Former One Direction members Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik are reuniting for a multi-million-pound Netflix road trip series, according to reports. Filming has already started on the documentary, which will follow the pair as they travel across the United States.
The series, expected to air next year, will mark ten years since One Direction split in 2016. It comes in the wake of Liam Payne’s death in 2024, which insiders say brought the band closer together. Payne died aged 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina. His funeral, held in November last year, saw Louis, Zayn, Harry Styles and Niall Horan reunite for the first time since 2016.
The upcoming Netflix project will feature Louis and Zayn reflecting on their lives and memories from their time in the group. The pair have not worked together publicly since Zayn’s departure from One Direction in 2015, and their renewed partnership follows years of tension between the two.
Zayn Malik’s decision to leave the band in March 2015 strained his relationship with the remaining members, but his feud with Louis Tomlinson was the most public.
Just weeks after his exit, the two traded harsh messages on Twitter. When Louis mocked a photo of Zayn with producer Naughty Boy, Zayn fired back: “@Louis_Tomlinson remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine?”
Although Zayn later “liked” a photo of Louis’s newborn son in 2016, he admitted they were “not talking on friend terms.” Later that year, after Louis’s mother died, Zayn reached out privately. But Louis later revealed he was hurt when Zayn didn’t attend his X Factor finale performance, which was his first solo appearance, despite saying he would.
By 2022, fans began to speculate that the feud had cooled. When Liam Payne made controversial comments about his bandmates on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Zayn posted an Instagram clip of himself hitting the high note from the One Direction ballad You and I – a moment widely seen as a response.
Louis liked the post, a small but significant gesture that sent fans into overdrive, fuelling speculation that the two were on better terms.
The Netflix series is set to air in 2026 and will chart Louis and Zayn’s journey across America. Both artists have strong ties to the US: Louis spends much of his time there, while Zayn has lived in Pennsylvania since 2018. Niall Horan owns a home in the Hollywood Hills, and Harry Styles has spent years based between Los Angeles and London.