Netflix Drops First 'Heartland' Trailer: Jessica Chastain's Country-Noir Mystery Arrives November 13

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 — Netflix has a new mystery-thriller headed to the top of your watchlist — and this one comes with a guitar. The streamer released the official trailer and poster for Heartland, the Jessica Chastain–led country-noir film that will begin streaming on November 13, 2026, according to When To Stream. It is not just a movie drop, either: Chastain sings in character on the soundtrack, and the album arrives that same day, as stated by Softonic — making Heartland one of Netflix’s more ambitious two-pronged launches of the fall season.

The plotA former “Queen of Mean” comes out of hiding

Chastain plays Misty Jones, a former Nashville country star once known as the “Queen of Mean,” who has spent two decades in seclusion when her rising-singer niece disappears, as stated by Softonic. Pulled out of retirement by the vanishing, Misty’s search for the young woman drags her back into Nashville’s seedy underbelly — the polished hitmaker forced to confront a rougher, uglier side of the city she left behind.

According to When To Stream, the story finds Misty grappling with her own past as her investigation unfolds, and her search “uncovers a murky side of Nashville where no one, including Misty, is who they seem.” It is the classic setup of the vanishing-relative thriller, filtered through the fame-and-family pressure cooker of the country music world: the missing niece is herself a rising country musician, so the case keeps Misty circling the industry that made her and broke her.

Early reads of the trailer suggest Netflix is leaning into the noir side of the genre. Softonic described the footage as having a “Taylor Sheridan meets Taken” energy, and the movie’s polished Southern-noir mood mixes fame, family and corruption into what looks like a revenge-driven mystery. If country-music thrillers are your lane, Softonic wrote, this one “looks like it could hit the spot.”

The castChastain, Nettles, Hedlund and a breakout debut

The cast around Chastain is stacked with country-adjacent credibility. According to When To Stream, the film stars Chastain alongside Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Garrett Hedlund, John Hawkes, Ross Lynch and Ben Dickey — Dickey himself a real-life country singer who turned heads playing Blaze Foley in Blaze. Softonic added that Carter Faith — the Nashville country singer making her acting debut in the film — rounds out the principal cast, and that the soundtrack also features songs from Margo Price, Carly Pearce, Eddy Dunlap, Channing Wilson and producer Dave “Fergie” Ferguson.

Behind the camera, Heartland was written and directed by Shana Feste, the filmmaker whose Country Strong — the Gwyneth Paltrow–Tim McGraw Nashville drama from 2010 — made her one of the few directors with genuine country-music bona fides, as stated by Softonic. Production started in Atlanta in late 2025, according to Softonic, a location that has become a stand-in capital for Music City stories. The pairing matters: Netflix has been leaning hard into star-driven original films this fall — including Ben Affleck’s Animals, which pairs a theatrical run with its own Netflix bow — and a Chastain-led music thriller slots neatly into that strategy.

The musicA soundtrack rollout built into the release

What sets Heartland apart from the usual thriller drop is how deliberately Netflix is rolling it out as a music project. Chastain performs in character on the soundtrack, including the title duet with Jennifer Nettles, which arrived alongside the trailer, as stated by Softonic. The album — featuring additional songs from Ross Lynch, Carter Faith, Margo Price, Carly Pearce, Eddy Dunlap, Channing Wilson and Dave “Fergie” Ferguson — lands the same day as the film, November 13, according to Softonic.

It is not Chastain’s first time in cowboy boots. She previously played a country singer in George & Tammy, the Showtime limited series about Tammy Wynette, and Softonic wrote that the Misty Jones part seems “like a strong fit for Chastain” after that performance. The difference here is the scale of the musical ask: rather than inhabiting an existing legend, she is building a fictional star — the “Queen of Mean” — whose songs have to stand on their own as an album, not just as score cues. With Nettles, Price and Pearce on the record, the music has genuine Nashville credentials behind it.

Netflix, for its part, clearly sees the trailer launch as the start of a two-month drumbeat toward November. When To Stream stated that the outlet has added the November 13 date to its streaming calendar, and the trailer is streaming now on Netflix’s channels — with more, including the Netflix Tudum hub at netflix.com/tudum, expected as the premiere approaches. Trailers have been flying this season — Focus Features just dropped a second trailer for its October 16 Sense and Sensibility — but few arrive with a full album attached.

The dateMark November 13 on the calendar

The headline date is simple: November 13, 2026, when Heartland begins streaming on Netflix and the soundtrack album lands, as stated by Softonic and confirmed by When To Stream’s calendar listing. Whether the film earns its “Taylor Sheridan meets Taken” billing or settles into something quieter, the launch strategy is already one of the fall’s most interesting — a thriller and an album, arriving together, built around a star willing to sing in character.

To keep it on your radar, track upcoming releases in Previously’s browse section, where November’s streaming calendar is taking shape. We’ll be watching for the full poster campaign and the rest of the soundtrack rollout in the weeks ahead.