Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster franchise has become one of Netflix’s most recognizable true-crime anthologies, moving from a contemporary serial killer case to one of America’s most controversial family murder trials, then back into the mythology of a notorious killer before making a major shift with its fourth installment.
The series launched in 2022 with DAHMER — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starring Evan Peters as the Milwaukee serial killer. The season became a global Netflix phenomenon, accumulating 1 billion viewing hours in its first 60 days and earning 13 Emmy nominations.
Season two, Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story, turned to the brothers convicted of murdering their parents in 1989. Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez played Erik and Lyle, with the series generating renewed attention around the brothers’ claims of abuse and the broader question of how their case was understood by the public and justice system.
The third installment, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, arrived with Charlie Hunnam portraying the Wisconsin killer whose crimes helped inspire fictional villains including Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill. The season opened with 12.2 million global views in its first three days and reached No. 1 in 11 countries.
Now comes Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, starring Ella Beatty as the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe in 1892. The season also introduces Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos, creating an explicit thematic connection between two generations of infamous female killers.
So who comes next?
There is no officially announced Season 5 subject, but several possibilities have emerged. Showrunner Ian Brennan has said the creative team has considered Dennis Rader, better known as BTK, and Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. Luigi Mangione has also entered the conversation, although Brennan has stressed that the subject remains a complicated and premature possibility.
Ted Bundy, meanwhile, appears less likely. Murphy previously said he had rejected a Bundy season because he did not see a sufficiently compelling social theme for the anthology to explore.
Another possibility comes from inside the cast. Charlie Hunnam has publicly floated Roy DeMeo, the notorious Gambino crime figure, as a potential subject. Murphy, however, has indicated little interest in taking Monster into the organized-crime world.
For now, the safest prediction is that Season 5 will remain within Monster‘s established territory: a notorious real-life figure whose story offers Murphy and Brennan more than murder alone, with questions about society, media, gender, celebrity or the machinery surrounding the crime providing the larger dramatic hook.