Was “The Night Agent” a risky move for Netflix?

A new Netflix production is currently dominating the series charts. At one point, the streaming provider almost rejected the project.

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The Night Agent” is one of the most recently launched Netflix series and has won over subscribers in no time at all.

The ten-episode action hit by Shawn Ryan is currently number one in the series charts in the United States. Yet Netflix almost didn’t make the production, as Deadline reports.

Only six days after the first season of “The Night Agent” was released, Netflix has confirmed a continuation of the action series.

The reason for this is probably the format’s pretty strong start, as “The Night Agent” had the third most successful launch week after “Wednesday” and “Dahmer – Monster: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Series creator Shawn Ryan, who previously starred on such series as “The Shield” and “S.W.A.T,” expressed his delight at the tremendous success:

“I still can’t believe it. I’ve had a long career and certainly some success stories, but never such an intense, immediate reaction from fans as this time. It almost doesn’t feel real.”

Shawn Ryan

Netflix wasn’t initially excited about “The Night Agent”

“The Night Agent” series is based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk and was pitched to Netflix as a series adaptation back in 2021.

The initial script draft for the first episode includes a storyline revolving around FBI agent Peter (Gabriel Basso) manning an emergency phone at the White House and receiving a call from a terrified civilian named Rose (Luciane Buchanan).

Another plot line revolves around the vice president’s daughter and her secret service in Rome. The draft was sent to numerous studios in February 2021, but most rejected the project. Only Netflix and NBCUniversal expressed interest.

Thanks to Liza Katz, president of scripted content at NBCUniversal, filming of the pilot episode began just two months later. However, the producers feared that Netflix would withdraw from the project due to lack of interest.

So, in a roundabout way, a conversation was organized between Shawn Ryan and Jinny Howe, the vice president of drama series at Netflix, in which a major change for the pilot episode was discussed.

Howe and her team felt that the pilot episode would work better if they focused only on Peter and Rose and picked up the intelligence plotline at a later date.

Through the conversation, both parties came to an agreement and said secret service part was not introduced until the third episode of “The Night Agent.” If you want to see “The Night Agent” for yourself, you can stream the series now on Netflix.

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