Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the creators of Dark, are heading into the past with their next series. Deadline reports that Emily Beecham—Into the Badlands‘ spectacular Widow—will star in 1899, a period horror tale about a group of immigrants whose journey across the ocean descends into nightmare.
1899 was first announced in 2018, the same year that the show’s creators were the first Europeans to enter into an overall series deal with Netflix. This new series will be multilingual, though largely in English, with a cast from multiple countries. A bare-bones Netflix placeholder page has a very brief description: “In 1899, European immigrants traveling to the promised land encounter a horrifying nightmare after finding another migrant ship adrift on open sea.”
The only casting announcement so far is Beecham, but her involvement is intriguing; she’s been an action star, won the Best Actress award at Cannes (for playing a plant breeder in 2019’s Little Joe), and stars with Anthony Mackie in the upcoming Netflix film Outside the Wire.
1899 will begin production in the spring, but you can find some behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, including camera tests and script covers, at Baran bo Odar’s Instagram. Episode one is called, appropriately, “The Ship.”
(Is anyone else suddenly thinking of that X-Files episodes where half the cast plays alternate characters on a ship that appears in the Bermuda Triangle? Maybe it’s time for a rewatch.)