Netflix aren’t exactly lacking when it comes to high-profile original content, but acclaimed drama Ozark has quietly been gaining a reputation as one of the finest TV shows of the last few years, and in terms of consistency and quality it might very well be the streaming service’s best-ever small screen effort.
The March debut of the third season saw it eclipse the headline-grabbing Tiger King in terms of viewership, with Ozark reported to have drawn in 975,000 subscribers on the first day it was available, which is over three times what both Joe Exotic and the show’s own second season managed. Not only that, but Netflix estimated that the latest bout of misfortune to hit the Byrde family generated nearly 30 million streams in the first four weeks it was available.
Ozark isn’t just a hit with Netflix subscribers, though, and has racked up 32 Primetime Emmy nominations in total and two Golden Globe nods for Jason Bateman’s leading performance which saw the star, frequent director and executive producer shed his image as the put-upon straight man in a series of studio comedies and reinvent himself as a talent to be reckoned with.
The fourth season of Ozark might have been announced as the last, but we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us The Witcher was getting a prequel series long before Blood Origin was announced, and that Jason Momoa is being eyed for it, which has now been confirmed – that Netflix are considering the idea of making a spinoff that would follow Julia Garner’s Ruth Langmore, the undoubted breakout star of the show.
According to our intel, similar to how there are tentative plans in place to continue Stranger Things once the main story wraps up, Netflix see plenty of mileage in the continued adventures of Ruth, and depending on how the fourth and final season of Ozark plays out, it might not even need to be connected to the events of the finale at all. Plot details still remain under wraps and again, these plans are only tentative and may not come to fruition, but we’re told that it’s something the streaming giant would like to explore and we can only hope they follow through with it.
