One of the biggest movies of the year is now on Netflix—surprise! Image : Netflix

The Wandering Earth became one of the biggest hits in Chinese cinema history earlier this year, propelling itself to become the second highest-grossing film of all time in the country and racking up one of the biggest international grosses on the planet for 2019 so far (it’s still third, even with Endgame). And now, outta nowhere, it’s on Netflix.




Well, not super out of nowhere. Back in February, the streaming service announced that foreign audiences would get a chance to see what the space epic adapted from a short story by The Three Body Problem’s Liu Cixin—which concerns humanity’s last-gasp quest to find a new solar system to call home, when Earth’s fate is imperilled by the death of our sun—was all about. But Netflix didn’t provide a date for release at the time, and it turns out the date was...this past weekend, as spotted by /Film. Surprise!

The Wandering Earth makes a splashy landing in your queue, even if Netflix itself hasn’t made much—or any—fuss. Image : Netflix


The Wandering Earth wasn’t included in Netflix’s official monthly list of releases for May, but nonetheless, the film is now available to stream—and aside from the curiosity of it being one of the biggest films of 2019 that most people outside of China aren’t going to be aware of, reviews have been pretty solid.

If you’re looking to check it out for yourself, now you can! This low-key arrival is just kind of bizarre, after all the fanfare Netflix made over acquiring it.

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