Netflix releases Murdoch family docuseries

Netflix will release a four-part documentary series titled “Dynasty: The Murdochs” on 13 March, promising an “exhaustive history” of Rupert Murdoch’s rise and the family conflict over who controls his media empire. According to The Guardian, the series draws on “thousands of pages” of documents, emails and text messages and is directed primarily by Liz Garbus, produced by Story Syndicate.

The timing is not subtle. Murdoch, 94, and his eldest son Lachlan spent much of the past year fighting three other adult children—James, Elisabeth and Prudence MacLeod—in a Nevada dispute over the family trust. That fight ended in a multibillion-dollar settlement in September that, the Guardian reports, keeps Lachlan in control until at least 2050. A streaming platform turning that court drama into “prestige” documentary is not only packaging recent history; it is also buying a position in the ongoing contest over legitimacy, narrative and access.

Yet the series’ most notable feature may be what it does not have. No Murdochs participate, which the Guardian notes has become standard for projects about the family. Instead, the documentary is built around journalists and commentators who have covered the empire: New York Times reporters Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler, Atlantic writer McKay Coppins, and tech journalist Kara Swisher, alongside former employees from Murdoch-owned outlets and ex-Fox News staff such as Alisyn Camerota and David Shuster. That roster reveals the trade: when principals refuse interviews, producers assemble an alternative authority—reporters, documents and former insiders—while still hoping the subject matter remains close enough to power to retain value.

The Guardian is explicit that the series “may not break new ground” on the Murdoch story. It revisits familiar pillars—Fox News’ creation and influence, and the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World and weakened James Murdoch’s standing. For Netflix, that is often sufficient. The platform’s advantage is distribution and brand: it can present an already-reported saga as definitive, then let its recommendation machinery do what newspapers cannot—push the same narrative to a global audience for months.

This is also a way to occupy the space between entertainment and journalism without inheriting newsroom liabilities. Netflix can market a documentary as public-interest history while avoiding the standing obligations of a news organization: corrections regimes, beat accountability, or regulatory frameworks designed around broadcasters. The product is “content”, but the effect is closer to agenda-setting—especially when the story concerns the owners and operators of the legacy media system Netflix is steadily displacing.

“Dynasty: The Murdochs” arrives on Netflix on 13 March. The Murdochs themselves did not take part.