Posted in: Amazon Studios, Netflix, streaming, TV | Tagged: amazon, Mike Flanagan, netflix, the midnight club, trevor macy

The Midnight Club Needed "Pretty Robust Promotion": Mike Flanagan

Published Fri, 09 Dec 2022 08:37:13 -0600

by Ray Flook

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It's weird covering Intrepid Pictures' Mike Flanagan & Trevor Macy when the focus isn't on one of their awe-inspiring series (Midnight Mass, "Haunting" franchise). But the duo has been making news of their own, moving from Netflix to their new, TV-exclusive home over at Amazon and then announcing that they're adapting Stephen King's "The Dark Tower," with plans for five seasons and two standalone films. And let's not forget that Flanagan & Macy still have The Fall of the House of Usher coming out as their Netflix swan song. But it wasn't all good news, with the duo learning their & Leah Fong's (Once Upon a Time) series take on Christopher Pike's 1994 novel The Midnight Club would not be renewed for a second season, with Netflix confirming the decision not long after Flanagan & Macy's Amazon deal was announced. Now, Flanagan is sharing his thoughts on the series not getting a second season, if he feels the decision was tied to him & Macy departing Netflix, and if there were any discussions about giving the series a proper wrap-up (Flanagan would post answers to the series cliffhangers online for fans).

Flanagan Doesn't Believe Amazon Impacted Netflix's Decision: "Oh, no, I don't think was a response to us leaving. We're very disappointed. Of course, you always want a show that you designed to be ongoing to go on. As part of a lot of the changes that happened at Netflix over the last few years, we noticed in particular that the strategy with which they roll out new shows has undergone a lot of change."

Flanagan Believes "The Midnight Club" Needing Handling That Netflix Couldn't Provide: "When we agreed to do 'The Midnight Club,' the entire company was very different. I think we both feel it's safe to say that a show like that, which we thought was innovative and harder to classify, requires some pretty robust promotion to get off the ground properly, and Netflix's strategy for promoting new shows has changed quite a bit. So we weren't entirely surprised at all."

Flanagan on Why It Was Important to Give Fans Answers: "I think we were absolutely saddened. I love so many shows that have been canceled over the years, and I never got that closure with the story; I never got to see how they ended. So it was very important to us that we put that out for the fans to see what we would have done."

Flanagan on If There Were Discussions About Giving "The Midnight Club" a Proper Ending: "There's really never been any talk about that and the way the rights deals work with the various Christopher Pike titles that had to be licensed for that show. … This is a show that is supposed to play in a relatively short order, and our young cast is getting older and older. It never really seemed feasible to try to pull all those elements back together in time, and with us making a move to Amazon, as well, it's even more fraught of an idea to try to get all those plates spinning again."