The international rights to Ron Leshem, the creator of the original Euphoria, and Hagar Ben-Asher’s Israeli juvenile prison series Bad Boy have been secured by streaming giant Netflix. The series, which now has a global release date window, was originally announced in March 2023 as the first joint co-production venture between Peter Chernin’s North Road Company and the Israel-based international entertainment studio Sipur. The movie was first shown to the public at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Ron Leshem’s Bad Boy to release worldwide on Netflix in 2025
Ron Leshem and Hagar Ben-Asher’s Bad Boy will debut outside Israel on Netflix in 2025 after the show airs domestically on the Israeli channel HOT. Notably, the streaming giant is active in over 190 territories worldwide.
When Bad Boy was first announced, Leshem claimed that it could be “the next Euphoria.” The new show, which draws inspiration from a true story, follows Dean. He becomes incarcerated at a brutal juvenile detention facility, where he encounters an enigmatic teenager named Zoro. Two decades later, Dean is a successful comedian who desperately wants to keep a lid on his past. The cast includes Daniel Chen, Guy Manster, and Havtamo Farda.
During an interview with Deadline before the show’s premiere at TIFF, Leshem reflected on how his experience as an investigative journalist pursuing a story in a juvenile prison influenced the narrative of Bad Boy. He saw 12-year-olds being housed in the same institutions as 18-year-old adults, and the idea for Bad Boy began to take shape. “I remember stepping into this place and one minute the kids would be singing Lion King songs and missing their mothers, while the next they were acting like monsters trying to kill each other,” Leshem said.
Initially, the characters in the original Euphoria were supposed to be born in prison, but that was scrapped. With Bad Boy, Leshem has finally found a way to utilize a juvenile prison as an important setting.
