Inside ‘Maxton Hall’: Amazon Unpacks How The German-Language Romantic Drama Went Global And Teases Season Two Details — Seriencamp

Stewart Clarke
·3-min read

Maxton Hall – The World Between Us is Prime Video’s biggest ever international launch, and the streamer has shared the inside story of the series’ rollout and admitted it is “tempting” to make the second season of the romantic drama extend beyond the six episodes seen in the first run.

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The series is a classic love story. It follows Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten), a girl from a humble background who wins a scholarship to an elite college, and her relationship with the uber-privileged heir James Beaufort (Damian Hardung). The German-language series is set in England but was filmed in Germany by producer UFA Fiction.

Given how the show has popped on Amazon and social media, fans are clamoring for season two, which was quickly ordered as season one blew up. At the Seriencamp TV festival and conference, Petra Hengge, Head of Scripted TV at Amazon MGM Studios, was asked if it is tempted to extend season two to eight or even ten episodes. “It is tempting,” she told the crowd in Cologne.

Season one is based on Save Me, the first book in a trilogy from author Mona Kasten. The producers have already told Deadline how keen they are to complete the story.

Dishing the backstory to the show’s international success, Hengge explained that it initially thought Maxton Hall would primarily be a local show. “When it was finished, we started showing it to our international colleagues. After the successes of Culpa Mia and The Summer I Turned Pretty, we had data points proving that there is an audience for female-driven romance programming, which hadn’t been there when we greenlit [Maxton Hall], so it was picked up internationally and made a global priority title.”

That meant major marketing support and dubbing the series into 20 languages and subtitling it for 40 territories. “You could see it in the Philippines or in Thai or Malay, Hindi, or Japanese, and it’s big in Brazil and Mexico in Argentina,” Hengge said. “It’s just amazing to see like something we loved so much doing, but always thought ‘who’s going to watch that show outside of Germany?’ resonates very well with females all around the world, and apparently their boyfriends also don’t mind watching too.”

The Prime Video exec said the approach to the show was to dial-up the escapist and entertainment elements. “It’s not realistic at all, but it’s a lot of fun,” Hengge said.

Speaking more broadly about the streamer’s current approach to German originals, she added. “I want to have people laugh, I want to have people cry, I want to help people feel better, and to sleep well afterwards. We’re not looking for the very dark dystopian stuff. Things that I really like are big mainstream entertainment. It makes you feel like you can just sit down with your loved one and have a good time watching it.”

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