This is an archive article of the changes to the Roku City Neighborhood on your Roku device. These are all the changes we documented for 2025. Earlier temporary additions can be found in this archive article
Thank you to Morgyn W. for the head’s up
Internet consensus seems to be this a reference to the AppleTV show Plurbius
After a week of WhoKnewVille, Macy’s showed up on the street, just in time for Thanksgiving. 11/26/2025
Hedwig is missing as well as the steamer trunk from out front. Where did they go? Check the automobiles.
11/17/2025 – Zootopia sees the addition of
Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps out front of the Zootopia central Station, the front billboard takes you to the trailer. A ZPD Cruiser is parked out front of Donut Shop and Marsh Market
10/12/2025 – A hot air balloon appears in the neighborhood. Three buildings got some changes. The marquee on the theater, the billboard over Anthony’s Barbershop, and graffiti was added to the water tower at Forest Gump’s Apartment.
A bit of research on our part (Thank you Morgyn W.) we found out it’s Demi Lovato, she had a Roku channel show in 2021. Starting 9/14, Live from Roku City (I haven’t watched it yet.), Demi Lovato is preforming on the rooftop.
On September 19, 2025, the “Times Square Billboards” featured a tribute to Robert Redford (1936-2025) who passed away on 9/16/2025.
The center square declares his star status and reminds us of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.” Jim also correctly points out, that is a director’s chair and Mr. Redford was an accomplished director as well. On top of the Hollywood Chair are the Giza Pyramids, those COULD be a reference to “Out of Africa” 1985 (but I’m not sure). Clockwise from lower left we are reminded of his films “All the President’s Men” 1976, “The Natural” 1984, “The Candidate” 1972, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” 1969, “The Sting” 1973 (note the peel away revealing Mr. Redford’s silhouette), and “The Great Gatsby” 1974. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the top center could also be referencing “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” 2014.
Massive Update on 9/12/2025, Matt, Morgyn, Brandi, Marissa, Desiree, Faith C., Kevin, and Erin have all had their input all ready. Brand New Buildings added to the front. Updates to buildings already in the neighborhood will be noted at the building. Thank you to Faith C. for her help with images. Alas the update is gone. It was a massive shout out for the 2025 Emmys.
The Emmy Tribute from 9/25
Castaway Island has been replaced with Survivor Island from the CBS hit series.
The building to the right of the Chrysler Building has yet to be positively ID’ed
I still haven’t identified the building in front of the Roku Signal next to the Daily planet.
Flying over the Golden Gate Bridge is a U-Wing fighter from Star Wars Rogue One and Andor.
Desiree thinks that is the the Lumon water tower on the right side of the bridge.
The “7” Building has either someone jumping off or jumping onto the building. Caro thinks this is the Varo Tower from The Boys
New Buildings from Emmy Tribute Update 9/12/2025
Two new buildings and updates to existing ones.
There’s a new fancy castle with large deer with antlers sculptures out front. Kevin is wondering if it’s the Addams’ house from Wednesday. John H. speculates it’s from Stanger Things. Kendall and Dan H. are 100% positive that this is Andoss Castle, filming location of Traitors.
Morgyn thinks the van in the park could be in correlation to John Wayne Gacy? Researching it, in 2018, a resident of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, named William Hodson painted a van with an image of Gacy’s Pogo the Clown persona. But that clown looks nothing like this clown. Kendall wonders if it is a reference to It: Welcome to Derry. Bobby S. found a much closer reference from the “Injured Clown” episode of The Rehearsal
The Apartment Update 9/2025:
Salem the Cat has wandered off. Garfield’s window now has a ham hock hanging in the window. And the Christmas Story lamp has been replaced by a hat hanging on a hat rack. The hat looks like Chuck Mangione’s hat from the Thrift Shop that appeared on the street in July 2025. Desiree wonders if the new items are Only Murders in the Building. Kendall confirms the building is now an homage to Only Murders in the Building. “The apartment color windows I think is almost certainly Only Murders since those colors are used in the opening theme to correspond to the 3 main character’s apartment windows. Also, Steve Martin’s character wears a similar hat.” So my question now is, Why is there a ham hock hanging in the blue window? Desiree S. points out that some of the characters from the fourth season have a ham hock hanging in their bathroom.
Barber Shop Update 2025 That’s a sandwich of some sort on the billboard. Faith C. thinks it’s meatball sub. Bobby S. thinks it’s McRib. Kendall thinks it could be referencing The Bear. Now I’m hungry.
The Power Plant Update Marissa points out the fungus growing on the building are Cordyceps from The Last of Us. Marissa, Matt and Becca have each identified the Fireflies logo spraypainted on the open warehouse door.
Movie Theater Emmy Update: Matt’s hypothesis is that the poster on the left is reference to White Lotus. Morgyn wonders if the golf cart is a reference to Happy Gilmore. I’m thinking the right poster is a reference to Siskel and Ebert, from their various movie review shows. Kathryn M. is convinced the right post is referencing The Shrinking. Dan H. reminded me that the 77th Emmys are being held tonight (9/14/2025) at the Peacock Theater and the White Lotus has the most nominations. So the poster on the left could be a reference to both. And the Emmys would tie the golf cart to The Studio.
Times Square Emmy Update 9/2025
Erin has identified The Thronglets from the Black Mirror episode “Plaything” on the sign. Matt and I both want to know who the woman is, Dan H. thinks it’s RuPaul. Riley S. has evidence in the comments that it is Trixie Mattel.
The NWSL has a Roku portal.
Look at all the apartment lights go on as folks stay in to watch howdy
This promotion seems to have left as of 9/1/2025
A sofa was added to the third floor middle window of the Apartment building
The Thrift Shop
The Thrift Shop has the tagline “The Classics Live Forever” on the side of the building. The three window displays are tributes to three celebrities we lost in July.
The torn shirt represents WWF legend Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea aka Hulk Hogan: August 11, 1953 – July 24, 2025). Though Andrew T. thinks it could be a reference for Malcolm-Jamal Warner (August 18, 1970 – July 20, 2025) from a specific episode of The Cosby Show
The poster with the bat represents Ozzy Osbourne (John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne: December 3, 1948 – July 22, 2025).
The hat resting on top of the Flugelhorn represents Chuck Mangione (Charles Frank Mangione: November 29, 1940 – July 22, 2025)
Leslie asked about this new addition to the Neighborhood. After some digging we discovered it is the new Experian Ad on Roku. The guy sitting on the park bench is your BFF (Big Financial Friend)
(Not sure when this appeared)
(Not sure when this appeared)
2025 Temporary street vehicles
(it’s hard to make out in this sceenshot but Hedwig is in the back seat)
Interesting bit of trivia, the LeBaron was purposefully decorated to look like the Truckster Station Wagon from Vacation (seen behind parked at the diner).
Vulcan Stev's Database 
Hear me out. Now that you’ve done all this work bringing this portion of the ever changing city to its own article, have you considered the possibility of splitting it further? Have an article for the product placement items and another for the actual movie/TV related items? I ask this as someone who doesn’t have to spend the time and effort redoing the work. 😆
You’re becoming a mini archive.org for this.
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Are you thinking mini articles linked to the main article that give a bit more in depth information over the “This feature of This Building is inspired by This”?
I’ve given it some thought.
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That sounds like even more work than what I was suggesting. I was just talking about a simple two-way split.
Things like Olive Garden and Capital one’s big financial friend are product placement. They get their own spin-off.
Things like the Robert Redford memorial and the Barbie van and house are entertainment tie-ins and they get their own spin-off.
I think that the ongoing changes to core buildings, like “Hello, Carol” on the movie theater, the Fireflies graffiti on the warehouse and the Subway ad on the apartment building would either go to the category they fit or stay with the main article wit that building.
Keep in mind that this was a passing thought, not a serious suggestion. You put enough work into it as is.
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Where my thoughts were going yesterday as worked on the two archives was this, keeping the main article with all of its current Google-Fu as the year to date. Adding new content as it appears on the street and any “new” older items added to the archive (ie the SUperbowl additions I came across yesterday)
As I have time, I’ll do an occasional Deep Dive into the addition (like I did with Channel 6 [still not convinced I’ve found them all]) and post a new Deep Dive article linked back to the main article where the change is listed.
This keeps everything where folks can find it without taking on the Herculean task of developing a Roku Neighborhood wiki)
For example The Robert Redford tribute on the “Times Square” BUilding. The Deep Dive could include a brief bio of Redford, his filmography and TV-Guide-esque capsulized listings of the movie being called out.
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You are indeed a glutton for punishment 😂. I’ll be looking forward to it.
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