By Sian L in Culture — 27 Sep 2026

Asa Butterfield takes on killer garden gnomes in Stan's new horror-comedy Gnomes, out 8 October

Stan's Victorian-made horror-comedy Gnomes, starring Asa Butterfield and Megan Smart, premieres on 8 October 2026, and it has already been sold to Disney+ in the UK and Ireland.

Stan's most unusual local commission of the year finally has a date. Gnomes, a horror-comedy about a country town overrun by murderous ceramic garden gnomes, premieres on Thursday 8 October 2026, only on Stan. It stars Sex Education's Asa Butterfield alongside Megan Smart, and was filmed in Victoria with an ensemble of well-known Australian comedy and drama names.

The story

Butterfield plays Senior Sergeant Arnold Kipps, whose routine day is upended when his ex-partner (and ex-girlfriend) Ellie McKay, played by Smart, arrives to shut down his police station in the small town of Nompton. Things escalate once an ancient Gnome Queen, played by Tess Haubrich, is awakened and unleashes a horde of killer gnomes. Kipps and McKay are forced to pull together a ragtag team of locals to stop her.

Stan pitches the tone as combining "the beloved, splatter-gore spirit of classic 80s monster mashups like Gremlins and the dark laugh-out-loud humour of Hot Fuzz."

ScreenHub reported that the series was shot in Melbourne, with Happy Accidents and Network Movie also listed among the producing partners when cameras started rolling.

A deep Australian bench

The supporting cast reads like a who's who of local screen comedy: Darren Gilshenan, Alison Whyte, Tegan Higginbotham, Matt Okine, Brett Tucker, Nicole Gulasekharam, Luke McGregor, Charlotte Nicdao, Emily Taheny, Nina Oyama, Ditch Davey, Oliver Edis, Leigh Lule, George Rayias and Mila Hourmouzis.

Cast members of Gnomes including Syd Brisbane, Brett Tucker and Ditch Davey — Part of the deep Australian comedy bench in Gnomes. Image: Stan

The series was created by Joel Kohn and written by Tegan Higginbotham and Paul F. Verhoeven. Matthias Hoene is lead director, with Sian Davies and Kohn also directing; according to IF Magazine, Kohn makes his directing debut with episode five. It is produced by John Molloy and Richard Kelly of Total Fiction with Screen Invaders, and was financed with support from Screen Australia, VicScreen and Scribble Films, with post-production support from Screen Queensland.

Already travelling overseas

Before its local debut, Gnomes has been picked up internationally. IF Magazine reports that Disney+ has acquired rights for the UK and Ireland, AMC Global Media has taken Spain and Portugal, and German broadcaster ZDFneo pre-bought the show. Producer John Molloy described it to IF as a "delightfully deranged show". The series was one of 14 new commissions Stan announced in 2025 and was presented to international buyers at Series Mania in Lille, France.