It’s fitting that Netflix has laid its cards on the table and outlined plans to construct as many in-house franchises as possible, only for arguably the best and definitely most overlooked of them all to continue churning out new entries on a regular basis without hoovering up much in the way of headlines.
Ever since signing a lucrative development deal with the streaming service, the works of Harlan Coben have proven to be a reliably solid source of hard-hitting conspiracy thrillers, with the seven adaptations so far spanning multiple countries while still leaving audiences everywhere completely hooked and utterly engaged regardless of which language the stories are being told.
The United Kingdom’s The Stranger and Stay Close, Poland’s The Woods and Hold Tight, Spain’s The Innocent, and France’s Gone for Good followed on from initial entry Safe, and Fool Me Once is the next to roll off the production line having just wrapped principal photography. In a familiar setup for Coben fanatics, the narrative will once more find a central character dealing with a murder that plunges them into a wide-ranging mystery that threatens to shatter the entire fabric of their existence in more ways than one.
Based on the consistent quality so far, more Coben on Netflix is never a bad thing – with the author becoming so ubiquitous that Shelter debuts on rival streaming service Prime Video in a matter of weeks – but as of yet there’s no official release date locked in for Fool Me Once. Having called it a day in front of cameras – with the UK-based shoot excusing it from the ongoing strikes – an early-to-mid 2024 premiere seems most likely.