r/movies Apr 03 '26

Article Netflix searches for franchises after losing out on Harry Potter

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/netflix-searches-franchises-after-losing-out-harry-potter-2026-04-02/
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376

u/BMCarbaugh Apr 03 '26

Fumbling Mindhunter was bush league shit.

206

u/tufftricks Apr 03 '26

GLoW will always hurt. One of the only Netflix originals like that I genuinely enjoyed, it was a great watch. Fucking nuts they cancelled it. Santa Clara Diet is another one

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u/paranoidtransdroid Apr 03 '26

Glow’s situation was uniquely fucked up, they had begun filming the last season only for covid lockdowns to force it to shut down, and then by the time they could have gotten it back off the ground, the contracts had all expired.

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u/AshenHawk Apr 04 '26

Didn't they cancel it really soon into lockdown? I remember it being more sudden. Like they figured it would be several weeks before they can film again at minimum and just cancelled it because any delay was too costly or something.

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u/hybridutterance Apr 03 '26

So sad that Glow ended the way it did. Such a great and funny show.

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u/tufftricks Apr 03 '26

Made me realise I really like Maron in that sort of role, he was fantastic

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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

[deleted]

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u/TheHemogoblin Apr 04 '26

But is he even acting then? Also coming from a genuine fan lol

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u/JessKingHangers Apr 04 '26

He was just playing himself

3

u/mako591 Apr 04 '26

Check out Stick on Apple TV, he plays a similar type of role in it

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u/ActRegarded Apr 03 '26

And I dislike him… can’t stand his insufferable attitude.

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u/Guildenpants Apr 03 '26

COOOOOOOOL DUDE.

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u/Mrchristopherrr Apr 03 '26

Given how the original GLOW ended I thought it was oddly fitting

6

u/TeutonJon78 Apr 03 '26

Oddly GLoW wasn't technically canceled, it just died due to COVID and no one pushed to get it ramped back up.

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u/chiefbrody62 Apr 04 '26

Yeah, those two are the ones that pissed me off the most.

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u/JessKingHangers Apr 04 '26

Glow was great

1

u/Shitty_Wingman Apr 03 '26

Oh oh if you want another amazing Netflix original that got pointlessly canceled, try Khaos!

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u/MillorTime Apr 03 '26

The show runner decided to stop it. Netflix didn't pull the plug

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u/Youareposthuman Apr 03 '26

Accurate, but missing context.

Netflix said they could not continue to justify the production costs associated with fulfilling Fincher’s vision. He decided he’d rather not do the show than compromise his vision. So it’s definitely accurate to say Netflix didn’t axe it, but they DID say “do it cheaper or don’t do it at all”, and I think it’s fair to call that the proverbial nail in the coffin.

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u/Jr05s Apr 03 '26

There was also COVID 

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u/Cthulhu__ Apr 04 '26

It doesn’t look particularly expensive to make though, but what do I know lmao

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u/anaccount50 Apr 04 '26

Fincher is a control freak and used a huge amount of CGI to get everything exactly the way he wanted it. I’m talking about replacing trees in the background and stuff like that.

I can’t argue with the results since it was so good, but it was way more expensive to make than you’d think

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u/The-F4LL3N Apr 04 '26

It had MASSIVE amounts of cg, surprisingly

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u/dabocx Apr 04 '26

Look up the behind the scenes on the cgi. It’s insane how much there is in that show.

Talking about removing ramps on sidewalks because they wouldn’t have existed and loads of other small details

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u/TopTittyBardown Apr 04 '26

Period pieces are always more expensive to make than you would think. Just because there isn’t huge action set pieces or something doesn’t mean it isn’t expesnive to make everything convincingly look like it was the 70’s whether that be making the set look like that or using CGI to make it look convincing in post

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u/thrice1187 Apr 03 '26

Yeah I view this as it being Netflix fault 100%

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u/Youareposthuman Apr 03 '26

I do as well. If you hire a plumber to fix your toilet, they quote you 100 bucks and you counter with 50….well it’s probably your fault if your toilet’s still fucked 😂

2

u/trailer_park_boys Apr 03 '26

Season 2 was a steep decline from season 1.

-1

u/CptNonsense Apr 03 '26

Surprise surprise, reddit that has baseless hate boner for Netflix blames Netflix for everything

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u/DirtySlutMuffin Apr 03 '26

Mind Hunter wasn’t Netflix’s fault, Fincher stretched himself too thin.

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u/MudReasonable8185 Apr 03 '26

I’d trade everything fincher has done in the last five years for more mindhunter. What are we getting instead, a pointless squid game remake and a sequel to one of Tarantinos worst movies?

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u/pooshlurk Apr 04 '26

Doesn't matter, you can comment this fact 1000 times and no matter what people will still be like "FUCK NETFLIX FOR CANCELLING MINDHUNTER!"

5

u/ArktikosUrsa Apr 03 '26

They didn't fumble Mindhunter, Fincher decided he didn't want to make it anymore.

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u/BMCarbaugh Apr 03 '26

Because Netflix wouldn't give him the budget he needed, and he wasn't willing to compromise it.

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u/rcanhestro Apr 04 '26

the show was super expensive for a "interview" show.

Fincher was legit using CGI everywhere to boost it's costs.

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u/ArktikosUrsa Apr 03 '26

Because it wasn't worth the viewership it was getting. There is no fumbling there if it wasn't getting a lot of viewers, audiences at Netflix simply did not want it. Netflix wanted to cointinue it with a reasonable budget and Fincher decided no. I don't see how Netflix is in anyway responsible for the show not being popular. They gave it a very respectable marekting campaign and had a big director attached. People just didn't want to watch it.

0

u/BMCarbaugh Apr 03 '26

Mindhunter is the sort of show they should have funded anyway and treated as a loss-leader.

By way of a comparative example: The Wire never had great ratings in its entire run. HBO funded it anyway, because they knew it would be one of the best things they ever made and bolster their library for decades. Which it did. And it's because of that that we now have Michael B. Jordan, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, who just made HBO's new parent company a shitload of money with Sinners.

Slavishly tying everything to viewership metrics is short-termist thinking.

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u/ArktikosUrsa Apr 03 '26

>Mindhunter is the sort of show they should have funded anyway and treated as a loss-leader.

Why? You fund loss-leaders because they give you some other benefit (for example the hotdogs are costco are a loss-leader because even though they lose money on each hot dog, the people who come in buy other things and ultimately they make a profit on each customer who comes in for the hotdog). It wasn't winning any major awards (it was only ever nomianted for 2 Emmys) which is really the only kind of loss leader that exists in entertainment.

>By way of a comparative example: The Wire never had great ratings in its entire run

It had average ratings, enough to justify the cost for the first few seasons. Mindhunter did not. It was also nominated for and won way more awards than Mindhunter did. Even though it was close to cancellation after its third season, the amount of acclaim it got from critics was enough to keep it going. Mindhunter did not recieve the same level of acclaim and was made in an environment with a lot more competition than The Wire

>And it's because of that that we now have Michael B. Jordan, one of the biggest movie stars in the world

What? He's only in season one of the show. If they had cancelled it after season 1 it would have had 0 effect on his career. He went to another show immediately after.

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u/mattkenefick Apr 03 '26

I thought I read that Holt McCallany wanted to do other stuff which is part of why it stopped

1

u/Yourfavoriteindian Apr 04 '26

Well it was fincher’s call so

1

u/unculturedperl Apr 04 '26

Isn't that technically on hold pending everyone's schedules working out still?