Ian McKellen fronts Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers as Hulu adds the film this week. The release gives viewers a fresh chance to see a 2025 title that mixes a character study with a caper, and it puts McKellen’s Julian Sklar back in front of an audience that may know Soderbergh best from Ocean’s Eleven, Out of Sight and Traffic.
The Christophers on Hulu
The Christophers stars Michaela Coel as Lori, an art restorer pulled into a job proposal from her old art school friend Sallie and Sallie’s brother Barnaby. Lori is asked to finish painting sketches Julian began so they can be sold after he dies, which turns the project into a deal about authorship, money and who gets to profit from an artist’s name.
Julian Sklar is played by Ian McKellen as a renowned artist who has stopped creating new works. That setup gives the film its central pressure point: Lori is handling a task that is part restoration and part resale, while Julian’s name carries the market value everyone else is trying to control.
Steven Soderbergh since 2016
Soderbergh announced in 2013 that he would be retiring from filmmaking, then later clarified that he only meant to take a break from films. Since returning to film in 2016, he has made The Christophers, and that history makes this Hulu arrival feel less like a routine library drop than the latest stop in a career that never really stayed quiet.
The film was shot in London, which fits its focused scale: two stubborn artists, a work in progress and a sale built around what happens after death. The Christophers is also described as part character study and part caper, and that combination should matter to anyone looking for a Soderbergh project that plays his business instincts against his taste for pressure and control.
Lori and Julian
For viewers, the practical move is simple: The Christophers is on Hulu this week, so the film is moving from a release window into immediate streaming access. That makes it the right watch for anyone who wants McKellen in a role built around withheld ambition, or Coel in a story where the job itself is the conflict.
The one detail Hulu still leaves open is timing inside the week, not the release itself. If you were waiting to line it up around a new streaming slate, the film is now in play; the only thing missing is the exact day it lands.
