Despite backing from Cindy Holland, the former Vice President for Original Content at Netflix, The Queen's Gambit miniseries starring Anya Taylor-Joy was considered a very expensive risk by others in the company -- before it became one of the streaming service's biggest hits.
In an in-depth piece from The Hollywood Reporter examining Netflix's recent troubles with subscriber numbers, it was revealed that the popular coming-of-age drama following the life of a fictional young chess prodigy in the 1950s and '60s was known as "Holland's Folly" by some inside the organization. One executive, Bela Bajaria, and her staff were reportedly dismissive of the team working on the project, sometimes even outright unpleasant according to some sources. A Netflix spokesperson has denied those claims, though it is true that Bajaria received the majority of the credit from the media after the series became a huge hit.
The Queen's Gambit, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, centers around Beth Harmon, an orphan who rises to the top of the chess world while battling her addiction to drugs and alcohol along with other personal demons. Written and directed by Scott Frank, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Logan, among other career highlights, the show became Netflix's top-watched scripted series at the time, received widespread critical success, and helped launch a resurgence in interest for the game of chess itself.
The period drama also won a total of eleven Primetime Emmy Awards and was the first streaming series to win for Outstanding Limited or Anthology series. Taylor-Joy was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. The success of the series was often called unlikely due to its subject matter, and the chess community itself was mainly positive about the way the game was portrayed.
As for Holland, she was let go from Netflix in September 2020, right before The Queen's Gambit gained massive popularity. Despite bringing such hits as Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black to the streamer, the company decided to move in a different direction at that time, backing Bajaria. Despite some critical misfires like Insatiable, Bajaria has also enjoyed success with series like Lupin and another mega-hit, Squid Game.
A shrinking subscriber base has been the focus of news around Netflix in recent weeks. The streaming giant reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers for the first quarter of 2022 against a prediction of adding 2.5 million. Part of this loss was chalked up to Netflix suspending its service in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, but losses are now expected to continue well into the next quarter as well.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter