Netflix's trippy German time-travel series, Dark, ran for three seasons and was a worldwide success. Now its creators, Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar will be bringing a new series to Netflix; the period mystery drama 1899.
The series will be set on a migrant boat sailing from Europe to the United States in 1899. Along the voyage, the boat encounters another migrant ship adrift at sea and their journey is soon turned into a nightmare. During an interview with Deadline, Friese and Odar did not discuss the plot more in-depth just yet, but they did say, "Knowing that we did Dark, everyone can be assured that this is going to be something weird and wild and crazy." The show likely won't involve time travel again, as was the case with Dark, because the duo noted that they don't want to repeat themselves with 1899. However, they did tease that viewers will find a fun puzzle in 1899, which brings the creators back their mystery roots, saying, "All the passengers on the ship are traveling with secrets that they don’t want to get out. It’s built like a puzzle again."
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1899 will feature a massive ensemble cast. The cast includes Emily Beecham, who will soon be seen in Disney's Cruella opposite Emma Stone, Aneurin Barnard (The Goldfinch), Miguel Bernardeau (Elite), Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones), Maciej Musial (The Witcher), and Dark's Andreas Pietschmann, along with many others. The cast is from all over Europe and the show itself will be multilingual to reflect that. Friese says, "Being true to the cultures and the languages was really important, we never wanted to have characters from different countries but everyone speaks English. We wanted to explore this heart of Europe, where everyone comes from somewhere else and speaks a different language, and language defines so much of your culture and your behavior."
On the multilingual nature of 1899, Friese continues, "We just had a reading, partly on zoom, partly with actors who are here [in Germany], and it was such an amazing experience to hear everyone speak in their language, going from Spanish to French to Polish, and have it all come together." Friese added that she hopes 1899 will help English-speaking viewers learn and love different languages, teasing that the series will also include parts where the characters have problems communicating due to language barriers.
1899 is currently being filmed on a virtual production stage in Germany. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, traveling with the cast all over Europe became a lot more difficult, so instead the smaller production team shot real-life background footage to be used on set. Odar says, “It’s not a projection, you don’t shoot a 360 of a landscape and project it onto LED walls, because you would move in with the camera and the projection would stay 2D. It’s about scanning landscapes and turning them into 3D models so you can actually walk through them." Similar technology was used for Lucasfilm and Disney Plus' The Mandalorian. The team also shot on the ocean and built physical sets for crucial locations such as the ship. 1899 has involved a massive production process, partially possible due to the support of Netflix. The lengthy process means that the series has not yet announced a release date, but it is sure to be big news when it does.
Dark debuted in 2017 as Netflix's first German-language original series and followed a group of characters from a fictional town of Winden, all of whom are searching for answers after the disappearance of a child. While the creators of 1899 assured fans the new series won't be a repeat of Dark, it certainly sounds like fans of the latter will have plenty to enjoy with the duo's latest work.
Dark is now available on Netflix.
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Source: Deadline