The Dark Showrunners Are Making Another Spooky German Show
HBO Max has given Struwwelpeter the thumbs up.
Netflix has now become known for its international TV series like Squid Game or Money Heist. But back in 2017, non-English Netflix originals were still a big risk. When it debuted as the first-ever German-language Netflix original series, Dark proved to be more than just a successful experiment: it’s still one of the best Netflix sci-fi shows ever made.
Now, the minds behind it are developing a new series for HBO Max that repeats some of Dark’s best elements, with a very German source material that adds a new folk-horror tone.
Jantje Friese and Baran do Odar are moving from Netflix to HBO Max with a classic German folk tale.
HBO Max recently announced an expansion of its streaming service into Europe with a launch date of January 13 in Germany. This expansion means a brand-new audience for local programming, and HBO is bringing in the big guns: Jantje Friese and Baran Bo Odar, creators of Dark, will oversee a series “in which the dark tales of Struwwelpeter become gruesome reality.”
Struwwelpeter (literally, “shock-headed Peter”) is a 1845 children’s book by German psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann. It’s incredibly dark for a bedtime story, but is full of cautionary tales warning children about various dangers. For example, one story tells about a girl who plays with matches, burns alive, and is only mourned by cats — aka, real feel-good German folktales.
The tale of the Tailor who snips off the thumbs of children who suck them was featured on the cover of Struwwelpeter’s English version.
For American audiences, Struwwelpeter has a strange tie to American pop culture: in one episode of The Office, Dwight Schrute entertains the children of his coworkers with a story from Struwwelpeter. “The great tall tailor always comes to little girls that suck their thumbs,” he reads, “And 'ere they dream when he's about, he takes his great sharp scissors out, and then cuts their thumbs clean off!” This is perhaps the most iconic Struwwelpeter story, and depictions of the devious tailor can be found throughout Germany.
Since Dark ended in 2020, Friese and Bo Odar have struggled to find the same success. Their follow-up, 1899, was canceled after a single season despite a cult following. They’re currently attached to a Netflix series adaptation of Daniel Kehlmann’s Tyll, but this Struwwelpeter series will be like Dark or 1899: a twisted, and probably very complicated, thriller series.
