Netflix's live-action "Catan" movie has its directors: brothers Aaron and Adam Nee are set to write and direct the adaptation, according to a Deadline report published November 9, 2026. The report cites sources rather than an official announcement, and Netflix declined to comment, so the attachment stands as a trade report of a hire still being papered. Catan — long known to players as "The Settlers of Catan" — is the German-designed board game in which players trade wood, brick, sheep, wheat and ore to build roads and settlements across a hex-tiled island. It has no characters and no story, which makes the choice of filmmakers the single most informative detail available about what the movie will be.
Table of Contents
- Who Are Aaron and Adam Nee?
- Where the Movie Came From
- What Isn't Settled Yet
- What About the Old Sony Version?
- How to Read the Next Round of News
- Frequently Asked Questions
Who Are Aaron and Adam Nee?
The Nee brothers are a writing-directing team whose most visible credit is the 2022 action-comedy "The Lost City," starring Sandra Bullock as a romance novelist and Channing Tatum as her cover model, dragged together into a real jungle treasure hunt. They also wrote the recent "Masters of the Universe" film, and ScreenRant notes those two credits are the basis the trades give for the Catan hire. Read together, those credits point in a consistent direction.
"The Lost City" is a comic adventure built on bickering characters moving through unfamiliar terrain; "Masters of the Universe" is a fantasy property with a large built-in world and no realist constraints. A Catan film has to invent nearly everything — who the settlers are, why they landed, what they want from each other. Hiring a team known for comedy-forward adventure rather than grim fantasy is the clearest signal yet about tone.
Where the Movie Came From
The film is not a standalone pitch. It flows from a rights deal Netflix struck in October 2025 with Asmodee and CATAN GmbH, reported by Variety, giving the streamer exclusive worldwide rights to the board game. That deal was broad.
It covers live-action and animated films, scripted series, unscripted projects and video games — meaning the Nee film is one project inside a planned slate, not the entirety of Netflix's Catan ambitions. Producers named across the Catan projects include Darren Kyman of Asmodee, Pete Fenlon of Catan Studio, Guido and Benjamin Teuber — sons of the game's late creator, Klaus Teuber — and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, per Engadget's coverage of the deal. The Teuber involvement matters: the family that owns the game's legacy is inside the production, not watching from outside.
What Isn't Settled Yet
The director news is a step, not a green light. Netflix declining to comment means the studio has not confirmed the hire, and an unconfirmed attachment can still change before a deal closes.
Here is what remains unannounced as of this reporting: That is a normal state for a project at this stage. When the rights deal was announced in 2025, no talent was attached to any Catan project at all, so a writer-director pairing is the first concrete creative commitment on the board.
- No cast attached to the film
- No plot synopsis or logline
- No start of production
- No release date
- No confirmation from Netflix itself
What About the Old Sony Version?
Catan has been "becoming a movie" before. A separate "Settlers of Catan" film was reported as fast-tracked at Sony years earlier, and no director was ever attached to it. The Netflix rights deal supersedes that effort as the active adaptation, and nothing in current coverage indicates the Sony version is still alive.
If you remember hearing about a Catan movie and assumed it quietly died, you were reading the earlier attempt correctly. The difference this time is procedural rather than promotional. The 2025 agreement was negotiated by CAA and the law firm Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher on behalf of Asmodee and CATAN GmbH, according to TheWrap — an exclusive worldwide rights package with the rightsholders producing, which is a sturdier footing than an option that lapses.
How to Read the Next Round of News
For anyone tracking this, the useful signals are narrow and easy to check against what is already on the record. Until one of those lands, the accurate summary is short: two filmmakers with a comic-adventure track record are reported to be writing and directing, inside a multi-format deal the game's own rightsholders are producing.
- A Netflix statement naming the Nees would move this from trade report to confirmed hire.
- A casting announcement would be the first real evidence of scale and tone.
- News about an *animated* Catan film or a series would belong to the wider slate, not this movie — the 2025 deal covers several formats at once.
- A stated production start is the earliest point at which a release window becomes a reasonable expectation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Catan movie officially confirmed to have directors?
No. Deadline reported the Nee brothers' attachment on November 9, 2026 citing sources, and Netflix declined to comment, so it is a trade report rather than a studio announcement.
Is this the same as the Sony "Settlers of Catan" movie?
No. The Sony project was reported as fast-tracked years earlier and never had a director. The Netflix deal supersedes it as the active adaptation.
Will there be more than one Catan project?
The October 2025 rights deal covers live-action and animated films, scripted series, unscripted projects and video games, so this film is one piece of a planned slate.