Netflix has canceled 1899, the historical mystery thriller from the creators of Dark, after just one season, according to a statement posted Monday by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese on Instagram. A planned second and third season won’t happen, the show’s creators said.
“With a heavy heart we have to tell you that 1899 will not be renewed,” Odar and Friese said. “We would have loved to finish this incredible journey with a 2nd and 3rd season as we did with Dark. But sometimes things don’t turn out the way you planned. That’s life. We know this will disappoint millions of fans out there. But we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts that you were a part of this wonderful adventure.
“We love you. Never forget.”
1899 followed a ship of European immigrants journeying to America on the steamship Kerberos at the turn of the century. Their voyage begins four months after another of the company’s ships, the Prometheus, disappeared with over a thousand passengers on board. Emily Beecham (Hail, Caesar!) starred in the series lead role alongside Aneurin Barnard, Andreas Pietschmann, Miguel Bernardeau, Maciej Musiał, Anton Lesser, and Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen.
Odar and Friese’s follow-up to Dark, their beloved three-season German-language mystery, debuted on Netflix in November. 1899 was the first series from the duo’s deal with Netflix and cracked the streamer’s top 10 list during its debut week. But critical consensus for 1899 trailed Dark, and in Polygon’s review of the show, we dinged the historical thriller’s glacial pace which “[made] it difficult to see how any individual’s storyline intersects or affects the others.”
“The diverse range of languages spoken — which ideally would have been the backbone of a layered narrative with globally rich, interwoven perspectives — quickly curdles into an insurmountable obstacle that guts any potential the series had for developing an emotional core once characters were finally drawn together,” we said in our review.