Netflix Just Greenlit Its Monopoly Reality Series, And Casting Is Officially Open
Reality television has spent the past several years mining board games, mobile apps, and childhood nostalgia for its next big competition format, with streamers racing to turn familiar names into appointment viewing.
Netflix has been particularly aggressive with that strategy, following the massive success of ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ with a growing slate of IP-driven unscripted projects. The streamer’s latest move in that space has been building toward this moment for well over a year.
Netflix first secured the reality competition rights to Monopoly back in 2025, describing the concept as a large-scale social experiment contest built around the board game’s classic tension between alliances and betrayal. That deal kicked off an unusually competitive bidding process, with roughly 50 production companies submitting pitches before Netflix narrowed the field down to a final 3 contenders. Studio Lambert, the company behind ‘The Traitors,’ ultimately won the assignment earlier this year, beating out Wheelhouse and Endemol Shine North America for the rights to bring the game to life.
That project has now officially moved into production. According to Tudum, the streamer has greenlit the Monopoly series and opened casting, revealing that the show will bring 12 contestants together on a life-sized, fully realized Monopoly Town Square. Per the official logline, players enter on equal footing, but that equality does not last long, as contestants must accumulate everything or lose it all, with every negotiation and roll of the dice carrying the risk of building an empire or being sent directly to jail.
The format calls for bankrupt players to be eliminated one by one until a single winner remains standing to take the entire prize. According to earlier reporting, the grand prize has been set at $2 million, putting the show in similar territory to other high-stakes competition formats Netflix has invested in recently. Casting has now officially opened to the public, though no premiere date, host, or additional format details have been confirmed beyond the description shared alongside the casting announcement.
Studio Lambert’s involvement carries significant weight given the studio’s recent track record, having won back-to-back Emmy Awards for ‘The Traitors’ and previously producing ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ for Netflix as well.
The studio is also currently developing a civilian version of ‘The Traitors’ for NBC, cementing its reputation as one of the most in-demand unscripted producers working today. That pedigree appears to have been a major factor in Netflix’s decision, with the streamer reportedly impressed by the originality of Lambert’s pitch during the bake-off process.
Netflix’s VP of Unscripted Series Jeff Gaspin has previously pointed to the success of Scopely’s mobile game Monopoly Go, which has generated billions in revenue since its 2023 launch, as part of what convinced him the IP had genuine potential in the unscripted space. That mobile game’s gameplay loop, built around quick decision-making and competitive collection mechanics, appears to have directly informed how Netflix envisioned translating the classic board game into a live-action format.
Would you watch Netflix’s upcoming Monopoly reality series?
This latest Monopoly project exists entirely separate from the feature film adaptation currently in development at Lionsgate and Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap, which is being written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. Netflix has continued building out its unscripted IP slate alongside this announcement as well, with ‘The Golden Ticket,’ a competition series set in the world of Willy Wonka, also currently in the works at the streamer.
With casting now underway and a premiere set for next year, the Monopoly series joins a growing wave of board game and app-inspired reality competitions racing to capture the same kind of viral momentum that made ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ such a breakout hit. Whether turning one of the most recognizable board games in the world into a full-scale physical competition can capture that same energy remains to be seen, but Netflix appears confident enough in the concept to move full speed ahead.
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