The company’s first slew of Asian original productions premiered this year with select titles such as thriller series Sacred Games (India), Devilman Crybaby (Japan), the comedy show BUSTED! (South Korea) and action film The Night Comes For Us (Indonesia).  

Netflix chief executive officer Reed Hastings said the popularity of these Asian productions were perfect enough for more productions to come in the year ahead.

In Singapore, the company announced a round of several new Southeast Asian productions coming from Asia, with productions from Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and India.

The Thai productions will include a schoolyard horror-drama series titled Shimmer and a castaway-themed mystery thriller named The Stranded. Taiwan’s entries include gangster-themed coming of age romantic comedy Triad Princess, while South Korea showcases a horror period drama titled Kingdom.

Conquering the east: Reed Hastings delivers his opening remarks at Netflix’s “See What’s Next: Asia” event at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore on Thursday. (Courtesy of Netflix/-)

Elsewhere in the announcements, Netflix also revealed five Japanese anime titles that are currently being produced and will premiere on the service sometime in 2019. Two of the five titles revealed at the event are particular sci-fi franchises that would translate well into the anime format.

One of them is an anime version of Netflix’s original sci-fi series Altered Carbon, which expands the universe and philosophies relating to its dystopian digital future setting. Derived originally from a book series by writer Richard K. Morgan, the anime version will be written by Dai Sato, who is responsible for the writing of two acclaimed anime series: Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop.

Another will be an anime version of blockbuster Hollywood film Pacific Rim. Comic book artist Craig Kyle and filmmaker Greg Johnson will be behind the reimagination and it will likely take place in the same universe as the Guillermo del Toro franchise but with a different story. Del Toro had teased possibilities of an animated version of Pacific Rim since as far back as 2014.

Others include an anime based on a Philippine urban legend called Trese, a dystopian biowarfare series called Cagaster of an Insect Cage and a historical fiction title based on Japan’s legendary samurai of African origin called Yasuke.

“Asia is a unique home for creative workers in the world in producing wonderful and interesting series and films,” Netflix’ chief content officer Ted Sarandos told members of media, including The Jakarta Post, invited to the event.

“What’s great is that we get to serve up stories from countries such as South Korea, Thailand, India, Japan and Taiwan and provide them a chance to connect and tell their wonderful stories with audiences all around Asia and beyond.”

Outside of their Asian announcements, the company offered up tantalizing reveals of the upcoming seasons of two of their most popular series – House of Cards and Narcos – as well as the premiere of a new original film, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.

Directed by esteemed actor Andy Serkis, Mowgli will be a motion-capture live adaptation of the original Jungle Book book by Rudyard Kipling, which Serkis explains will stay true to the darker tones and messages that the book originally conveyed. It will be released on Dec. 7.

Grip of Power: Netflix chief of content Ted Sarandos talks about Netflix’s highly acclaimed series House of Cards, which began to air its final season on Nov. 2. (Courtesy of Netflix/-)

House of Cards, which was Netflix’ first original series debuting in 2013, aired its sixth and final season on Nov. 2.

The political drama has ranked up endless acclaim for its presentation and the performances of its cast, which includes Robin Wright, Michael Kelly and the now ousted Kevin Spacey. The seventh season will be the only season that does not feature Spacey after he was booted from the show in 2017 over sexual misconduct allegations.

Claire Underwood, played by Robin Wright, has been embraced by the fanbase and recognized as the most dynamic character on the show as a result of her strong character that sometimes eclipses the show’s strong male characters.

“As a character, she was always there, always seen, always recognizable. She is a ruthless character, if not just as equally or more ruthless than [Spacey’s character] Francis,” Wright described during the event.

After having played Claire Underwood for the last five to six years, she felt touched upon having to finally “put the character to sleep”.

Meanwhile, as the ruthless TV series Narcos returns for its fourth season on Nov. 16, viewers will be treated to a whole different experience from the past three seasons.

For starters, the setting shifts from the drug-addled Colombia of the 1990s to 1980s Mexico, which showrunner Eric Newman explains is the time and place that “started the continental drug war”.

None of the cast members that appeared in the last three seasons will be appearing in this season, titled Narcos: Mexico Mano a Mano.

It is treated more as a spinoff story as it serves as the technical prequel to all the events that happened in the Colombian drug war, shining the spotlight on the infamous Guadalajara Cartel and the efforts of the American Drug Enforcement Agency agent Kiki Camarena to bring it down.

“We aren’t really telling a story about who the good or bad guys are. In order for those situations to happen, many factors contribute to it such as the government, the justice system and the general cultural wars that happened in Mexico itself ,” says Diego Luna, the Mexican-born actor who will co-star in the film along with Michael Pena.

“[Narcos: Mexico] is thus a story more about Mexico than it is about its drug war.”