June is packed for streaming movies and TV shows. From India, the big title is The Family Man season 2 — from creators Raj and DK — which arrives after a months-long delay. The Manoj Bajpayee-led action series will be available June 4 on Amazon Prime Video. Bajpayee will also been as part of an ensemble cast alongside Ali Fazal, Kay Kay Menon, Raghubir Yadav, and Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor in Netflix’s Satyajit Ray anthology, Ray, streaming June 25. The other major title from India is the Dhanush movie Jagame Thandhiram, releasing June 18 on Netflix worldwide. If you’re looking for more Indian stories, there’s Skater Girl, out June 11 on Netflix.
Internationally, Loki — the Tom Hiddleston-led Marvel series — leads the way. Loki premieres June 9 on Disney+ Hotstar, and new episodes will debut every Wednesday. Disney also has the new Pixar film, Luca, premiering June 18 on Disney+ Hotstar. In the realm of animation, there’s also Raya and the Last Dragon, which arrives on Hotstar June 4 after leaving Disney+ with Premier Access. On the opposite end of that spectrum, Mortal Kombat is dropping into video-on-demand, also on June 4. Both Lupin (part 2 on June 11) and Élite (season 4 on June 18) are back for new seasons on Netflix, and Bosch wraps his journey with season 7, releasing June 25 on Prime Video.
June is also a big month for Apple TV+, which surprisingly has four titles this month. There’s Julianne Moore in a Stephen King series, Lisey’s Story, that begins June 4. The following Friday, June 11, we have the return of Brooklynn Prince-led Home Before Dark for a second season. A week from that on June 18, Rose Byrne stars in the 1980s aerobics series Physical. And Apple TV+ will close out the month with Central Park season 2, starting June 25. All Apple TV+ series premiere with a few episodes, and release new instalments every week thereafter.
With that, here’s our June 2021 guide to Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Apple TV+.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
When: June 4
Where: HBO Max
James Wan’s Conjuring franchise continues to be inspired by real-life cases as Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson’s paranormal investigators take on their first murder case, the 1981 trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson (played here by Ruairi O’Connor) in which she claimed demonic possession as a defence. Essentially, that the Devil made me do it. Oh look, that’s also the title. What a coincidence.
Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona) is the director, working off a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (The Conjuring 2, Aquaman). The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It will be on HBO Max for a month, in line with its debut in US theatres.
The Family Man
When: June 4
Where: Amazon Prime Video
In the second season of Raj and DK’s action comedy-drama, Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee) has left his secret espionage job at the National Investigation Agency for better work-life balance in the private sector. But when a powerful new enemy — new cast member Samantha Akkineni is supposedly playing the villain — leads a coalition between an old foe and dormant militants, bringing danger right to Srikant’s doorstep, he is forced to return and uncover the plot.
The Family Man season 2 moves to Chennai for its setting. All episodes at once on release date.
Feel Good
When: June 4
Where: Netflix
Co-creator, co-writer and star Mae Martin returns with the second and final season of their critically-acclaimed comedy-drama that draws from their own life as a bisexual stand-up comedian and former drug addict. Lisa Kudrow and Charlotte Ritchie will be joined by new recurring stars in Jordan Stephens (Rogue One, John Ross Bowie (Speechless), Eve (The Talk), and Eleanor Matsuura (The Walking Dead).
All episodes of Feel Good season 2 will release at once.
Lisey’s Story
When: June 4
Where: Apple TV+
Julianne Moore in the lead, Pablo Larraín as director, JJ Abrams as executive producer, and Stephen King adapting his own 2006 novel. The first Apple TV+ adaptation of a King book has some stellar wattage. In it, the widowed Lisey (Moore) starts to dig into her famous author late husband’s (Clive Owen) past as a dangerous individual (Dane DeHaan) begins to stalk her.
Joan Allen (The Bourne Supremacy), Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), and Sung Kang (Fast Five) also star. Lisey’s Story premieres with two episodes, with the remaining six releasing one per week until July 16.
Mortal Kombat
When: June 4
Where: Video-on-demand
Barely got a theatrical release due to the second wave, so this is essentially a direct-to-video premiere for this reboot of the video game movie series. In it, an MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) who loses for money discovers his special heritage and sets out to train with experienced supernatural warriors, in order to save his family and help defend Earth from the Outworld’s otherworldly ice-expert Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) who has been tasked to hunt Cole down.
James Wan (Aquaman) is a producer. Simon McQuoid makes his feature directorial debut on Mortal Kombat. The movie stars several game characters, including Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi/ Scorpion.
Watch the Mortal Kombat Trailer in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu
Raya and the Last Dragon
When: June 4
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
If you didn’t feel comfortable stepping into a theatre in March then you can catch Disney Animation’s first original movie in five years at home now. Inspired by the cultures of Southeast Asia, it follows Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran, from Star Wars: The Last Jedi) as she sets out to find the last dragon (Awkwafina, from Ocean’s Eight) and reunite various factions, to take on a group of monsters known as the Druun.
Gemma Chan (Captain Marvel), Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0), Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy), and Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) also lend their voice talents. Raya and the Last Dragon has been directed by Don Hall (Big Hero 6) and Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting), off a script by playwright Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians).
Review: Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon Warns Against Isolationism
Sweet Tooth
When: June 4
Where: Netflix
Jeff Lemire’s Vertigo comic book series of the same name, about a group of human-animal hybrids who struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that blames them for a viral pandemic, is now an eight-episode live-action Netflix series. It will follow a deer-boy (Christian Convery) being helped by a human (Nonso Anozie) as he attempts to reach a safe haven in Colorado. Will Forte, Dania Razmirez, Neil Sandilands, Stefania LaVie Owen, Aliza Vellani, and Mia Artemis co-star.
The Sweet Tooth trailer suggests the Netflix series might have a much lighter tone than the dark and depressing books. Jim Mickle (Hap and Leonard) is the creator and pilot director. Robert Downey Jr. is an executive producer. All episodes to release together on release date.
Awake
When: June 9
Where: Netflix
Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Finn Jones, and Ariana Greenblatt lead the cast of this high-concept thriller whose concept makes no sense. After a sudden global event fries all electronics, all humans lose their ability to sleep. How are those two things even connected? Anyhoo, if you are willing to suspend your disbelief to that point, Awake will follow an ex-soldier (Rodriguez) and her daughter — who can sleep and is possibly the cure to everything. If she can keep her safe first.
Frances Fisher, Shamier Anderson, Lucius Hoyos, Gil Bellows, Barry Pepper, and Elias Edraki co-star. Mark Raso (Kodachrome) is the director on Awake.
Loki
When: June 9
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
Marvel’s longest running villain, Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief, has been around for a decade now. Loki got his start in 2011’s Thor and he has since appeared in every Thor movie, and three Avengers movies, including Infinity War and Endgame. He died in the opening of Infinity War, but it’s not the first time he’s coming back from the dead. Though this time, he’s not technically back from the dead. In fact, this is The Avengers-era Loki we briefly met in Endgame during the time travel sequences.
He escaped with the Tesseract then, and the Loki trailers hint that he’s caused havoc across the timeline. And that’s why the Time Variance Authority, responsible for keeping the timeline in order, steps in to deal with this time variant of Loki. Owen Wilson is playing TVA member Mobius M. Mobius who is asked to keep a check on Loki, and he decides to use the trickster god to fix reality and put an end to the mess. What could go wrong, right?
Michael Waldron (Rick and Morty) is the creator and head writer, with Kate Herron (Sex Education) directing all six episodes. New episodes will release every Wednesday. Loki season 2 is already in development.
Watch the New Trailer for Loki
Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Owen Wilson as Mobius in Loki
Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios
Home Before Dark
When: June 11
Where: Apple TV+
In the second season of this mystery series, after a mysterious explosion hits a local farm in her small lakeside town home and birds start to fall out of the sky, reporter Hilde Lisko (Brooklynn Prince) starts to investigate what’s going on, a fight that will force her to confront a powerful corporation. At the same time, Hilde must also balance the health of her family and everyone else who lives in Erie Harbor.
Jim Sturgess, Abby Miller, Kylie Rogers, Michael Weston, Joelle Carter, Aziza Scott, Jibrail Nantambu, Deric McCabe and Rio Mangini co-star. Creators Dana Fox and Dara Resnik return as head writers. New episodes every week until August 13.
In the Heights
When: June 11
Where: HBO Max
Before Lin-Manuel Miranda rose to fame with Hamilton, he wrote another Tony-winning musical set in New York’s Washington Heights neighbourhood about a likeable, magnetic bodega owner (Anthony Ramos) who saves every penny he earns in hopes of a better life. Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu is bringing Miranda’s play to life as a musical that also stars Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, and Melissa Barrera, in addition to a small role for Miranda himself.
In the Heights will release simultaneously in US cinemas and on HBO Max. It will be on HBO Max for a month to begin with, thanks to WarnerMedia’s 2021 push for its streaming service.
Lupin
When: June 11
Where: Netflix
When it premiered back in January, the Omar Sy-led French mystery thriller became Netflix’s biggest non-English-language original series, beating even Money Heist, as 76 million households tuned in within the first 28 days. Naturally, all eyes will be on Lupin‘s return, not least because it needs to wrap up the unfinished story. The five-episode Part 1 left us all on a cliffhanger, and it’s up to the five-episode Part 2 to tell us what happens next. All episodes will debut at once.
Skater Girl
When: June 11
Where: Netflix
Inspired by the real story of Ulrike Reinhard who established a skateboarding park in the Madhya Pradesh village of Janwar and helped empower girls like Asha Gond, Los Angeles-based writer-director Manjari Makijany turns that into a coming-of-age story for a teenage girl (Rachel Sanchita Gupta) who struggles against age-old customs to compete in the national skating championship.
There are a couple of major changes. The setting has been moved to Rajasthan, and her middle-aged German mentor Reinhard is now a thirty-something British-Indian (Amrit Maghera). The legendary Waheeda Rehman also has a role.
Élite
When: June 18
Where: Netflix
Things are about to get even crazier at the elite secondary school Las Encinas in the fourth season of this Spanish teen thriller. Relationships will be broken, bridges will be burned, and pleasure will be had — as always. The Élite universe is further expanding with a series of “Short Stories” to premiere in the run up to the release of Élite season 4: Guzmán Caye Rebe (June 14), Nadia Guzmán (June 15), Omar Ander Alexis (June 16), and Carla Samuel (June 17).
Fatherhood
When: June 18
Where: Netflix
Kevin Hart is taking on a dramatic role in this adaptation of Matthew Logelin’s 2011 memoir, Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love, about a widower (Hart) who struggles to raise his daughter (Melody Hurd) after his wife dies giving birth. Alfre Woodard, Lil Rel Howery, DeWanda Wise, Anthony Carrigan, and Deborah Ayorinde also star. Paul Weitz (About a Boy, Grandma) directs.
Sony Pictures originally had it slated for a theatrical release, but after moving it around a bunch of times, the studio opted to sell global rights to Netflix in early March. Just as it did for The Mitchells vs. the Machines (also on Netflix), or the upcoming Camila Cabello-led Cinderella (headed to Amazon Prime Video).
Jagame Thandhiram
When: June 18
Where: Netflix
Dhanush’s clever but carefree Tamilian gangster Suruli is recruited by a British counterpart to take down a rival in this action crime drama from writer-director Karthik Subbaraj, but finds himself tripped by the moral dilemmas that follow. And because this is a mainstream masala film, as they say, Dhanush will be seen dancing in a bunch of musical interludes when he’s not busy romancing Aishwarya Lekshmi. James Cosmo, Kalaiyarasan, and Joju George also star.
Netflix India Unveils 13 Movies for 2021, Including 5 New Films
Luca
When: June 18
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
Pixar is off to the Italian Riviera for its next adventure, with director Enrico Casarosa bringing his childhood to life — with some added fantastical inspirations. The big one? Its title character is a sea monster (Jacob Tremblay), as is his newfound best friend (Jack Dylan Grazer), and they must carefully navigate the world out there while making the most of their summer with lots of gelato and Vespas. Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan also lend their voices.
Watch the Final Trailer for Pixar’s Luca
Luca and Alberto in Luca
Photo Credit: Disney/Pixar
Physical
When: June 18
Where: Apple TV+
In 1980s San Diego, a quietly tortured, seemingly dutiful housewife (Rose Byrne) fuses her newfound love for aerobics with then-burgeoning VHS technology to launch a videotape fitness business. She is her generation’s YouTube female lifestyle guru, a radical thing for her time. Rory Scovel, Dierdre Friel, Della Saba, Lou Taylor Pucci, Paul Sparks, and Ashley Liao co-star.
Annie Weisman (About a Boy) is the creator on Physical. The Apple TV+ series premieres with three episodes, with the remaining seven airing once per week until August 6.
Bosch
When: June 25
Where: Amazon Prime Video
The seventh and final season of Amazon’s long-running police procedural will draw from two Michael Connelly novels that were published two decades apart: 1994’s The Concrete Blonde, and 2014’s The Burning Room. Amazon is billing it as “the case that will change everything”. It’s not quite the end of Titus Welliver’s Harry Bosch though.
IMDb TV has already announced a spin-off with Welliver, Mimi Rogers (as Money Chandler) and Madison Lintz (as Maddie Bosch), with both author Connelly and series creator Eric Overmyer attached as well. The Bosch spin-off will find him working with former adversary Chandler.
Central Park
When: June 25
Where: Apple TV+
The family that lives in Central Park is back — with one major change, sparked by last year’s George Floyd protests and a Hollywood reckoning over white actors voicing Black characters. Emmy Raver-Lampman (The Umbrella Academy) takes over from Kristen Bell in the role of Molly Tillerman. Everyone else remains, including Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Stanley Tucci, and co-creator Josh Gad.
Central Park season 2 premieres with three new episodes, with the remaining seven airing one per week until August 13. A third season has already been announced.
The Mysterious Benedict Society
When: June 25
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
Four gifted orphans at a boarding school are hired by a Mr. Benedict (Tony Hale) for a mission that only children can accomplish: stop a sinister brain-washing force led by Benedict’s evil twin Mr. Curtain (also Hale). There are A Series of Unfortunate Events vibes to this series, from the fast-talking manners to the period setting and costumes.
It’s based on Trenton Lee Stewart’s book series of the same name. Kristen Schaal stars as Mr. Benedict’s Number Two. Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay (Destroyer, Ride Along 2) are the creators.
Ray
When: June 25
Where: Netflix
Manoj Bajpayee, Ali Fazal, Kay Kay Menon, Raghubir Yadav, and Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor are part of an ensemble cast for this four-part anthology based on Satyajit Ray’s short stories. The four tales of love, lust, betrayal and truth involve a ghazal singer, a wrestler turned journalist, a corporate shark, a struggling make-up artist, a young actor, and a god-woman.
Gajraj Rao, Radhika Madan, Shweta Basu Prasad, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, Rajesh Sharma, Bidita Bag, Kharaj Mukherjee, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Shruthy Menon, Anindita Bose, Neeraj Purohit, Lovleen Misra, and Manoj Pahwa co-star.
Abhishek Chaubey (Udta Punjab) and Vasan Bala (Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota) direct one episode each, with multi-National Film Award winner Srijit Mukherji helming the other two. Sayantan Mukherjee is the creator and showrunner on Ray. All episodes debut at once.
Netflix See What’s Next India — the 9 Most Exciting Announcements for 2021
Netflix India Unveils 15 Series for 2021, Including 5 New TV Shows
Sex/Life
When: June 25
Where: Netflix
Caught in a midlife crisis, a suburban horny mother of two (Sarah Shahi) begins to fantasise about her bad-boy ex (Adam Demos) as she attempts to reconnect with her younger and wilder self, which naturally causes a lot of problems in her relationship with her husband (Mike Vogel). Based on B.B. Easton’s memoir 44 Chapters About 4 Men.
Stacy Rukeyser (UnReal) is the creator, and the series is made by an all-women writer and director crew, in a conscious attempt to portray the world from a female gaze. All eight episodes of Sex/Life are available together on release date.
Sarah Shahi in Sex/Life
Photo Credit: Netflix