Roku's First Original Movie Is A Christmas Special Based On An NBC Show

This holiday season will bring Roku's first original movie, one that will be made available on the company's free ad-supported Roku Channel streaming service. The Christmas special will be based on the NBC show Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and it will include the original cast from the series. Once it arrives, Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas will be Roku's first original feature film.

Roku made its first big jump into original content with its acquisition of defunct company Quibi's content library. The first of these acquired shows — including new seasons for some that already premiered — were recently made available on The Roku Channel, which is available for free on a variety of devices, including mobile and desktop.

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is an NBC comedy-drama series about a coder named Zoey who has the strange ability to learn about other people's deepest desires when they sing popular songs. The show premiered on NBC in January 2020 and will now get its own Christmas special.

It's an interesting move that Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas will arrive on The Roku Channel rather than Peacock, but regardless, it'll be free for anyone in the United States to stream starting this fall season. The production kicks off in Vancouver this month; the Christmas special will also be available to streamers in the UK and Canada, but it's unclear whether it will premiere in those markets at the same time as in the US.

According to Roku, the Christmas special will start where the show's second season ended. The show's creator Austin Winsberg said:

I am so extremely grateful to The Roku Channel for helping us get Zoey to sing again. I can't think of a more appropriate time to hear someone's heart song than the holidays. And Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas will be an opportunity to provide the fans and new viewers alike a chance to all tap their toes and get in the holiday mood. This show has always been about empathy, compassion and the triumph of the human spirit. The Roku Channel has sure lifted mine and I hope that our film can have the same effect on viewers everywhere...