Death Note Movies Explained With Every Action
Published: August 2026 | Category: Blog | Reading Time: 10 min
Death Note movies explained and ranked, from best to most divisive — because most fans are surprised to learn there isn’t just one live-action Death Note movie. There are five, spread across nearly two decades, and they range from genuinely excellent to famously controversial. This is the complete death note movie order, what each one actually gets right or wrong, and where to start if you’ve only ever read the manga.
If you’re only aware of the 2017 Netflix version, you’re missing most of the story.
Death Note (2006) and Death Note: The Last Name (2006)
The original Japanese live-action duology is where the franchise’s film history actually begins, and it’s still considered by most longtime fans to be the gold standard for adapting this story outside of the manga and anime.
The first film, simply titled Death Note, covers Light’s discovery of the notebook and the early cat-and-mouse setup with L. Its direct sequel, Death Note: The Last Name, picks up the pace dramatically and adapts the story through L’s arc. Together, they compress a sprawling manga into a tight two-film structure, and while some subplots get trimmed or altered for pacing, the core dynamic between Light and L survives largely intact. Tatsuya Fujiwara’s take on Light and Kenichi Matsuyama’s L are still the performances most fans measure every later adaptation against.
If you’re wondering where to start with the live-action side of Death Note, this is it.
L: Change the World (2008)
A spin-off rather than a sequel, L: Change the World follows L in the weeks before his death, dealing with a separate bioterrorism plot rather than continuing the Light/Kira storyline directly. It’s the most skippable entry for anyone focused purely on the main story, but it’s worth knowing it exists if you’re trying to track down every piece of the franchise, since it’s frequently left off casual watch-order lists entirely.
Death Note: New Generation (2016) and Death Note: Light Up the New World (2016)
This is the pair most casual fans have genuinely never heard of. Death Note: New Generation is a short web series that acts as a bridge, introducing new characters and setting up the events of the feature film that follows it. Death Note: Light Up the New World is a direct sequel to the original 2006 duology, set a decade after L’s death, with an entirely new cast of Death Note holders competing against a new generation of investigators.
It’s an original story rather than a manga adaptation, which makes it a genuinely different experience than everything else on this list — more of an ensemble thriller than a two-hander between Light and L. Reception has been mixed, but it’s worth knowing about if you’ve already exhausted the main films and want to see where the Japanese franchise took the concept next.
The 2017 Netflix Death Note Movie
This is almost certainly the version most people searching death note netflix movie 2017 actually mean, and it’s also the most divisive entry in the franchise by a wide margin.
Directed by Adam Wingard and relocating the story to an American high school, the film stars Nat Wolff as Light Turner and Lakeith Stanfield as L, with Willem Dafoe voicing Ryuk. The core premise stays the same — a notebook that kills, a genius detective closing in — but the tone shifts considerably, leaning harder into horror-movie beats and a much more impulsive, less calculating version of Light than the manga’s methodical mastermind.
Is the Death Note Netflix movie good? Critical and fan reception was largely negative on release, with the most common complaint being that it strips out the psychological chess match that makes the source material distinctive, replacing careful long-game strategy with a more reactive teen-horror plot. It’s not without defenders — some appreciate it as its own standalone horror-thriller rather than a strict adaptation — but going in expecting a faithful death note movie vs manga experience is where most of the disappointment comes from.
Death Note Movies Ranked: Best to Worst
Putting it all together, here’s how the franchise generally stacks up by fan and critical consensus:
- Death Note (2006) / The Last Name (2006) — the definitive live-action take, closest in spirit to the manga’s battle of wits
- Death Note: Light Up the New World (2016) — a solid, if lesser-known, original continuation for fans who want more after the main story
- L: Change the World (2008) — a decent spin-off, but inessential unless you’re a completionist
- Death Note (2017, Netflix) — visually competent but a major tonal departure that alienated much of the built-in fanbase
What About the New Netflix Series?
If you’re also wondering about the upcoming Duffer Brothers Death Note television series — a completely separate project from the 2017 film — that’s a different story with its own development timeline. We cover that in detail in our Death Note Netflix Series update.
Frequently Asked Questions
Haven’t read the source material yet? Start with the complete Death Note manga guide or jump straight into Chapter 1 free on Manga Hive. Prefer the anime? Check our Watch Order guide or where to stream it legally.
