Harlan Coben adaptation Fool Me Once is Netflix’s first mega-hit of 2024, and two more adaptations from the bestselling author are on the way.
Missing You and Run Away are the next to novels to get the Netflix treatment, although you should’t expect either to hit the streamer too soon.
The dramatisation of 2014 novel Missing You is set to begin filming in “Spring 2024” according to Deadline, which by our estimates means it’s unlikely to be ready to watch before 2025 or late-late 2024. Fool Me Once was filmed in May-July 2023, and maybe earlier, and came to Netflix on January 1 2024.
If Fool Me Once was your first experience with Harlan Coben, you may find the top-line descriptions of these new adaptations a bit familiar.
NYPD detective Kat Donovan finds her ex-fiance on a dating app, eventually revealing a grand conspiracy in Mising You. In Run Away, Simon finds his daughter, from whom he has been estranged for six months in the street. But she is now “frail, filthy, terrified, and in more trouble than you ever imagined” according to the book blurb, drawing our protagonist into a dark and dangerous world.
Harlan Coben likes his story formulas but, hey, they sure do work.
More mystery
News of more Harlan Coben adaptations would never have been a surprise, but they have become more notable thanks to the runaway success of Fool Me Once.
There are currently eight Harlan Coben adaptions on Netflix, and the author signed up for a whopping 14 of them back in 2018. However, back then Deadline reported this was a 5-year deal, presumably due to expire later this year.
Of course, the whole TV development world has been rocked by the pandemic and strikes since 2018, so we can hardly blame Netflix for not cranking out 14 of these shows in just five years.
To the best of our knowledge Fool Me Once may be the most successful of these shows to date. Other key examples include Safe, The Stranger, Stay Close, The Innocent and The Woods.
If Fool Me Once has left you hankering after more twisty storytelling, we recommend starting with Safe or The Innocent.
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