Netflix's serial-killer marketing has crossed a line that critics say gaming and superhero franchises drew long ago. The streamer's newest promotional video for 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story', the anthology's fourth instalment, recaps its previous killers with stylised portraits and title cards before unveiling Lizzie Borden in dramatic red tones.
Social media users have compared the format directly to superhero team-up trailers and fighting-game character reveals, arguing Netflix is packaging real murderers as a roster of collectible icons. The backlash marks an escalation from criticism of the Ed Gein season alone into a wider complaint about the franchise itself.
A Recap Video Built Like a Character Select Screen
The promotional video in question strings together dramatised portraits of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers and Ed Gein, each accompanied by a title card, before culminating in Lizzie Borden's reveal. The structure, critics say, mirrors how studios unveil new characters joining an existing lineup rather than how a broadcaster might promote a documentary series.
One widely circulated post described the clip as 'edited like a fighting game DLC announcement', a comparison that quickly spread beyond entertainment circles and into broader cultural commentary. Another post, which gathered more than 284,000 likes and 6.5 million views, told Netflix to 'stop treating serial killers like MCU characters'.
The 'Monster' anthology, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, began with 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' in 2022, followed by 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story' in 2024 and 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story' in October 2025.
'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story', starring Ella Beatty as the accused axe murderer alongside Charlie Hunnam and Rebecca Hall, premieres on Netflix on 17 September 2026, marking the franchise's first season built around a female subject.
Stop treating serial killers like MCU characters u fucking weirdos https://t.co/BMVVoIpJS1
— BUCHE MMA ☠️🔮 (@BUCHEMMA8) September 16, 2026
'They're Making a Serial Killer MCU'
The comparisons to Marvel's cinematic universe were not incidental. Multiple viral posts explicitly framed the promotional strategy as constructing a 'serial killer MCU', with one commonly shared post reading, 'they're making a serial killer MCU we have truly lost our damn minds.'
Other users focused less on the format and more on what it implies about how victims and their families are being treated.
One post read, 'imagine seeing ur relatives killer get a title card like invincible', referencing the animated superhero series known for its own stylised character reveals. Another questioned the broader business model outright, asking 'why does netflix have a serial killer cinematic universe.'
This is not the franchise's first brush with accusations that it treats killers as marketable characters rather than historical subjects.
Ahead of the Ed Gein season's release, viewers had already criticised Netflix for 'romanticising' the announcement of Charlie Hunnam's casting, with one person writing, 'these Ryan Murphy shows are making them into sex symbols,' and another arguing Gein 'should not be hot.'
A Pattern the Franchise Has Not Shaken
The Lizzie Borden backlash extends a controversy that has followed 'Monster' since its first season. Families of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims publicly said the original series was re-traumatising, and a Milwaukee attorney who had represented several families later called on Murphy to share profits with them.
Rapper Boosie Badazz separately called for a boycott of the Dahmer season, citing the racial makeup of Dahmer's victims.
The Ed Gein season fared little better critically. It received largely negative reviews on release, with critics panning its meta-commentary, runtime, graphic violence and factual inaccuracies, and viewers separately accusing its finale of turning Gein into 'a saintly figure, benevolently presiding over the world of serial killers'.
Despite the criticism, the season became a commercial success, drawing 12.2 million views globally in its first three days, reaching number one in 11 countries and earning seven Primetime Emmy nominations, including nods for Hunnam's performance.
That commercial success is precisely what fuels the newest wave of criticism. Detractors argue that renewing the franchise season after season, and marketing each new killer with the same stylised reveal treatment, incentivises Netflix to keep expanding what amounts to a shared universe of real-world violence.
Netflix has not issued a formal response to the 'fighting game' or 'MCU' comparisons, and neither the streamer nor Murphy's production company has indicated any change to how the anthology will be promoted going forward.
Whether 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story' can outrun the backlash its own trailer invited remains to be seen when the season premieres this week.
