How Netflix is seeking the next Stranger Things after failed Warner Bros bid
Missing the chance to add Warner Bros Discovery’s Harry Potter and Game of Thrones to its IP coffers, Netflix is surging ahead on its own
After losing its bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery and its rich trove of characters and stories, Netflix is forging ahead with the challenging work of building culture-defining franchises on its own.
Chief creative officer Bela Bajaria says Netflix will keep investing in original ideas, and partner with established studios such as MGM and Warner Bros, to try and produce movies and series that live on for years, in the vein of Stranger Things, Wednesday and Bridgerton.
“To me, that’s just continually the goal,” she says.
Yet the failed attempt to buy Warner Bros’ movie studio and HBO highlighted a vulnerability for the relative Hollywood upstart, whose catalogue of original films and series spans around a dozen years, compared with more than a century’s worth of stories and characters for Warner Bros, Walt Disney and Universal Pictures.
Netflix was willing to make its biggest bet ever with its US$72 billion bid, looking to shore up its library and augment its intellectual property with franchises like Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, because creating them itself has proven challenging.
Interviews with current and former Netflix executives, industry leaders, and agents illustrate a picture of a streaming giant whose strategy of making something for everyone, and serving many audiences all at once, is different from crafting a Taylor Sheridan-like universe of Yellowstone spin-offs that brings a built-in audience.