While its original series don’t always have the marquee value of those on rival services, Hulu has quietly been building one of the strongest catalogs of original content in the Peak Streaming era—the recent delights of Only Murders in the Building being but one case in point (pun slightly intended).
The streamer’s December offerings include a few more stabs at differentiating themselves from the competition with exclusive shows and movies (because certainly the rotating selection of the same 100 old movies isn’t going to do it). The top prospect seems to me to be the second half of the COVID-interrupted second season of PEN15, the most depressingly accurate yet viscerally funny depiction of the American middle school experience I’ve ever seen. Series co-creators/stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, playing lightly fictionalized versions of their seventh grade selves against a cast of real kids, continue to mine the universal pain of being 13 for all it is worth.
We’re also getting another season of Crossing Swords (Dec. 10), a silly stop-motion animated series about a medieval peasant who gets what he thinks is a plum gig at the castle, but quickly figures out that dealing with its resident population of horny monarchs and drunkard knights makes toiling in the fields look comparatively easy. If you like the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, there’s a spinoff series, The Nine Realms (Dec. 23), that takes the action into the present day, with the world’s long-hidden population of dragons suddenly emerging to zoom around cities (seems like a better way to commute than the subway).
And on the movie side, I’m intrigued by Mother/Android (Dec. 17), in which Chloe Grace Moretz plays a woman fleeing with her boyfriend from a war between humans and artificial intelligence; and Dead Asleep (Dec. 16), a true crime documentary exploring the ins and outs of a case in which a man is accused of committing a murder...while asleep.
Here’s everything else coming to the service in December.
Coming to Hulu in December 2021
Arriving Dec. 1
Candified: Home For The Holidays: Season 1 (Hulu Original)
All Rise: Seasons 1 and 2
The A-Team (2010)
Above The Rim
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Addicted
Alex Cross
Alienator
All is Lost
Armageddon
Back To School
The Bank Job
Behind Enemy Lines
The Black Stallion (1979)
The Black Stallion Returns
Blow
Bull Durham
Chattahoochee
Cherry 2000
Con Air
The Crazies
Crazy Heart
Crimson Tide
Cujo (1983)
The Curse
Days Of Heaven
Dead Man Walking
The Dungeonmaster
Earth To Echo
Erik The Viking
Flightplan
Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994)
Friday The 13th (1980)
Her Smell
Hide And Seek
Hollow Man
Holy Man
Horton Hears A Who! (2008)
Hustlers
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Jagged Edge
King Kong
Love Field
Making Mr. Right
The Manchurian Candidate
My Best Friend’s Wedding
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Twelve
Ocean’s Thirteen
The Princess Bride
The Raid 2
Regarding Henry
Rio
Serendipity
Shanghai Noon
She’s Out Of My League
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
The Siege Of Firebase Gloria
Silverado
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Soda Cracker
Some Kind Of Wonderful
Something’s Gotta Give
Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
Stephen King’s Thinner
Superbeast
Troll
The Warriors
Young Guns
Young Guns II
Arriving Dec. 2
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 15 Premiere
Godfather of Harlem: Season 1
Kelly Clarkson Presents: When Christmas Come Around: Special
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller: Season 2
Vice Versa: HIV: The Neglected Pandemic: Season 1
The East
Arriving Dec. 3
Pen15: Season 2.5 (Hulu Original)
The New York Times Presents: To Live and Die in Alabama: New Episode
Annie Live!: Special
Trolls Holiday in Harmony: Special
We Need To Do Something
The World Of Kanako
Arriving Dec. 6
Real Housewives of Atlanta: Season 13
Arriving Dec. 7
Michael Buble’s Christmas in the City: Special
World War Z
Arriving Dec. 8
People’s Choice Awards: Special
Arriving Dec. 9
Trolls: TrollsTopia: Complete Season 5 (Hulu Original)
Bloods: Season 1
Creamerie: Complete Season 1
Swan Song
Arriving Dec. 13
70th Miss Universe Competition: Special
Beach
Arriving Dec. 14
Gordon Ramsay’s Road Trip: European Vacation: Special
American Auto: Series Premiere
Arriving Dec. 15
Gordon Ramsay’s Road Trip: Christmas Vacation
Grand Crew: Series Premiere
Rising Wolf
Arriving Dec. 16
Dead Asleep (Hulu Original Documentary)
Cryptozoo
Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman
Arriving Dec. 17
Mother/Android (Hulu Original Film)
The Nowhere Inn
Arriving Dec. 23
Dragons: The Nine Realms: Season 1 (Hulu Original)
Arriving Dec. 26
Letterkenny: Season 10 (Hulu Original)
Leaving Hulu in December 2021
Leaving Dec. 9
Child’s Play (2019)
Leaving Dec. 10
Rogue (2020)
Leaving Dec. 12
Eye in the Sky
Leaving Dec. 16
Nostalgia
Leaving Dec. 19
Crawl
Leaving Dec. 28
Bratz: The Movie
Leaving Dec. 31
10,000 BC (2008)
127 Hours
A Christmas Carol
A Nanny For Christmas
The A-Team (2010)
Above The Rim
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Alienator
All The Right Moves
Alpha & Omega: Legend Of The Saw Toothed
Back To School
The Black Stallion (1979)
The Black Stallion Returns
Bloody Sunday
Blue City
Bohemian Rhapsody
Bull Durham
Candyman 3: Day Of The Dead
Cedar Rapids
Chattahoochee
Cherry 2000
Con Air
Conspiracy Theory
Crazy Heart
Crimson Tide
The Curse
Dark Shadows (2012)
Date Night
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid
The Dungeonmaster
Enemy At The Gates
Erik The Viking
Escape From Alcatraz
The Fighter
The Fly
Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994)
Friday The 13th - Part III (1982)
Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)
From Prada To Nada
Gattaca
The Gift
Girls! Girls! Girls!
Happy Feet
Happy Feet Two
Hell Or High Water
Hollow Man
Inception
Jack And Jill
Joseph: King Of Dreams
Killers
Kiss The Girls
Light It Up
Love Field
Making Mr. Right
The Manchurian Candidate
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Meet The Spartans
Michael Clayton
My Best Friend’s Wedding
My Bloody Valentine
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Twelve
Ocean’s Thirteen
The Patsy
Phase IV
The Recruit
Resident Evil: Retribution
Road To Perdition
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Rush Hour
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 3
Rustler’s Rhapsody
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty
Serendipity
Shark Tale
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
Shrek
Shrek 2
The Siege Of Firebase Gloria
Signs
Silverado
The Social Network
Soda Cracker
Something’s Gotta Give
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Insurrection
Superbeast
Sweet Home Alabama
The Tenant
Timeline
Tooth Fairy
Troll
Twisted
Underworld
Underworld Awakening
Underworld Evolution
Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans
Vantage Point
The Village
The Vow
Waitress
When A Man Loves A Woman
Wrong Turn 2
Yes Man
Young Guns
Young Guns II