Everything We Know about Netflix’s 1899: From the makers of a German science fiction thriller television – Dark, which was mentally exhausting and equally intriguing and went wildly popular on Netflix by the end of its season 3, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese yet again collaborate for another epic period, gritty mystery drama – 1899. Netflix’s first German original series Dark was always going to be a tough act to follow for its creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar.
1899 Netflix TV series Official Announcement
In November 2018, during the European migrant crisis, while working on Dark, the co-creator and Netflix announced a new project for Netflix under their overall deal at the streaming service and later confirmed during a Netflix press conference. Baran bo Odar revealed via Instagram that Friese had completed writing the script for the pilot episode.
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What Is 1899 About?
1899’s plot sees European nationalities on a voyage to New York, hoping for a better life on a new continent. Their journey is disrupted when the ship’s captain receives an eerie message from a supposedly abandoned ship, the Prometheus. It has gone missing for four months.
The captain decides to take a detour against the promise made to the passengers of dropping them to New York in seven days.
The passengers from all parts of Europe, Poland, France, Germany, Spain, and England, find it hard to communicate with each other, resulting in cultural friction in the wake of mysterious phenomena happening on the ship. It leads to uncovering a web of secrets personal to the travelers.
During an interview with Deadline Hollywood, Friese explained how the European migrant crisis and Brexit were influential to the series, saying:
The whole European angle was very important for us, not only story wise but also the way we were going to produce it. It really had to be a European collaboration, not just cast but also crew. We felt that with the past years of Europe being on the decline, we wanted to give a counterpoint to Brexit, and to nationalism rising in different countries, to go back to that idea of Europe and Europeans working and creating together. 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 behaviour.
The heavy use of cryptic symbols and two artifacts – a black triangular pyramid and a cube with a look-a-like DNA imprint have us thinking about whether it involves time travel. However, Friese and Odar in the same interview with ‘Deadline’ want to reassure fans of their previous work and that this is going to be in a similar vein.
“Knowing that we did Dark, everyone can be assured that this is going to be something weird and wild and crazy,” teases Odar. Will it involve time travel again? “We don’t repeat ourselves, we really hate that, but it’s going to be a fun puzzle for the audience. We are going back to our mystery roots,” Odar adds.
Who Is in 1899’s Cast?
1899 is a multilingual series that boasts an international ensemble cast. Emily Beecham, best known for her role in and as Daphne (2017), will play the role of a mysterious woman on the ship. Andreas Pietschmann, who we all know as the grown-up Jonas, would star as Eyk Larsen in 1899. Aneurin Barnard, known for playing Gibson in Christopher Nolan’s War drama Dunkirk, will also be on the series.
Elite’s Miguel Bernardeau and The Rain’s Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen are on the cast. Other actors from across Europe include Spanish actor Miguel Bernardeau, French actress Mathilde Ollivier, English actress Rosalie Craig, Polish actor Maciej Musial, and Belgian actor Jonas Bloquet. Other cast members include Gabby Wong, Fflyn Edwards, Yann Gael, José Pimentão, Martin Greis-Rosenthal, Anton Lesser, Maria Erwolter, and Isabella Wei.
What’s with the Bermuda Triangle reference in 1899’s Poster?
Netflix‘s official poster for the series features Emily Beecham’s character, Maura Franklin, free-falling through a triangle surrounded by an ocean on all sides. In the background, we see two immigrant ships, presumably the lost ship Prometheus has resurfaced and the immigrant ship carrying our protagonists.
The triangle reference could literally be to the Bermuda triangle as the voyage is from Europe to North America, or the triangle could be a metaphor. Whatever may be, if 1899 is anything like Dark, fans should expect a mystery that transcends time and reality.
When Does 1899 Come Out?
This eight-episode show from the creators of “Dark” is set to release in the US on Nov. 17. The Pilot Episode of 1899 is called ‘The Ship’, written by Jantje Friese and directed by Baran bo Odar.
Watch the 1899 Netflix Trailer
Netflix dropped the trailer for its new period horror series, “1899,” and it’s hypnotizing as expected. The trailer also features the song “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7OUQ9U2qIw
