When the news broke at the start of month that Netflix had cancelled 1899, their genre-juggling supernatural horror series, after one seemingly well-received series, it sent a shudder through the streaming industry. Shows get axed all the time in Hollywood, but 1899 seemed pretty cancel-proof. After all, its creators, Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, were also behind Dark, the German sci-fi show that helped birth the idea of Netflix as an international hit factory. Produced by Friese and Odar’s Netflix-backed Dark Ways studio, 1899, it was hoped, would be a model for how planet-conquering series would get made: amassing a global cast on a revolutionary virtual production stage, and slotting it into a moreish puzzle-box mystery series.
Initial signs were good: a number two placing among Netflix’s English language titles in its first three weeks, and talk of a further two series mapped out by its creators. Then, suddenly, the chop came – both a bizarrely rash decision and a fitting coda. In 2022, it felt like years of rampant speculation, growth and churned-outcontent had come back to bite the industry. Here are a few of the worrying signs of a streaming universe dangerously in flux.
