Amazon lands Deutschland 83 sequel

The critically acclaimed Deutschland 83 has been picked up across the world

FremantleMedia-owned UFA Fiction’s sequel to Cold War thriller Deutschland 83 will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in Germany in 2018.

The deal comes as all episodes of Deutschland 83 have been made available for streaming to Prime members in Germany and Austria.

Created by head writer Anna Winger alongside Jörg Winger, and executive produced by Jörg Winger, Sebastian Werninger and Ulrike Leibfried, Deutschland 86 will begin shooting in 2017.

The show picks up the story of East German Agent Martin Rauch and his compatriots in the Stasi Foreign Intelligence in 1986, three years on from the first season.

Under the the agreement, RTL Television, which commissioned Deutschland 83 in 2014 and aired the first season in autumn 2015, has secured a first-look option for the linear TV rights and expects to air the sequel on German free-to-air television in 2018/2019 after Amazon’s first window.

Nico Hofmann, co-CEO of UFA, described the Amazon deal as a “milestone in coproduction history.”

FremantleMedia International (FMI), the global distribution arm of FremantleMedia, will continue to sell the drama series to broadcasters and streaming services worldwide.

Deutschland 86 will debut in the US on SundanceTV, which will continue as coproduction partner stateside, followed by Hulu (US), Channel 4 and Walter Presents (UK), Sundance Channel (Canada), Crave (Canada), Super Ecran (French-speaking Canada) and DR (Denmark).

Deals have also been secured with YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), RUV (Iceland), CMore (Scandinavia), RTE (Eire), Canal+ (France), Movistar+ (Spain), Sky Italia (Italy), Paramount (Italy), OTE (Greece), Telenet (Belgium), RTL Klub (Hungary), HRT (Croatia), Hotvision (Israel) and Sinema TV (Turkey), with more to be announced shortly.

FMI sold the first season to 38 broadcasters and SVoD platforms globally, taking the series to more than 110 territories worldwide.

The series was the first ever German-language drama to have aired on a major US cable channel (SundanceTV) and became the UK’s highest-rated foreign-language drama launch ever when it debuted on Channel 4.

Christoph Schneider, MD of Amazon Prime Video Germany, said: “After the Amazon Original You Are Wanted with Matthias Schweighöfer and Michael Bully Herbig’s Bullyparade – Der Film, Deutschland 86 is the latest German-made production that will be available exclusively on Prime Video.

“German series and movies are very important for our Prime members and we are happy to continue to build on our engagement with the German production industry and bring great new shows to our customers.”

In August, Amazon and FMI announced that the fantasy drama American Gods would launch exclusively for Prime members in Germany, Austria, the UK and Japan in 2017.