The Haunting Team Of Mike Flanagan And Trevor Macy Depart Netflix For New Deal With Amazon
Horror maestro Mike Flanagan has been somewhat synonymous with Netflix for the last six years. The streaming platform is the home of his films "Hush," and "Gerald's Game," and the extremely popular series "The Haunting of Hill House," "The Haunting of Bly Manor," "Midnight Mass," "The Midnight Club," and the 2023 release, "The Fall of the House of Usher." The partnership between Mike Flanagan, his producing partner Trevor Macy, and Netflix has been a dream come true for horror fans, but Deadline broke the news today that Flanagan and Macy are saying farewell to the streaming giant. The duo have signed an exclusive multi-year overall series deal with Amazon Studios and will develop and produce new projects through their Intrepid Pictures company. This, of course, means that all of the new projects will be streamed exclusively on Prime Video.
"Mike and Trevor are remarkable at telling immersive, suspenseful stories that masterfully keep audiences engaged from start to finish," said Vernon Sanders, head of global television at Amazon Studios to Deadline. "We are excited to welcome them to Amazon Studios and are looking forward to our global customers experiencing their genre-bending creativity."
This new deal comes just as Flanagan and Macy's overall deal with Netflix comes to a close. The pair reportedly met with a variety of studios and streamers to secure a new overall deal for Intrepid, with Amazon Studios coming out victorious. "Amazon is a studio that we have long admired," Flanagan and Macy told Deadline. "Their commitment to engaging in groundbreaking series and content aligns with the ethos of what we have built at Intrepid. We are looking forward to working with the entire Amazon team as we bring our brand of genre productions to the service and audiences around the globe."
A huge blow to Netflix
It's hard to encapsulate just how successful Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy's projects have been for Netflix, with shows like "Midnight Mass" and "The Haunting of Hill House" hailed as some of the best original programs on the entire platform. The former, for example, received three Critics Choice Award nominations and a WGA Award nomination. Netflix has been investing in its horror and horror-adjacent programming as of late, recognizing that horror fans are one of the most rabid and dedicated audience bases to cultivate. There's a reason there are countless horror conventions across the globe every year and not, say, romantic-comedy cons. Losing a recognizable figure like Mike Flanagan is a massive loss for the platform, and they're going to need to find a replacement, fast.
As Twitter slowly burns to the ground, Flanagan recently joined TikTok, where he has been directly connecting with his fandom unlike ever before. His videos (along with his wife and frequent collaborator, Kate Siegel) are hilarious and he provides plenty of Q&A content for his fans, which has only made him a more beloved figure in the eyes of the coveted Gen Z demographic that studios and streamers are so desperately trying to impress. With Flanagan tapping into this new market, Netflix's loss is about to be a massive gain for Amazon.