The creators of the popular television series Dark, are back with another bone-chilling show, 1899. It is described as an epic period horror-mystery, whose plot is set in the eponymous year when a group of European migrants travel from London to New York City on a ship named the Kerberos. On their journey, they encounter another vessel, Prometheus, which had disappeared four months ago. An investigation of this vessel unfurls terrifying events for the group, and their promisingly optimistic journey to a new land morphs into their worst nightmare.
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The show’s scenes were mainly filmed in Germany and England, more specifically in Potsdam and London. The test lens shoots began as early as November 2020, while principal photography commenced on May 3, 2021, and was wrapped up in November of the same year. The showrunners initially planned to shoot across various countries such as Spain, Poland, and Scotland, but the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic altered their plans.
Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg state, served as the primary location for the shooting of the series. Interestingly, Potsdam happens to be the only UNESCO-designated City of Film in Germany. There was a camp set in Volume, a virtual production stage at Studio Babelsberg, the oldest large-scale studio complex in the world, at August-Bebel-Street 26-53, and the shooting of almost all crucial scenes took place there.
This thousand-year-old city holds several historical and cultural references.
Other pivotal scenes of the series were lensed in London since several characters hailed from the city. It was also crucial in depicting the characters’ backstories before they decided to board their ship to the States.
1899 is one of the biggest shows after The Mandalorian to shoot most of the scenes using virtual production technology. Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the creators revealed in an interview with Deadline that this technology was entirely new for them, and they had to learn the entire process to execute it perfectly. They even contacted the creators of The Mandalorian to learn it from a new perspective and even constructed a test studio at the Shepperton Studios in the UK.
The series aired on Netflix on November 17, 2022.
