A ‘Catan’ Movie Is in the Works at Netflix

Settle down, board game fans. Someone’s trying to make a Catan movie.

That someone is Netflix, which acquired the rights to the perennially best-selling board game in 2025. Per Deadline, they have brought in “Aaron and Adam Nee to write and direct a live-action movie based on the game.”

The Nee brothers do have at least some toy-to-movie adaptation experience. Their most recent credit was a gig co-writing the 2026 Masters of the Universe film from Amazon, based on the old He-Man action figure line from Mattel. Before that they wrote and directed the action rom-com The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.

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Catan — which was known for years in America as Settlers of Catan — is a German board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was introduced in 1995 and steadily grew in popularity through the decades. It’s sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.

Here is how the official Catan website describes the game’s premise:

The women and men of your expedition build the first two settlements. Fortunately, the yet uninhabited land is rich in natural resources. You build roads and new settlements that eventually become cities. Will you succeed in gaining supremacy on Catan? Barter trade dominates the scene. Some resources you have in abundance, other resources are scarce. Ore for wool, brick for lumber - you trade according to what is needed for your current building projects. Proceed strategically! If you found your settlements in the right places and skillfully trade your resources, then the odds will be in your favor. But your opponents are smart too.

In addition to this film, Netflix holds the rights to develop other films and shows and even video games based on Catan. I would like to see a hidden camera show watching people play the original board game, and observing the sore losers (like me) as they get more and more frustrated the more they get beaten by better players (like my wife).