The bigwigs at Netflix are happy to repeat over and over again that they want an in-house franchise with the potential to rival the likes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, but so far the streaming service has… well, none.
Money Heist got a remake and has a spin-off on the way, but it didn’t originate as a Netflix original, and the same goes for the blockbuster Knives Out sequels. The Witcher underwent plenty of rapid expansion, but fans have turned their backs on the fantasy universe ever since it was announced Henry Cavill was leaving to be replaced with Liam Hemsworth.
The Gray Man has a follow-up and an offshoot in the works despite not being very good, those back-to-back Red Notice sequels have gone radio silent, Stranger Things is ending, Shadow and Bone may follow suit, which sort of leaves Bridgerton and Extraction as two of the very few outliers, which leads neatly onto Bird Box Barcelona.
The original was a massive hit back in December of 2018, becoming one of Netflix’s most-watched originals ever and establishing itself as a certifiable cultural phenomenon, but the first spin-off arriving almost five years later really feels as if the boat has been missed. There was a time to cash in on the Bird Box craze, and it was a long time ago, which underlines Netflix’s approach in microcosm.
If subscribers aren’t waiting years between seasons then sequels are coming along with too long of a gap – remember The Old Guard 2? – when history has shown countless times over that the biggest and best franchises survive and thrive when work on additional installments begins imminently, not whenever the fancy takes.