Retirees get up to stranger things in The Boroughs trailer

Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, and Alfre Woodard headline Netflix's new sci-fi show.

By Garrett Martin  |  April 13, 2026 | 11:24am
Images: Netflix
TV News The Boroughs
Retirees get up to stranger things in The Boroughs trailer

What if Stranger Things was Cocoon? What if there was an X-Files episode about The Villages? What if the Pluribus neighborhood was full of retirees? What if Jessica Tandy pulled a gun on the Batteries Not Included aliens? (Okay, she might have; we don’t remember that one too well.) The new trailer for The Boroughs, an upcoming Netflix show produced by The Duffer Brothers, prompts all of these questions—and had us checking Wikipedia to see how long ago all of its stars passed the Brimley/Cocoon Line. (Answer: way longer ago than you might think, especially Alfre Woodard.)

In The Boroughs, Woodard, Geena Davis, Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, Clarke Peters, and Denis O’Hare play six residents of an “active living” retirement community that’s clearly hiding some secrets. The trailer promises Spielbergian wonder and mystery amid the sunkissed landscape of the American Southwest, and also makes us think Molina might kill some E.T.s with a hammer, which is something America desperately needs to see right now.

Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, who co-created The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance and wrote The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim, create and run the show, with Stranger Things creators the Duffers and Holly Leavitt serving as executive producers alongside Ben Taylor. Additional stars include Jena Malone, Carlos Miranda, Seth Numrich, and Alice Kremelberg, with Ed Begley Jr., Dee Wallace, Karan Soni, and Jane Kaczmarek among its guest stars. And if that trailer gives you massive Pluribus vibes, yes, it was all shot in Albuquerque. 

The Boroughs premieres on Netflix on May 21—just in time for Memorial Day.

 
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