Acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Erik Matti has officially announced his first major collaboration with Netflix: the new series, BuyBust: The Undesirables. The series, which expands the universe of his gritty 2018 action film BuyBust, was unveiled today, December 3, 2025, at the JAFF Creative Asia 2025 event in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Matti, alongside Indonesian director Joko Anwar, took the stage for a Creator-to-Creator session, which served as the perfect platform to reveal the highly anticipated project and its first-look clip. The session highlighted Netflix’s continuing commitment to investing in original content and cultivating creative voices across the region.
A Deeper Dive into an Expanded Universe
BuyBust: The Undesirables will be a 9-episode series set to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2026. The first look clip, showcased exclusively at JAFF Creative Asia, offered a glimpse into Matti’s world-building, reintroducing original characters, including Anne Curtis, and welcoming new lead Gerald Anderson, alongside a fresh slate of supporting characters.The original 2018 film was celebrated for its intense, single-take action sequences and unflinching look at the drug war. Matti revealed that the expanded narrative of the series pivots away from the specific ‘drug war’ theme to tackle broader societal issues in the Philippines.
“We moved on from the drug war story and we made it about rich and poor — the powerful and the powerless,” Matti shared during the panel. “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 New Narrative: Betrayal and the Search for “Judas”
The official synopsis promises a complex narrative of betrayal and survival in a city divided: BuyBust: The Undesirables follows a vengeful ex-cop and a haunted corporate outcast who are drawn together by the murder of a senator’s daughter. Their investigation leads them into a citywide manhunt for the mysterious drug lord, “Judas.” Thrust from the Capital’s shadows into the anarchic exile zone of Matungao, they must navigate a dangerous landscape to survive betrayal, unmask the true “Judas,” and confront the harsh cost of justice in a society where everyone is disposable.
The series is poised to underscore Netflix’s dedication to elevating compelling and distinctive Southeast Asian titles, with Matti’s meticulous character exploration making the project a must-watch for 2026.
BuyBust: The Undesirables is coming to Netflix in 2026. Director: Erik Matti
Cast: Anne Curtis, Gerald Anderson
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