Home Entertainment Netflix wants to produce the next big film franchise that can take on Star Wars and Harry Potter

Netflix wants to produce the next big film franchise that can take on Star Wars and Harry Potter

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It should be obvious based on all the movies that Netflix is willing to bankroll, that the streaming giant really wants to create content that keeps people entertained and subscribed to its streaming service. Netflix is certainly well ahead of the market when it comes to the quantity of original programming that it offers, although its big focus has also been ensuring that it has the quality to match that too, especially on the big-budget movie side of things.

Despite showing some improvement on this front with recent hits like Bird Box, Extraction, The Old Guard, and Oscar-nominated critical darlings like Roma, Marriage Story and The Irishman, Netflix still believes that it has a lot more to offer. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix’s Head of production Tendo Nagenda revealed that the streaming service is looking to produce the next big family franchise in the same vein as Star Wars or Harry Potter:

We’re looking at big, broad-audience, PG-level adventure films as something that we want to get into. Something along the lines of the first Star Wars, or Harry Potter 1 and 2. A lot of family live action, fantasy, spectacle movies that we think are big and can play great. A Jumanji-type of story. That is the next frontier …We want to encourage great talent to think that way. George Lucas created Star Wars — it wasn’t based on a book. If you have that kind of imagination — like the Wachowskis with The Matrix — we feel like we’re the place to take the chance on those types of innovative ideas and filmmakers. 

In the same interview, Nagendra also made mention of how they would love to have more big-name directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino directing movies for them. Those are two directors whose reputation for quality would also be a big draw, though for Nolan, who makes big cinematic spectacles designed for big screens, I’m doubtful he would be interested.

With HBO Max and Disney+ probably having the biggest franchises at the moment, it makes sense for Netflix to look for that next big thing. Looking for it and find it though are two very different things though, but they could always go the Amazon route and fork out a lot of money for an already established franchise like they did for The Lord of the Rings.

Last Updated: August 5, 2020

49 Comments

  1. MechMachine

    August 5, 2020 at 11:45

    The only Fantasy series that can maybe stand next to Tolkien for a moment or two is the work of Feist. If Netflix had their ducks in a row, Now would be the right time to strike. Mr Feist has always maintained that cinema isn’t the right medium to convey his stories. Well, forget about Game of Thrones, meh. Imagine seeing the adventures of Thomas and Pug, The Riftwar Saga, The Serpent War Saga and the many other great stories that he has written come to life in a long form series. The wealth of material created in Midkemia and those parallel world is astonishing. Imagine seeing the Dragon riders realised in a series………………………

    Reply

  2. BradeLunner

    August 5, 2020 at 13:16

    R A Salvatores Drizzt series would be great, and adaptable. I’m surprised he hasn’t had an offer yet

    Reply

  3. Iskape

    August 5, 2020 at 13:24

    Which streaming service was producing the Wheel of Time series? I haven’t heard much about that!

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      August 5, 2020 at 14:32

      Amazon as well. Production had already started when the pandemic shut everything down. It has one MASSIVE cast and a huge budget.

      Amazon is heavily trying to become the go-to place for sci-fi and fantasy geeks. They already have The Expanse, Tales from the Loop, The Man in the High Castle, etc, and on top of LOTR and Wheel of Time, they’ve still also got Larry Niven’s Ringworld, Iain M Banks’ Culture series, Robert E Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem, Jonathan Hickman’s East of West, Robert Kirkman’s Invincible, and a whole lot more in various stages of development

      Reply

  4. Jac7

    August 5, 2020 at 14:44

    Someone needs to do The Dark Tower books justice. Such amazing potential.

    Reply

  5. MechMachine

    August 5, 2020 at 11:45

    The only Fantasy series that can maybe stand next to Tolkien for a moment or two is the work of Feist. If Netflix had their ducks in a row, Now would be the right time to strike. Mr Feist has always maintained that cinema isn’t the right medium to convey his stories. Well, forget about Game of Thrones, meh. Imagine seeing the adventures of Thomas and Pug, The Riftwar Saga, The Serpent War Saga and the many other great stories that he has written come to life in a long form series. The wealth of material created in Midkemia and those parallel world is astonishing. Imagine seeing the Dragon riders realised in a series………………………

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      August 5, 2020 at 12:22

      That would be cool. I’ve long thought Netflix should try nabbing the rights the various Dungeons & Dragons-related stuff because there’s so much room for storytelling across their various settings.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        August 5, 2020 at 12:52

        As long as they get Joe Mangenello to be part of that, then awesome.

        Reply

      • MechMachine

        August 5, 2020 at 12:52

        Imagine a faithful Warhammer.

        Reply

    • Original Heretic

      August 5, 2020 at 12:14

      Would be amazing. I wanna see Milamber in the arena.
      Tomas become Valheru.

      But it’s an uphill struggle. Books are optioned for movies all the time, but few of them get made.

      Reply

      • MechMachine

        August 5, 2020 at 12:21

        Yeah, But Feist has been approached many times. He is dogmatic in his belief that adaptation in to movies don’t work. But I believe the time has never been better than now for a series based on his work. He is one of the best. The Valheru, Wow.

        Reply

        • Original Heretic

          August 5, 2020 at 12:22

          Approached, yes. At various times.
          Kervyn has a story of when he met Feist at a book signing, and Feist is now at the point where he hates being asked about the movie adaptations.
          I think too many people wanted to water it down.
          And that just cannot happen.

          We’ve seen so many bad examples of good books becoming terrible movies.

          Reply

          • MechMachine

            August 5, 2020 at 12:52

            Yeah, I agree about movies, I think a series might be perfect. But, I doubt Feist will do it.

          • MechMachine

            August 5, 2020 at 12:52

            Yeah, I agree about movies, I think a series might be perfect. But, I doubt Feist will do it.

          • Original Heretic

            August 5, 2020 at 12:52

            Series budgets wouldn’t do it justice.
            His tale is very effects heavy. Seeing poor quality effects would…not be nice

          • MechMachine

            August 5, 2020 at 13:01

            Yeah, That abortion for Sword of Truth kinda proves your point both on a story and budget level.

          • Original Heretic

            August 5, 2020 at 15:09

            Ugh…that was just plain horrible…

    • james

      October 22, 2020 at 22:36

      Yeah, as long as they don’t make a complete and utter balls up of it like they did with Shannara series. I was so looking forward to that because the author gave it the thumbs up and it turned out absolute rubbish, dire rubbish. I mean right at the start I was turned off..Elves with american accents..sorry but that just doesn’t fit. I tried to continue but just couldn’t.

      But if done right, with the right people in charge, Feist’s stuff would be absolutely amazing. Would cost an absolute fortune though, we are talking Jackson level spending but even more so as you would need more than 3 films. Cant see it happening.

      With regards to your point about him saying that cinema isn’t the right medium…well, with the cash cow pulp that hes pushing out now (his heydays are long gone) he might just agree to it happening…

      Reply

  6. Original Heretic

    August 5, 2020 at 12:14

    Star Wars may not have been based on a book, but Lucas definitely borrowed MANY elements from other sci-fi movies at the time.

    Reply

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