemble drama rather than a story in which Calvin and Wade are the only relatives who matter.

Kaleb Horn as Noah

Kaleb Horn plays Noah. Netflix identifies the character by name but has not released a detailed public description of his place in the conflict. Horn’s credits include Revival and Chucky, which makes him another performer with experience in suspense and horror storytelling.

Where was Below filmed?

Below was filmed in Newfoundland, Canada, the same province in which the story is set. That choice is important because the landscape is not simply a scenic background. The rugged coastline, isolated communities, fishing infrastructure and unpredictable sea all shape the threat.

Creator Jesse McKeown has explained that Newfoundland’s combination of danger, isolation, warmth and eccentric local culture inspired the project. The series can therefore use real locations and regional texture rather than recreating the setting on a generic soundstage. Netflix’s first-look images show working boats, harbours, weathered buildings and cold coastal water, reinforcing the sense that the characters’ lives depend on the same environment that now frightens them.

The production also gives local history and dialect a role in the storytelling. Hartnett said the scripts introduced him to Newfoundland’s distinctive ancestry and identity. Viewers should expect the setting to influence humour, relationships and community behaviour, not only the visuals.

How many episodes are in Below?

Below has six episodes. Netflix describes it as a limited series and has announced that all six episodes will arrive on October 8, 2026. The shorter format should allow the story to develop the creature mystery and family conflict without stretching the central threat across a long season.

Episode titles and individual runtimes had not been published as of July 29, 2026. Those details can be added when Netflix updates the official title page closer to release.

Who created, wrote and directed Below?

Jesse McKeown created the series and serves as showrunner and executive producer. He previously wrote for The Umbrella Academy and the Canadian police drama 19-2.

The writing team includes Karen Walton, whose credits include Orphan Black, Perry Chafe of Saint-Pierre and Natty Zavitz of Edging. Jamie Childs, Helen Shaver and Stephen Dunn directed episodes. Their combined work across The Sandman, His Dark Materials, The Penguin, Station Eleven and Queer as Folk suggests that the limited series will balance genre atmosphere with character-focused drama.

Josh Hartnett is also an executive producer. Other executive producers include Jessica Rhoades, Chris Hatcher, Louise Sutton and Sharon Hall.

Is Below based on a book or true story?

Netflix presents Below as an original series created by Jesse McKeown, not as an adaptation of a published novel or a true event. The fictional story may use local myths, fishing culture and regional history, but Netflix has not identified one specific legend or real sea-creature incident as its source.

That distinction is useful because the title Below could easily be confused with the unrelated 2002 submarine horror movie of the same name. The Netflix series is a new six-part Canadian production with different characters, setting and story.

Is there a Below trailer?

Yes. Netflix released a teaser that introduces Calvin’s fishing world, the growing fear around the water and glimpses of the unseen threat. The marketing keeps the creature largely hidden, which is a sensible approach for a mystery built around what the town cannot identify.

The teaser also makes clear that the show will not be nonstop monster action. Family arguments, scientific investigation and community tension receive significant attention. The creature is the catalyst, but the people must decide whether they can work together long enough to survive it.

What kind of series is Below?

Below is best described as a creature thriller with family drama, mystery and local humour. It may appeal to viewers who like the isolated-town tension of 30 Days of Night, the community relationships of maritime dramas and the scientific investigation found in modern monster stories.

For more Netflix genre coverage, browse our best sci-fi movies on Netflix and our upcoming-series guide to The Boroughs.

The limited-series format also makes it suitable for viewers who prefer a complete story rather than a multi-season mystery with no guaranteed ending.

Final thoughts

Below has the ingredients of a strong limited thriller: a distinctive real-world setting, a threat that can be revealed gradually and a family conflict that matters even when the creature is off-screen. Josh Hartnett’s Calvin is not simply protecting a town. He is trying to prove that he can still hold together a family and community that may already be moving beyond him.

Mackenzie Davis and Charlie Heaton give the story two useful challenges to Calvin’s worldview, one scientific and one personal. If the series keeps the Newfoundland setting specific and lets the monster pressure existing relationships rather than replace them, Below could become one of Netflix’s most atmospheric releases of October 2026.