Netflix gave us a budget and a couple of notes and let us do it." Production Filming He said: "We could cast whoever we wanted, the actors who fit best for the role. Netflix told the filmmakers, "We don't really know German actors - just get the best ones." Bo Odar praised the creative freedom they got from Netflix. Netflix's backing allowed the creators to cast whoever they pleased, including unknown actors.
The series concluded after a third season, which the creators had envisioned from the beginning, with Bo Odar commenting they did not want to end up like Lost. However, Netflix were okay with keeping some things which only Germans would understand, as long as the overall narrative worked for everyone. For example, some instances of sarcasm in dialogue did not translate well to English because of the difference in tone. Some details had to be changed for the international audience to understand it. Friese stated they enjoyed the comparisons, saying: "It’s really exciting because if all those people who watched Stranger Things will at least think about watching Dark, I think that’s a great opportunity for us." However, Dark was already in pre-production when Stranger Things premiered and the series is much darker and not for kids. Friese called structuring it a "complex task." īefore its release, the series was often compared to Stranger Things based on its premise and partial 1980s setting. There are 72 characters in the series, including three different actors for the same character across three different time periods. Other influences are Stephen King and David Lynch. They were also inspired by their childhoods in German small towns during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when release of radioactive materials spread fears of contamination. David Lynch's Twin Peaks, which deals with the same topic, shaped them in their teenage years. Having grown up in a small town themselves, the creators had a fascination with the subject of the darkness hiding behind closed doors in a small town. They had another idea for a time travel feature film and they combined the two ideas. Initially, Dark was an idea for a crime show they had written two years prior to being contacted by Netflix. They were inspired by the Scandinavian Nordic Noir genre. Odar and Friese felt that German television was associated with something ugly and sad, and that all German series were either thrillers or crimes, so they wanted to create something of a higher quality for a universal audience. The move into German television drama was part of the company's global strategy, with which they hoped to attract more foreign subscribers and boost their library of originals worldwide. ĭark was Netflix's first original series entirely authored, shot and produced in Germany. Reluctant to repeat themselves, Odar and Friese instead pitched other ideas to Netflix, one of which was Dark. Netflix approached Odar and Friese after seeing Who Am I at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014, asking if they could make a series out of it.
All of the aforementioned had previously collaborated on the 2014 film Who Am I, which grossed $6 million at the local box office and won three German Movie Awards and the Bambi for “Best German Film.” It was produced by Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann and Justyna Müsch. The series was created by Swiss director Baran bo Odar and German writer Jantje Friese. " Dark" represents the first German original series produced for Netflix.
The story includes supernatural elements that tie back to the same town in 1986.
The mystery-drama series introduces an intricate puzzle filled with twists that includes a web of curious characters, all of whom have a connection to the town's troubled history - whether they know it or not. When two children go missing in a small German town, its sinful past is exposed along with the double lives and fractured relationships that exist among four families as they search for the kids.