The world of Manifest is expanding at Netflix, with the streamer ordering a new spin-off series titled Arrivals: A New Manifest Mystery more than three years after the original show ended.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new series will take place in the same universe as Manifest but will follow an entirely new group of characters. Netflix announced the project on 28 August — or 8/28 — a deliberate nod to Flight 828, the mystery at the heart of the original series.
Manifest creator Jeff Rake will develop Arrivals with Margaret Easley and Laura Putney, who served as writers and co-executive producers on the original show. The trio will act as co-creators and co-showrunners.
Rake, Easley and Putney will also executive produce alongside Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke of Compari Entertainment, Len Goldstein of Tall Baby Productions and Jacqueline Levine. Warner Bros. Television, which produced Manifest, will return as the studio.
Like its predecessor, Arrivals begins with a mysterious aircraft incident. The official logline says a plane unexpectedly crash-lands in Denver, and its passengers emerge without any memory of who they are, where they came from or why they are there.
A young social worker and an inexperienced Homeland Security agent then join forces with the mysterious arrivals to prevent a catastrophe that could end humanity. Along the way, they discover that they themselves are part of the puzzle they are trying to solve.
“The world of Manifest has more stories to tell,” Rake said in a statement. “To now bring fans a brand-new mystery from that world is quite simply beyond my wildest dreams.”
He praised Putney and Easley as longtime collaborators whose contribution to the original series “cannot be overstated”, adding that the three creators wanted to build something “bold, surprising, deeply human” and filled with ideas that would continue conversations long after the credits rolled.
Jinny Howe, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the US and Canada, said the streamer was thrilled to expand the Manifest universe with its original creative team. She said their return would provide the creative continuity needed to honour what made the original series a phenomenon while offering a fresh perspective to audiences worldwide.
Manifest premiered on NBC in 2018 and ran for three seasons until 2021. The network cancelled the series as its first two seasons gained a large audience on Netflix. The streamer later revived the show for a fourth and final season, released in two 10-episode parts in 2022 and 2023.
Rake is represented by WME, while Putney and Easley are represented by WME, Kaplan Perrone Entertainment and Lichter Grossman.
