The Daniels Sesame Street Movie: Netflix's Bold Next Bet

TL;DR — Netflix is reportedly courting The Daniels — the Oscar-winning duo behind Everything Everywhere All at Once — to direct a feature take on Sesame Street, marking one of the streaming giant's most unexpected swings at family IP.

The Daniels Sesame Street movie rumor, first surfacing via entertainment trade outlets this week, would pair Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert with one of the most recognizable brands in children's television. The pairing makes strategic sense for both sides: Netflix gets a pair of directors who proved they can turn an absurd high-concept pitch into a Best Picture winner, while The Daniels land a budget-sized sandbox to play in between auteur projects.

Why The Daniels Are a Surprising Fit for Sesame Street

On paper, putting the directors of a hallucinatory multiverse indie behind a Muppet-starring family movie sounds like a curveball. But the Daniels' filmography is built on exactly the kind of emotional sincerity that Sesame Street trafficks in — they just wrap it in visual chaos. Swiss Army Man was a fart-joke buddy comedy about grief. Everything Everywhere All at Once was a martial-arts actioner about a mother-daughter relationship and taxes. Strip away the gimmicks and the duo keeps landing on the same theme: ordinary people doing impossible things because someone they love needs them to.

That emotional core is precisely what Sesame Street has sold for more than five decades. Big Bird learns about death; Elmo learns about kindness; the human cast teaches phonics. The brand survives because it treats kids like they deserve real feelings, not just slapstick.

What Netflix Sees in a Daniels Sesame Street Movie

Netflix's family-animation slate has leaned heavily on computer-generated franchises in recent years — Klaus, The Willoughbys, Leo. A live-action hybrid Sesame Street feature would be a deliberate counter-programming move, leaning into puppetry, practical sets, and the kind of tactile craftsmanship that parents nostalgic for the original PBS run would pay to see on a Friday night.

Sources familiar with early talks say Netflix is pitching the project as a theatrical-grade event film rather than a direct-to-streaming afterthought, which would explain why a director package with real awards gravity matters. The Daniels would join a short list of prestige filmmakers — Greta Gerwig, Taika Waititi, the Russo brothers — who have flirted with Sesame Workshop projects over the past several years.

What We Know About the Rumored Plot

Nothing is locked, and reps for both Netflix and Sesame Workshop declined to comment on the record. But the rumors suggest the project is being framed less as a "Big Bird origin story" and more as a multigenerational ensemble — adults who grew up on the show, returning to the street as adults, alongside the kid residents who never left. If that framing holds, expect callbacks to classic bits (Rubber Duckie, the Yip-Yip Martians, Cookie Monster's baking era) remixed for grown-up nostalgia without alienating the under-eight audience.

Inside The Daniels' Post-Everything-Everywhere Career

Since their 2023 Oscar sweep, the duo has been characteristically picky. Kwan has spoken publicly about burnout and a desire to make smaller, weirder work. Scheinert has been attached to a handful of one-off projects — a music video here, an episode of television there. A Sesame Street feature would, ironically, be their biggest swing since Everything Everywhere, but with a fundamentally different risk profile: the IP is pre-built, the audience is captive, and the bar isn't "Will this work?" so much as "Will this feel special?"

For a director team that has spent its career arguing sincerity and spectacle can coexist, that sounds like the brief.

How Sesame Workshop Has Approached the Big Screen

This wouldn't be Sesame Workshop's first theatrical attempt. The 2021 PAW Patrol knockoff-style hybrid Street underperformed; the 1985–1999 Follow That Bird era remains the high-water mark for most longtime fans. In between, the brand has largely stayed on television, with periodic specials on HBO Max after the PBS split. A theatrical Daniels Sesame Street movie would represent the brand's most ambitious attempt since 1999 to reintroduce itself to multiplex audiences.

Key touchstones a new film would likely lean on:

• Practical puppetry over CG, à la the original Street
• A balanced human-puppet ensemble instead of a Muppet-centric plot
• Musical numbers built around legacy songs ("Rubber Duckie," "C Is for Cookie")
• Cameos from legacy cast members — though nothing has been confirmed
• A tone pitched at grown-ups in the room, not just the kids on the floor

The Bottom Line on the Daniels Sesame Street Movie

Until Netflix confirms — or The Daniels themselves post a single, characteristically cryptic tweet — the project lives firmly in rumor territory. But the logic is sound. A prestige director duo looking to do something emotionally honest at scale, a streaming platform hunting a breakout family theatrical event, and a 56-year-old brand trying to reintroduce itself to a generation that may have only met Elmo through TikTok. The pieces fit, even if the headline still sounds made up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are The Daniels directing the Sesame Street movie for?

According to trade reports, Netflix is in early talks with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — collectively known as The Daniels — to direct a feature film based on Sesame Street. Neither Netflix nor Sesame Workshop has officially confirmed the deal, but the project would represent one of the streamer's biggest family-focused swings in years and the duo's first major theatrical feature since Everything Everywhere All at Once won Best Picture in 2023.

Is the Sesame Street movie actually happening?

As of now, the Daniels Sesame Street movie is a rumor, not a greenlit production. Both Netflix and Sesame Workshop declined to comment when asked. The Daniels' team has been characteristically quiet. Expect an official confirmation or denial only after a script is locked and a deal memo is signed — typically the point at which studios announce high-profile director attachments.

When would the Daniels Sesame Street movie be released?

There is no release date yet. Pre-production on a feature with live puppets, child actors, and original songs typically runs 12 to 18 months, so an optimistic target would be late 2027 or 2028 — assuming a deal closes in 2026. Netflix could also fast-track the project if The Daniels come on with a ready script.

Why would The Daniels want to direct Sesame Street?

The Daniels built their reputation on layering absurd visual spectacle over deeply sincere emotional stories. Sesame Street, for all its Muppet chaos, is fundamentally about helping kids process big feelings — which is exactly the territory the duo has mined in Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All at Once. A family film with built-in IP and a captive audience is also a relatively low-risk vehicle for a director team that has spoken openly about burnout.

Has Netflix made a Sesame Street movie before?

Not exactly. Netflix picked up streaming rights to Sesame Street after HBO's exclusive window ended, airing new seasons starting in 2022. But this would be Netflix's first feature-length Sesame Street theatrical-style film. The brand's last major theatrical release was Follow That Bird in 1985, and a 2021 hybrid special underperformed, leaving room for a fresh creative approach.

References

• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com
• https://variety.com
• https://deadline.com
• https://www.sesameworkshop.org