It was the Swiss-German TV couple Baran bo Odar (director) and Jantje Friese (screenplay) who announced the news themselves on Instagram. “It is with a heavy heart that we have to tell you that 1899 will not be renewed. We would have loved to complete this incredible journey with a second and third season just like we did Dark. But sometimes things don’t go as planned. That’s life.”
Bo Odar and Friese say they realize that “a million fans will be disappointed”. “But we want to thank you from the bottom of our heart for being a part of this wonderful adventure. We love you. Do not forget that.”
The multilingual 1899, with an international cast speaking English, German, French, Portuguese, Cantonese, Spanish and Danish, revolves around a boat trip from Europe to America in the year 1899 on the ship the Kerberos. Four months earlier, another ship, the Prometheus, belonging to the same shipping company on the same route disappeared without a trace. When the crew of the Kerberos receive a message from the Prometheus, a mysterious tangle of time jumps, secret passages and parallel worlds with characters who are not who they pretend to begin begins. The notion of what is reality and what is not is increasingly turned upside down.
Due to the previous success of the German series Darkin which Bo Oder and Friese also experimented with time jumps 1899 instant success on Netflix. called Vulture 1899 “what you get when you Inception, Strange Days, The Matrix, Westworld, The Terrorin Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tossed in a tumble dryer”.
But the series also received criticism as a result: “In 1899 sometimes it seems to the spectator or not, but Frisian herself got lost in the script, and the characters mainly interpret her own bewilderment,” De Morgen wrote in a review.
The increasingly inextricable tangle of storylines that turn time and logic upside down now seems to have killed the series.
