Erik Matti, Netflix team up for ‘BuyBust’ series

YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA — Acclaimed Filipino director Erik Matti officially announced his first collaboration with Netflix at JAFF Creative Asia 2025 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, unveiling a first-look clip from the upcoming series BuyBust: The Undesirables, which stars Anne Curtis and Gerald Anderson.

The series expands on the gritty 2018 action-thriller BuyBust, also directed by Matti, and marks a major creative partnership between the filmmaker and Netflix Philippines. Speaking at the event’s Creator-to-Creator session alongside Indonesian director Joko Anwar, Matti highlighted the streaming giant’s commitment to Southeast Asian creators and the region’s growing library of original content.

Set to premiere in 2026, BuyBust: The Undesirables is a nine-episode series that introduces a new chapter in the BuyBust universe. The story follows a vengeful ex-cop and a haunted corporate outcast—played by Curtis and Anderson—who are drawn together by the murder of a senator’s daughter and a manhunt for a mysterious drug lord known only as “Judas.”

Thrust from the shadows of the Capital into the chaotic exile zone of Matungao, the protagonists must survive betrayal, unmask the true identity of Judas, and confront the steep cost of justice in a fractured society where “everyone is disposable.”

During the panel, Matti explained how the series moves beyond the themes of the original film to explore deeper societal issues.

“We moved on from the drug war story and we made it about rich and poor — the powerful and the powerless,” Matti said. “We wanted to talk about the Philippines as a country and whether it was impossible to ‘clean it up’ without going political. We are focusing on real characters and the real conflicts of each of them.”

The first-look clip revealed during the forum reintroduced audiences to Curtis’s character from the original film while unveiling Anderson in a pivotal new role, signaling a narrative with expanded stakes and heightened emotional complexity.

BuyBust: The Undesirables reflects Netflix’s broader strategy to invest in Southeast Asian storytelling and elevate diverse creative voices. With its grounded performances, politically charged narrative, and signature cinematic style, the series is positioned as a major addition to the platform’s growing catalog of original regional content.

BuyBust: The Undesirables will stream on Netflix in 2026.