Netflix has bought the TV rights to Understudy, a short story by speculative-thriller author Nicholas Binge, in a deal reportedly worth more than a million dollars, according to Deadline and TheWrap. Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Steven Yeun are attached to executive produce, and Binge himself will write the adaptation.

No plot details have been released. Given Binge's back catalogue, expect something that sits somewhere between science fiction and psychological horror, which is the lane he's built his name in.

Lord and Miller come to this through their Lord Miller banner's first-look deal with Netflix, signed in 2024 after their long-running pact with Sony Pictures Television wrapped up. Yeun brings it in via Celadon Pictures, his own first-look arrangement with the streamer, the same setup that produced Season 2 of Beef.

Who's actually going to star in it

Here's where the two trade reports don't quite line up. TheWrap says flatly that Yeun isn't attached to act in Understudy, that no acting deals exist for the project at all. Deadline reports the same absence of a formal deal but adds that there's an intention for Yeun to eventually star. Nobody has confirmed a cast, so treat any casting chatter as exactly that for now.

The producing credits are stacked. Alongside Binge, Lord and Miller, the executive producer list includes Aditya Sood and Dan Shear for Lord Miller, and Christina Oh for Celadon.

This isn't Binge's only project in motion. His novel White Smoke, published under the pseudonym Nick Brucker, sold to A24 UK with Benedict Cumberbatch attached to star. Another book, Dissolution, is being adapted at Sony Pictures by Eric Heisserer, with Chronology and Temple Hill producing. Binge is having a moment, and Understudy adds a third project to a fairly crowded slate.

The deal also fits a pattern trade watchers have flagged before. A year ago, Chandler Baker's short story Discretion went through a competitive bidding process before A24 picked it up, with Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning attached, and Paramount+ eventually won the rights with a straight-to-series order. Short stories turning into premium TV packages with A-list producers attached before a single script page exists is becoming its own micro-trend in the streaming business.

Yeun, meanwhile, has plenty on his plate already. He's set to star in the supernatural drama Pagan (or Pagans, depending on which outlet you check) from Joshua Zetumer, and he'll next appear opposite Ben Affleck in Affleck's Netflix film Animals, following their earlier collaboration on The Rip. Lord and Miller, for their part, are coming off Project Hail Mary, which pulled in $684.3 million at the box office and is drawing Oscar talk.

Understudy is one of several competitive packages Netflix has picked up this week, alongside a Lonesome Dove adaptation from Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart, the same pair behind the East of Eden limited series premiering in October. Whether Understudy moves to a formal series order, and whether Yeun ends up in front of the camera, are the two things worth watching next.