Peacock Passed on Eli Roth’s ‘Hostel’ Series With Paul Giamatti. Here’s What’s Next for the Franchise
The most interesting horror show Peacock had on its board is gone, and the news was hiding in plain sight for three months. Eli Roth has confirmed the streamer will not move forward with its Hostel series, the franchise reinvention that had Paul Giamatti, of all people, attached to star. “Peacock said no,” Roth told interviewer Edward Douglas, in a conversation that surfaced as a headline this week when Bloody Disgusting picked it up and Dread Central and JoBlo followed.
The door isn’t fully shut, though. Roth and longtime producer Chris Briggs still have finished scripts, and Roth says he wants to do something with them, even if it isn’t television. Below: what was actually said and when, who was involved, what the three existing movies did, why a theatrical Hostel might be the better bet anyway, and the awkward part of that plan.
Watch: Roth’s Latest, and the Interview
There is no Hostel series footage to show you, because no footage was ever reported. What we can show you is the movie Roth was promoting when the news slipped out: the official teaser for Ice Cream Man , from his own label, The Horror Section. The full conversation is on Douglas’ YouTube channel.
The Details: What’s Confirmed
- The call: Peacock declined to go forward, Roth says. He told Douglas the decision surprised the team.
- The timing: The interview went up on August 4, 2026, per JoBlo. It only became a news cycle on November 2, which means this isn’t a fresh corporate decision so much as a late discovery.
- The scripts: Roth and Briggs wrote them, and Roth says they both love what they have.
- The plan: It may not be a series. Douglas’ own write-up says Roth is taking the idea back to feature films, though no deal, studio or date has been announced.
- The cast: Giamatti is the only actor named in the reports we read. His character was never revealed, and no plot details were released.
- Peacock’s side: None of the reports we read carries a statement from the streamer, so treat Roth as the single on-record source here.
Photo: Paul Giamatti via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license).
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Who Was Behind It
Roth was set to write, direct and executive produce, per TVLine. He wrote and directed the first two films, and his run since has been all over the place. Thanksgiving (2023) was a real win: $46.6 million worldwide on a $15 million budget with an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score. Borderlands (2024) was the opposite, sitting at 10%. Then came Ice Cream Man on August 7, 2026, an unrated film released through The Horror Section with Iconic Events Releasing. It cost a reported $5.5 million, opened to about $1 million and had reached roughly $6 million by the end of August, with critics under 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and a side controversy over Roth confirming generative AI in select scenes.
Chris Briggs and Mike Fleiss, the producers from the original films, were back as executive producers, and the show was being made through Fifth Season, the studio behind Severance. TheWrap described the pitch as a modern reinvention, which was the entire appeal: prestige TV people taking a grubby 2000s gore franchise seriously.
And Giamatti was the headline. An Emmy winner for John Adams , he is about the least expected name you could attach to the movie famous for its Slovakian torture warehouse. JoBlo notes he nearly had a cameo in the 2005 original, so the casting had a little history behind it.
The Backstory: From 2024 Exclusive to Quiet Pass
- September 17, 2005: Hostel premieres at Toronto, then opens in the US on January 6, 2006, at No. 1.
- January 2006: Critic David Edelstein’s New York magazine essay gives the wave its nickname, “torture porn,” and Roth becomes the poster child.
- June 8, 2007: Hostel: Part II opens well below the first film. Roth blames piracy, citing leaked workprint downloads.
- December 27, 2011: Hostel: Part III goes straight to home video from director Scott Spiegel, the only entry made without Roth.
- June 2024: The Hollywood Reporter breaks the TV series with Giamatti attached.
- July 31, 2025: The project lands at Peacock for development, reported by TheWrap and TVLine.
- August 4, 2026: Roth tells Douglas that Peacock passed.
- November 2, 2026: The comment becomes news.
That third movie is worth a moment. Back in May 2007, Roth said flatly, “I hate a lame third sequel, and I don’t want there to be one.” In July 2009 he confirmed he wouldn’t direct it, while giving the studio his blessing. So the series pitch was also a chance to take the brand back after 15 years away from it.
Photo: Jay Hernandez, star of the original Hostel , via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license).
By the Numbers
- Hostel (2005): $4.8 million budget, $82.2 million worldwide and a $19.6 million opening, per The Numbers. That is roughly 17 times its budget. Rotten Tomatoes 60%, CinemaScore C-.
- Hostel: Part II (2007): $10.2 million budget, $35.6 million worldwide, an $8.2 million opening. Rotten Tomatoes 44%, CinemaScore C.
- Hostel: Part III (2011): No theatrical release and no box office to report. Six reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Crystal Lake (2026): 1.3 billion minutes in 11 days, per NBCUniversal, and 1.7 billion in 14, per TheWrap, making it Peacock’s fourth-biggest scripted original debut.
TVLine’s combined figure of $116 million for the first two films is the number that explains why anyone wanted this IP in the first place. Those two movies together cost $15 million.
What This Really Means
The timing is what stings. Roth’s comment dates from August, and Peacock has since had a very good horror October. Crystal Lake , the A24-produced Friday the 13th prequel with Linda Cardellini as Pam Voorhees, premiered October 15 and did exactly what a slasher brand is supposed to do on streaming. It also arrived after two horror misses for the service: Hysteria! and Teacup each ended after one season. Our read: Peacock didn’t need a second hard-edged legacy property competing for the same audience, least of all one whose whole identity is being hard to watch. That part is our inference, since nobody at Peacock has explained the decision publicly.
There is a content question too. A slasher prequel gives a streamer a mystery, a mother with a grudge and a body count that can run eight episodes. Hostel is built on the slow, specific dread of captivity, and stretching that across a season is a much harder sell, for viewers and for advertisers. The reinvention pitch was presumably the answer to that problem, and we’ll likely never see whether it worked.
Here’s the optimistic case for Roth: theaters may be the better home anyway. At the top end, big-screen horror has had a monster year. iHorror counts three horror films past $400 million worldwide in 2026, Fangoria has Obsession above $500 million, and Collider reports Other Mommy reaching $100 million. Hostel was always a business built on tiny budgets and big returns, and a lean R-rated feature fits that model far better than an expensive prestige season.
Here’s the harder case. Roth’s own recent numbers are mixed, and Ice Cream Man shows that his self-distribution route, however admirable, hasn’t yet produced a hit. Meanwhile Thanksgiving 2 was postponed in January over its stars’ schedules, and it is the safer sequel on his slate. A Hostel feature probably needs a real studio partner, and a franchise whose first two films drew C-range CinemaScores doesn’t make that pitch automatic. It also needs a reason to exist beyond the name. The franchise’s best argument was always the shock of it, and shock doesn’t age well.
What would make it worthwhile is what made the original matter. Under the gore, the 2005 film was about Americans abroad who assume the world exists for their enjoyment, which is why it angered Slovak politicians and impressed a Le Monde critic who named it the best American film of 2006. That idea feels no less relevant now. Do it again with Giamatti as a guy who pays for the experience, and you’ve got something. That last bit is our fantasy casting, not a report.
What We Still Don’t Know
- Whether Giamatti would stay attached to a feature, or whether Fifth Season is still involved.
- Whether the scripts can be reworked into one film or two, and who would finance them.
- Whether Peacock will comment at all, or why it passed.
- Who controls the theatrical rights today. None of the reports address this.
- Where Thanksgiving 2 lands, since it’s competing for Roth’s next directing slot.
The Bottom Line
A streamer passing on a development project is normally a footnote. This one matters because it was the rare legacy-horror revival with an actual idea attached, and because it leaves one of the defining horror brands of the 2000s without a home again. Roth clearly isn’t letting it go. The question is whether anyone with a checkbook wants to go back to that factory with him.
So tell us: do you want a new Hostel in theaters, or should this franchise stay checked out?
Related on The Horror Feed
Header photo: Eli Roth via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license), cropped with text added.
Sources: Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central, JoBlo, Edward Douglas(interview write-up), Douglas interview video, TheWrap(July 2025), TVLine, NBCUniversal, TheWrap(October 2026), The Numbers, CarterMatt, TheWrap on Ice Cream Man, iHorror, Fangoria, Collider, Wikipedia: Hostel: Part III, Wikipedia: Ice Cream Man, Wikipedia: Thanksgiving.
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