Netflix plans to make more interactive TV shows after Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the Choose Your Own Adventure-style program, found international success, Netflix product VP Todd Yellin said in Mumbai at a keynote presentation on Tuesday, as reported by Variety.
“It’s a huge hit here in India, it’s a huge hit around the world, and we realized, wow, interactive storytelling is something we want to bet more on,” he said. “We’re doubling down on that. So expect over the next year or two to see more interactive storytelling.”
“Should she go out with him or him?”
Although Black Mirror is a sci-fi dystopian series, and Bandersnatch is decidedly grim, Netflix says future interactive shows may not fall into the same genre. Yellin explained, “It won’t necessarily be science fiction, or it won’t necessarily be dark. It could be a wacky comedy. It could be a romance, where the audience gets to choose, should she go out with him or him.”
During Yellin’s talk, he also emphasized that Netflix would make far more Indian content, doubling content production every year exponentially. He pointed to the success of the Netflix original Indian series Sacred Games, about a cop chasing down a crime overlord. Yellin said, on average, two out of three viewers of Sacred Games lived outside of India, demonstrating how culturally specific shows could find global appeal.
To make more global hits, Netflix is also going to bring its original content to more dubbed languages. The bleak superhero series Umbrella Academy, in particular, is currently available in 25 languages; by next year, it will be available in 30, according to Yellin.