1899

Premise

Set in 1899, the series follows the diverse and secretive passengers of the steamship Kerberos travelling from Southampton in the UK to start new lives in New York City, when they encounter the mysteriously empty ship Prometheus which had been lost at sea four months previous.

Cast and characters

Main

Emily Beecham as Maura Henriette Franklin/Singleton, a neurologist and one of the first female doctors in Britain, travelling alone to America

Aneurin Barnard as Daniel Solace, a mysterious man who boards the Kerberos while alongside the Prometheus

Andreas Pietschmann as Eyk Larsen, the ship's captain, whose wife and three children died in a fire

Miguel Bernardeau as Ángel, a wealthy Spaniard traveling with Ramiro

José Pimentão as Ramiro, a Portuguese servant traveling with Ángel under the cover of being a Spanish priest

Isabella Wei as Ling Yi, a mysterious young woman from Hong Kong, pretending to be a Japanese geisha and traveling with Yuk Je

Gabby Wong as Yuk Je, a middle-aged woman from Hong Kong and Ling Yi's mother

Yann Gael as Jérôme, a French stowaway

Mathilde Ollivier as Clémence, a young woman from the Paris elite, accompanied by her new husband Lucien

Jonas Bloquet as Lucien, an upper class Parisian, and former Lieutenant of the French Foreign Legion, newly married to his wife Clémence

Rosalie Craig as Virginia Wilson, a sociable, wealthy British woman

Maciej Musiał as Olek, a Polish stoker on his way to New York

Clara Rosager as Tove, a young pregnant Danish woman traveling to New York City with her family

Recurring

Vida Sjørslev as Ada, Krester and Tove's younger sister

Alexander Owen as Landon, a stoker and friend of Darrel

Ben Ashenden as Darrel, a stoker and friend of Landon

Richard Hope as Dr. Reginald Murray, a boorish British doctor

Joshua Jaco Seelenbinder as Eugen, an officer on the Kerberos

Niklas Maienschein as Wilhelm, the telegraph operator on the Kerberos

Jónas Alfreð Birkisson as Einar, a third class passenger from Norway and mutineer

Heidi Toini as Bente, a third class passenger

Guest

Cloé Heinrich as Nina Larsen, Eyk's daughter

Alexandra Gottschlich as Sara Larsen, Eyk's wife

Kaja Chan as Mei Mei, Ling Yi's friend in Hong Kong

Martin Greis as Villads, the landowner that employed Anker's family

Production

Development

On 13 November 2018, it was announced that Dark creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar were developing the project for Netflix under their overall deal at the streaming service. The series was confirmed to be moving forward two weeks later during a Netflix press conference showcasing European original programming. By July 2020, bo Odar revealed via Instagram that Friese had completed writing the script for the pilot episode, titled "The Ship." 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.

As with Dark, Friese served as the head writer of the show. The staff writing team comprised writers of different nationalities including Emma Ko (from Hong Kong and the UK), Coline Abert (from France), Jerome Bucchan-Nelson (from the UK), Juliana Lima Dehne (from Brazil and the US), Joshua Long (from the US), Darío Madrona (from Spain), and Emil Nygaard Albertsen (from Denmark). According to director Baran bo Odar, all scripts were first written in English, then the non-English sections were translated by the staff writers and/or translators. Odar had phonetic copies of the script on set, and language assistants were present during filming to ensure the accuracy of the dialogue.

Friese and bo Odar have ideas for two more seasons, with increased complexity compared to season 1. The planned three-season structure stems from Friese's and bo Odar's film background, where films have three acts. The first season served to establish the theme and characters and pose big questions. If ordered by Netflix, the second season would explain the symbology of the triangles, and Maura's brother would be an important character. bo Odar described this second act as "all about the fun and games, where you play with the theme, and maybe get a little bit more megalomaniacal and crazy, and then resolve it in the third season into a hopefully satisfying resolution."

Budget

The budget for the series was at least €60 million ($62.2 million) with €2 million coming from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, €10 million coming from the German Motion Picture Fund, and Netflix investing €48 million in the project. 1899 is the most expensive German television series of all time.

Casting

On 16 December 2020, it was announced that Emily Beecham was cast in the lead role. On 2 May 2021, Aneurin Barnard, Andreas Pietschmann, Miguel Bernardeau, Maciej Musiał, Anton Lesser, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Rosalie Craig, Clara Rosager, Maria Erwolter, Yann Gael, Mathilde Ollivier, José Pimentão, Isabella Wei, Gabby Wong, Jonas Bloquet, Fflyn Edwards, and Alexandre Willaume were added to the cast, with each character speaking in the actor's native language.

Filming

Pre-production for the series officially commenced on 24 November 2020, with a week-long lens test shoot taking place. The series was initially scheduled to begin principal photography on 1 February 2021, but was later pushed back by 3 months. Filming officially began on 3 May 2021, at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, the only designated UNESCO Creative City of Film in Germany.

The series was shot in a new virtual production stage called Volume, operated by bo Odar and Friese's sister company Dark Bay, at Studio Babelsberg. Filming also took place in London, England. Creative studio Framestore provided visual effects for the series. Filming wrapped in November 2021 with Baran bo Odar posting on Instagram.

Release

1899 had a two-episode premiere on 47th Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September 2022. The series launched on Netflix on 17 November 2022, along with a companion making-of documentary titled Making 1899.

Netflix announced a few days after release that 1899 was in 58 countries the most watched product of all the offerings available on Netflix at that time. Despite this, on 2 January 2023, the show was cancelled.

Plagiarism accusations

Shortly after the release of 1899, Brazilian comic book author Mary Cagnin, through her X account, claimed her comic book story Black Silence (2016) had been plagiarized by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese.

Cagnin mentioned that several elements of Black Silence had been reproduced in 1899 and speculated that the series creators discovered her work at the 2017 Gothenburg Book Fair, in Sweden, where she had distributed copies of Black Silence's English version. Cagnin said she was "heartbroken" and had "cried a lot" over the issue. Her thread speculating how Black Silence had been plagiarized went viral in Brazil. Decider observed that "[a]side from an affinity for pyramids, it's hard to find many similarities" between the two projects", and noted that even when reading Black Silence with the specific goal of finding similarities to 1899, "the connections between the two properties were borderline nonexistent", concluding that "[c]reepy pyramids, suspicious suicides, weird codes, and outer space" are "incredibly common sci-fi tropes" and their appearance in both works is "not suspicious".

Jantje Friese responded to the allegations via her Instagram account with a post that was later deleted, stating that "a Brazilian artist has claimed we stole from her graphic novel. To make it clear: we did not! Until yesterday we weren't even aware of the existence of that graphic novel". Friese went on to say that "Over two years we have put pain, sweat and exhaustion into the creation of 1899. This is an original idea and not based on any source material. Nevertheless we've been bombarded with messages – some of them ugly and hurtful." The series creator also added that "someone cries wolf and everyone jumps on it, not even checking whether the claims make any sense. [...] Of course should this be a scheme to sell more of her graphic novels: well played, [...]". Baran bo Odar, through his own Instagram account, declared the creators of 1899 "would never steal from other artists as we feel as artists ourselves" and that they had reached out to Cagnin.

Cancellation and response

Writing in Forbes about the cancellation of 1899 and other Netflix series, Paul Tassi said that "I feel like Netflix is almost actively stealing my time from me. [...] It's frankly exhausting, and if it's this exhausting for viewers, I have to imagine it's ten times as much for showrunners and actors. Netflix is becoming a graveyard stacked with dead series with unfinished conclusions. [...] Something has to change."

Writing in Digital Spy, David Opie said that "for all we know, there might be talks to save the show at HBO or Prime Video, plus there's a small chance that Netflix themselves might try and wrap things up in a one-off special or movie. That's exactly what happened after fans decried Netflix's decision to cancel Sense8 a few years back [that is also an international genre show]."

Fans took to social media to decry the decision, and a petition to save the show was started on Change.org. As of July 2024, it had garnered over 100,000 signatures.

Reception

Audience viewership

During its debut week, 1899 ranked at number two on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles just three days after its release with 79.27 million hours viewed. The following week, the series remained at the same position and garnered 87.89 million viewing hours. In its third week, the series generated 44.62 million viewing hours, while also holding its position at number two.

Critical response

The series received generally positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 79% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 6.80/10. The website's critical consensus states, "1899 navigates its multicultural passengers through an atmospheric mystery and delivers a suspenseful journey, even if it may never reach a satisfying destination." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the series has a score of 66 out of 100 based on 12 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Collider named 1899 as one of the best new TV shows of 2022, while MovieWeb ranked it the sixth best TV show of the year.