The Whisper Man: Release Date, Time, Cast, Plot, and Everything We Know

Netflix is saving one of its biggest movies for the end of August. The Whisper Man is based on Alex North’s bestselling novel, and the cast, featuring Robert De Niro and Adam Scott, alone is a good enough reason to watch.

This is also the first time De Niro and Michael Keaton have shared the screen since Jackie Brown back in 1997. The Russo brothers are producing through AGBO, and James Ashcroft is directing. The movie is a missing-child mystery built around a killer who lured young boys by whispering outside their windows at night.

The Whisper Man Release Date and Time

The Whisper Man hits Netflix on Friday, August 28, 2026. Netflix usually adds new titles at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time, so the exact moment it shows up depends on where you are. Here is roughly when to start refreshing.

Time Zone	Release Time	Corrected Date
US Pacific (PDT)	12:00 AM	August 28, 2026
US Mountain (MDT)	1:00 AM	August 28, 2026
US Central (CDT)	2:00 AM	August 28, 2026
US Eastern (EDT)	3:00 AM	August 28, 2026
US Alaska (AKDT)	11:00 PM	August 27, 2026
US Hawaii (HST)	9:00 PM	August 27, 2026
United Kingdom (BST)	8:00 AM	August 28, 2026
Europe (CEST)	9:00 AM	August 28, 2026
Saudi Arabia (AST)	10:00 AM	August 28, 2026
UAE (GST)	11:00 AM	August 28, 2026
India (IST)	12:30 PM	August 28, 2026
Philippines (PHT)	3:00 PM	August 28, 2026
Singapore (SGT)	3:00 PM	August 28, 2026
Japan (JST)	4:00 PM	August 28, 2026
Australia (AEST)	5:00 PM	August 28, 2026

The film runs 1 hour and 54 minutes and carries an R rating.

The Whisper Man Cast: Who Are the Movie’s Star-Studded Cast?

Adam Scott plays Tom Kennedy, a widowed crime writer whose eight-year-old son, played by Acston Luca Porto, is taken. He turns to his estranged father played by Robert De Niro, a retired detective who put away a serial killer called ‘The Whisper Man’ thirty years ago. The old case and the new one start to look connected.

Michelle Monaghan is Detective Amanda Beck, the officer working the new disappearance alongside Pete. And then there is Michael Keaton, who appears as Frank Carter, the imprisoned killer himself. Keaton is not in Netflix’s top billing, which makes the casting feel like a deliberately guarded card.

The Whisper Man cast	Their roles
Robert De Niro	Detective Inspector Pete Willis
Michelle Monaghan	Detective Amanda Beck
Adam Scott	Tom Kennedy
Michael Keaton	Frank Carter
Will Brill	Sgt. John Dyson
Acston Luca Porto	Jake Kennedy

Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague, and John Carroll Lynch fill out the ensemble, with Will Brill as Sgt. John Dyson. Director James Ashcroft is coming off The Rule of Jenny Pen and Coming Home in the Dark. The script is written by The First Omen fame Ben Jacoby and It fame Chase Palmer.

The Whisper Man Plot: What Is the Robert De Niro Movie About?

Adam Scott’s Tom Kennedy moves to the quiet town of Featherbank with Jake after his wife’s sudden death, hoping the change will help them both. What he does not know is that Featherbank has a dark history. Twenty years earlier, Frank Carter abducted and killed five children there.

He earned his nickname from how he approached them, standing outside their bedroom windows at night and whispering until they came out. Then another boy vanishes, and the details line up far too neatly with Carter’s old crimes.

Carter has been locked up since Pete arrested him, so he cannot be doing this, which revives an old theory that he never worked alone. When Jake starts hearing tapping and a soft voice at his own window, Tom has to go to the one person he has spent years avoiding.

AGBO chief creative officer Angela Russo-Otstot told Tudum that the movie is “a gripping thriller, but at its core [it] is a poignant and complex story of father and sons.” Author Alex North shared about the idea of the movie:

It’s an inherently frightening idea, the idea that anybody could be reaching out to your child or talking secretly to them. It works really, really well in the film. I was pleased it was there.

The author and director Ashcroft also agreed that the father-son relationship was the real engine of the story (via Tudum). These two damaged father-son pairs sit at the center of a serial killer story.

The Whisper Man Trailer: What Does It Reveal?

Netflix released the trailer in July. It opens with a creepy scene with the serial killer’s voice and a cassette labelled “Bobby.” It then cuts to Michelle Monaghan’s character reading what appears to be a riddle. As she reads it, the trailer teases the mystery of the movie.

Later, we see Tom and Pete in a diner, where Pete tells him, “Son, I’m sorry that it took this to get us together.” However, Tom shuts it down flat, making clear this is a request for help and nothing more.

From there it lays out the impossible math. Carter is in prison, while children are disappearing anyway. The teaser closes on a cassette labelled “Jake,” and the voice on it asking whether the boy has anything else to say to his father.

Where to Watch The Whisper Man?

The Whisper Man is a Netflix original, so a subscription is the only way to watch it. There is no theatrical run to wait on and no other platform picking it up.

Are you excited for the new thriller starring Robert De Niro? Let us know in the comments below!