Netflix Abruptly Cancels Its Live-Action Anime Thriller After 3 Seasons

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Before Squid Game became a viral hit, Netflix released the live-action adaptation of Alice in Borderland. The show premiered back in 2020 and recently released its third season in September 2025. The Season 3 finale ended with a tease for a potential spin-off, featuring a new protagonist. However, a new update from Netflix reveals that this won't be the case: the show has ended once and for all.

According to a press article by Netflix titled "What We Watched the Second Half of 2025," the streaming giant shared a list of shows and films that landed in the streaming charts between July and December. Some of them included Kpop Demon Hunters, Stranger Things Season 5, Squid Game, and, of course, Alice in Borderland. However, in the report, Netflix called the Japanese series "the third and final season," meaning that there is no spin-off or fourth season in the works. The show has come to an end.

Alice in Borderland is a thriller series that follows Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), a young man who ends up in the borderlands, forced to compete in life-or-death games to survive and extend his visa. Throughout the show, he forms alliances and slowly learns the truth of the borderlands and who's behind the death games. Since its release, Alice in Borderland has received praise from fans and critics alike, earning a 78% critic score and an 80% audience score.

'Alice In Borderland's Ending Explained

Season 3 of Alice in Borderland loosely adapts Alice on Borderland RETRY, a 2020 sequel to the original manga, which had only two volumes. In Season 3, after returning to the real world, Arisu is forced to return to the Borderlands once more to save his wife, Usagi (Tao Tsuchiya), who was lured to play the games once more. It ends with Arisu finally saving his wife and rejecting an offer to become a Citizen. However, before his return, he was warned that a larger catastrophe was coming, bringing more people to the Borderlands. Before the credits rolled, the final scene leaves Japan and enters the U.S., where reports of a series of earthquakes across the globe are shown, and pans to a faceless character named Alice.

There were a handful of reasons why the Season 3 finale sparked speculation for another installment. One of them is the spin-off manga Alice on Border Road, which introduces new characters while set in the same universe. The Season 3 finale also sparked speculation about a potential U.S. spin-off, given how Squid Game ended. Both shows followed a similar premise: people competing in life-or-death games, only for the final scene to take place in America. Additionally, it was already confirmed that a U.S. adaptation of Squid Game is in the works. So, the way Alice in Borderland concluded led viewers to speculate that it was heading in the same direction.

Alice in Borderland is available to stream on Netflix. Follow Collider to stay updated.