1899 series canceled on Netflix after one season, creators confirm

1899, Netflix’s baffling mystery thriller, has been canceled after one season. In a statement on Instagram, the show’s co-creators, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Freise, confirmed that the ambitious multilingual series is no longer developing on its arc, disappointing waiting fans and theorizing the many unsolved puzzles. of the show. Although the pair never explicitly revealed the reason for the removal, the statement seemed to suggest that Netflix disagreed with their ideas for seasons 2 and 3, ultimately ending the project itself.

“With heavy hearts, we must tell you that ‘1899’ will not be renewed,” the statement read. “We would have loved to end this incredible journey with a second and third season like we did with ‘Dark’. But sometimes things don’t go the way you planned. That’s life.” The creators, who rose to prominence with the German sci-fi series Dark, concluded their speech by thanking fans for their support. Given the series’ overwhelming popularity, it’s strange to see Netflix make this decision. In its first week of release – launching on November 17, 2022 – the show easily cracked the Top 10 streamers, racking up 79.27 million hours of viewing, trailing The Crown season 5. In the week that followed, 1899 overtook the British monarchy. drama for second place, sitting comfortably behind Jenna Ortega’s record headed Wednesday.

As an – unrelated – sequel to Odar and Freise’s Dark, 1899 focused on a group of European emigrants traveling to a new continent, hoping to start a new life, which takes a horrific turn when they encounter another migrant ship, the Prometheus, pitting the passengers against a mysterious series of events. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter last year, the creators revealed that they already had plans for the direction of the show in the now canceled two seasons. “We always like to have an ending before we start. We want to know where we’re going. We’re going through a story and we want to know how it’s going to be resolved at the end,” Freise said in the interview. “In the middle, it can there be ideas that are looser. And as we go through the process, ideas can change and evolve into a different position.”

The eight-episode series featured an ensemble cast, speaking in 12 different languages, as a means of representing different European cultures. 1899 was also the first television series after The Mandalorian to use new LED Volume technology to create visual sets, which essentially relied on giant digital screens for the background, instead of a green/blue screen. In order to create the effect of continuity when moving from camera to camera between characters, the Star Wars show crew would shoot in one direction on day one and then in the other direction on day two. In 1899, however, the team simply placed the screens on a turntable, which allowed them to spin the assembly easily.

All eight episodes of 1899 are currently streaming on Netflix. The studio did not disclose the reason for the cancellation.

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