Fans of the mystery thriller show 1899 are perplexed and extremely saddened by Netflix's choosing to axe it after just one season.
1899’s creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Freise announced the gut-wracking news on Instagram, expressing their crushed dream of expanding the story with a second and third season as they did with their previous success show Dark.
Launched on November 17 last year, the ambitious multilingual show tells the story of migrants voyaging from London to New York, 13 years before Titanic's haunting trip.
The eight-episode series incorporates eclectic characters from different races, including French, Spanish, Danish, German, English, Cantonese, Polish and Portuguese aboard the migrant steamship Kerberos.
Kerberos receives a mysterious signal from Prometheus, a ship that had vanished for months, sending the passengers and crew on a downward spiral, experiencing intense breakdowns until the finale ended on a big cliffhanger.
The intriguing stellar cast comprises Andreas Pietschmann (The Perfect Mother), Emily Beecham (Cruella), Mathilde Ollivier (Overlord), Miguel Bernardeau (Elite), Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen (The Rain), Aneurin Barnard (The White Queen), Maciej Musiał (1983), Ciara Rosager (Devils), Alexandre Willaume (The Head), Jonas Bloquet (The Nun), Yann Gael (Saloum) among others.
1899 performed tremendously well, racking a 7.4 score on IMDb, 76% on Rotten Tomatoes and 90% on Google Ratings.
Moreover, adding to the fact that it topped Netflix's top 10 most-watched TV series in over 60 countries for a month since its debut. By December, the show had clocked 87.9 million viewership hours.
Considering that bo Odar and Friese had spoken about their plans to continue the story, it’s hard to imagine why Netflix canned the popular series.
Though Netflix hasn’t justified its cancelation, rumor has it that it might have been sparked by high production costs. A lot went into the making of 1899, including enroling high-tech visuals and groundbreaking LED sets.
Outraged fans of the series have already launched a petition on Twitter #save1899 to extricate 1899 and hopefully see it get a decent conclusive end.
More shattered viewers strongly express their dwindling faith in the streaming platform. “What does it take to prevent cancelation in this age of Netflix?” echoes one.
The petition already has over 27,000 signatures and counting. Fingers crossed that Netflix forfeits its dubious intention, but chances could be pretty slim. Only a miracle would do.