Entertainment
Creator behind Netflix’s ‘biggest show of 2024’ owns 0% of it-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro
He wasn’t willing to walk away from a Netflix deal.
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The creator behind one of Netflix’s most popular shows has revealed he actually doesn’t own any of it.
When Supacell hit screens in June, it quickly became a roaring success, hitting a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and racking up 25,000,000 watches in just four weeks.
The superhero series, set in South London, followed five ‘ordinary’ people with a family of sickle cell disease, that led to them developing superpowers (but not necesarily to save the world).
Fans quickly branded it Netflix’s ‘best show’, and even Jay Z was obsessed.
However, the mastermind behind the sci-fi series, Rapman, real name Andrew Onwubolu, has now revealed he owns none of it, but explained why he didn’t walk away from Netflix’s deal.
‘I own 0% of Supacell,’ he began on the Drink Champs podcast.
The sci-fi series was a huge Netflix success (Picture: Netflix)
Supacell followed five people discovering their superpowers, sparked by sickle cell disease (Picture: Olly Courtney/Netflix)
‘If one day Netflix wake up and say, “You know what, we’re giving shows to people, do you want your show that you’ve created and written,” and that’s not going to happen,’ he replied, when asked how his 0% share could change.
Rapman went on: ‘But that’s just Netflix’s model, I’m not here to complain about it, I knew what I was walking into.
‘People have walked away from deals.’
He went on to claim that I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel reportedly ‘walked away from a ‘turned down a big pay cheque’ from Netflix because she would be unable to own her content.
‘And I admire her for that,’ he continued.
Creator Rapman owns 0% of it thanks to Netflix’s model (Picture: Getty/Dave Benett)
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‘That was her second TV show, she probably saw what it was like on her second TV show and probably told herself, “Second time around I’m not doing that,” and she walked away from the deal, and then the show became a massive success where it went anyway.
‘I wasn’t walking away from the deal because that was my first TV show, and I was like, “I’ll take this money, and if you lot keep that one, that’s fine.” I’ll make another one.’
He added: ‘I know enough to know that without me this show wouldn’t be the same, so it’s cool, but in general, even if that show is theirs, I can make another show, and now I know how it goes.’
Season one, which reached the number one spot in Netflix’s global TV series list when it came out in June, and remained in the top 10 for six weeks, won huge fan praise, and a second series was quickly greenlit.
A second series is thankfully on its way (Picture: Netflix)
It earned a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score (Picture: Netflix/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
Speaking about the next instalment, Rapman previously told Netflix Tudum: ‘Supacell Season 1 is my Batman Begins. It’s a prequel of what they’ll be like. Season 2 is when you really see what they become.
‘That future you saw at the end of the pilot in London, that exact future doesn’t exist anymore. They’ve changed everything.
‘It’s going to be interesting when we get into the writers’ room.’
Supacell, which stars Tosin Cole and Nadine Mills, is Rapman’s first TV series after working on the critically acclaimed 2019 film Blue Story and his online series Shiro’s Story.
He added: ‘I’ve always had it [mapped out] to Season 3. I know how Season 2 ends, I’ve got stuff planned for this story. I’ve had this in my head for years, so I’m ready to go.’
Supacell is available to watch on Netflix.
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