New Movies and Series Streaming in April 2023 You Won’t Want to Miss

You may have heard the old saying that April showers bring May flowers. But what if the incessant rain happened in March — can the flowers and sunshine come now instead? If you’re an LA-based industry member feeling stuck in what seems like endless days of precipitation, at least you can make the most out of your time inside with our list of new movies and series streaming in April. And no matter where you’re located or what weather you’re experiencing, you can enjoy all the noteworthy performances in the following titles that you won’t want to miss.

April Films to Watch

On a Wing and a Prayer

If you have a fear of flying, this pick may not be for you. Or perhaps it is, should you want to face said fear with a based-on-a-true-story movie about a man who has to take over the controls of a private plane to save his family onboard after their pilot suffers a fatal heart attack. That is indeed the premise of the upcoming family feature On a Wing and a Prayer. Dennis Quaid stars as the real-life passenger-turned-pilot Doug White. Heather Graham portrays his wife Terri, who steps up to help co-pilot the plane in the film’s trailer. “It’s kind of everyone’s worst nightmare: that you’re on a plane and then the pilot dies and you just don’t know how to get down,” she told People. Jesse Metcalfe plays Kari Sorenson in the film, the experienced pilot who attempts to remotely instruct White on how to land the aircraft. Metcalfe calls the upcoming film a “nail-biter” that “keeps you on the edge of your seat,” and you can take in all the highs and lows of On a Wing and a Prayer when it releases on Prime Video on April 7.

Ghosted

The trailer for Apple TV+’s upcoming adventure comedy is giving us some serious Mr. & Mrs. Smith vibes. That is to say, Ana de Armas comes off as a kickass, capable spy a la Angelina Jolie’s Mrs. Smith from the 2005 film, and Chris Evans is basically Brad Pitt’s character if he were more a helpless damoiseau in distress. For reference, we hear Evans spit out, “I swallowed a rock” after he tumbles down the side of a mountain and face-plants hard in the Ghosted teaser. And yet, De Armas manages to remain calm and steady on her own two feet after the same slide down the mountainside. What is the setup for such a satisfying dynamic, you ask? Evans plays Cole, a salt-of-the-earth romantic who truly believes the reason Sadie (De Armas) stopped responding to his texts after their whirlwind romance is the fact she doesn’t have an international calling plan. So, he makes the big romantic gesture of traveling to London to surprise the woman who’s clearly ghosting him, only to discover she’s a secret agent. Cole becomes enmeshed in one of her missions, and together they embark on what Apple TV+ calls “an international adventure to save the world.” Such a romp is supported by other big names like Adrien Brody, Amy Sedaris, and Tim Blake Nelson. You can catch all these performances and more when Ghosted premieres on Apple TV+ come April 21.

The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die

Fans of The Last Kingdom, rejoice! The long-awaited feature film that follows the show’s 2022 finale is almost here. After originally debuting on BBC Two, the gritty period piece rose in popularity and was acquired by Netflix ahead of its third season. The Last Kingdom even landed fourteenth on Nielsen’s coveted list of most streamed original shows in 2022, so if you’ve been sleeping on the series, now’s your chance to catch up before its official conclusion with the upcoming feature. Seven Kings Must Die continues following Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Alexander Dreymon) and his band of loyal friends as they traverse a fractured kingdom after the death of King Edward (Timothy Innes) in hopes of finally uniting England. Fans of the show can expect to see lots of familiar faces, including Mark Rowely as Finan and Arnas Fedaravicius as Sihtric. You can keep an eye out for all these returning actors and more when Seven Kings Must Die drops on Netflix come April 14.

April Series to Watch

Jury Duty

Within a TV/film landscape of remakes and reboots comes a refreshingly new concept. Jury Duty is a docu-style comedy series that explores the inner workings of an American jury trial, primarily through the lens of a juror named Ronald Gladden. What the real-life solar contractor from San Diego, California doesn’t know is that the jury summons he received is fabricated, and the whole case is fake. Everyone besides Gladden is an actor — including James Marsden, who plays an alternate version of himself — and everything that happens in and out of the courtroom is carefully planned. “Jury Duty originated with a question: Was it possible to make a sitcom like The Office about a trial, populate it with brilliant comedic performers, and put a real person at the center of the show who doesn’t realize he’s surrounded by actors?” said executive producer Todd Schulman in a statement. You can see how the answer to that question came to fruition when Jury Duty premieres on Amazon’s Freevee come April 3, at which time you can also take in performances from an ensemble cast that includes names like Alan Barinholtz, Pramode Kumar, Evan Williams, Ishmel Sahid, and Cassandra Blair.

Tiny Beautiful Things

Cheryl Strayed executive produced the upcoming Hulu series that’s based on the book she wrote of the same name. And Tiny Beautiful Things showrunner Liz Tigelaar told Time that the lead character of the series, Clare (played by Kathryn Hahn in present day and Sarah Pidgeon in flashbacks), is an alternate-reality version of Strayed. Both the author/filmmaker and her main character married the wrong person at a young age, lost their mothers to cancer during college, and slipped into self-destruction. Tiny Beautiful Things centers on Clare’s journey to becoming a revered advice columnist — known as Sugar — amid her own life falling apart. Keep an eye out for Quentin Plair as Clare’s estranged husband Danny, Tanzyn Crawford as their daughter Rae, and Merritt Wever as Clare’s mother Frankie when Tiny Beautiful Things premieres on Hulu on April 7.

The Last Thing He Told Me

The upcoming Apple TV+ limited series proves that even the stars pitch themselves for projects. Jennifer Garner revealed in a featurette about the thriller that she wrote a letter to the filmmakers of The Last Thing He Told Me stating that she’d love the opportunity to play the lead character Hannah Hall. For her part, Laura Dave — who wrote the best-selling novel on which the series is based and adapted it for the screen alongside her husband Josh Singer — said that she can no longer imagine anyone else as the character. “Writing the book, Hannah was sort of amorphous in my mind,” the author and series creator shared. “Now, when I reread the book, it’s Jen’s face [I see]. And it will always be Jen’s face — she is [now] Hannah Hall to me.” Besides watching Garner in the starring role, you can also catch Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as her missing husband Owen, and Angourie Rice as his teenage daughter Bailey, who Hannah works with to discover the truth behind Owen’s disappearance. You can take in all the powerhouse performances that the series’ trailer teases when The Last Thing He Told Me releases on Apple TV+ come April 14.

From the nail-biter family feature On a Wing and a Prayer to the thriller series The Last Thing He Told Me — and some varied picks in between that run the gamut from period piece to docu-style comedy — this has been our list of new movies and series streaming in April that you don’t want to miss. And whichever titles make it onto your watchlist, each one comes packed with plenty of noteworthy performances to enjoy, regardless of if you see more rain or sunshine this month.

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