‘The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Documentary Sets March 2026 Netflix Premiere
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, Chad Smith, Pinkpop Festival, Landgraaf, Holland, 04/06/1990. (Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images)
Netflix has boarded the secretive new documentary on rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers in March 2026, following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival last year while being shopped. It’s scheduled to drop the streamer globally on March 20th, 2026.
Few bands have managed to bottle pure Californian chaos quite like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, the group fused funk basslines, punk energy, and psychedelic rock into a sound that somehow felt both reckless and radio-ready. Frontman Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, guitarist John Frusciante, and drummer Chad Smith became the lineup most fans associate with the band, delivering era-defining albums like Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication
This new origin story document rewinds to the band’s childhood, with Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and Hillel Slovak tracing their formation. It features interviews with Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, Jack Irons, and George Clinton, among others.
Ben Feldman serves as the director of the project, having previously worked on the documentary limited series for Freevee, Bug Out, and Rich & Shameless for TNT. John Tarquinio serves as editor on the documentary feature. Asta Entertainment, Submarine Entertainment and Polygram Entertainment are behind the film.
We reached out to Netflix about the documentary more than a month ago, after the film received an R-rating for language and drug content. They declined to comment at the time, but Variety got the exclusive this morning.
In a statement to the outlet, director Ben Feldman said, “It’s a true honor to partner with Netflix to bring ‘The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ to a global audience. At its heart, this is a deeply relatable story — about the friendships that shape our identities and the lasting power of the bonds forged in adolescence,” adding, “What’s less relatable, of course, is that here those friends went on to create one of the greatest rock bands in history. I’m profoundly grateful to the band and to Hillel’s family for their trust and generosity, and to Netflix for helping bring this story to the world stage.”
This is the second Red Hot Chili Peppers project to hit Netflix over the past year, with the band collaborating with David Fincher via Love, Death and Robots for the controversial fourth volume of the animated anthology series, where their song Can’t Stop was brought to life with puppets.
