Sundance Now Sets Late Winter Premiere for 'Black Snow'

The sheer number of U.S. streaming services can feel like a lot, from the big four (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max) to the mid-tier services (Hulu, Discovery+, BritBox, Acorn TV, and so forth), plus the little guys like the AMC niche offerings. However, the numbers get overwhelming, considering the streaming services in other countries, like ITVX in the U.K. or Stan in Australia. The latter launched in 2015 and is the third largest service down under, behind Netflix and Disney+. But most of its programming has stayed in its home country, with Black Snow one of the few hits to come to this side of the planet.

Black Snow was initially announced in July 2022, with Travis Fimmel (Vikings) attached to lead the new mystery-drama series. An All3Media International production, from the beginning, Sundance Now was announced as taking the rights to release the series in the U.S. Though the small-town murder which rocked North Queensland’s Australian South Sea Islander community in the mid-1990s is not based on a real-life event, it does pull from many cold cases from the era that went unsolved because the victims were Black, and highlights the mistreatment of Australia’s South Sea Islander population.

The series debuted on Stan in Australia on New Year’s Day 2023, with its first episode, and the other five episodes then arrived as a binge one week later. (This is a typical release pattern for the streaming service.) The semi-binge model means that the rights to stream in the states come faster than a weekly release format, and all six episodes will arrive in February.

Here's the synopsis from Sundance Now:

Part coming-of-age drama and part whodunit, the six-part series follows the mystery of a small-town murder that rocked North Queensland’s Australian South Sea Islander community. In 1995, seventeen-year-old Isabel Baker was murdered. The crime shocked the tight-knit community of Ashford and left the town devastated. The case was never solved, and the killer was never found. In 2020, the opening of a time capsule unearths a secret that puts cold-case detective James Cormack on the trail of the killer.

Fimmel is joined by newcomers Talijah Blackman-Corowa as Isabel and Jemmason Power as Hazel. The series also co-stars Brooke Satchwell (Mr. Inbetween), Alexander England (Alien: Covenant), Anthony Sharpe (Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears), Erik Thomson (Aftertaste), Kym Gyngell (Picnic at Hanging Rock), and Australian singer Ziggy Ramo. The series was created by Lucas Taylor (Harrow), who penned episodes with Boyd Quakawoot (Black Comedy) and Beatrix Christian (Jindabyne). Directors Sian Davies (The Gloaming) and Matthew Saville (Please Like Me) split helming duties.

Black Snow is scheduled to debut in February 2023, with all six episodes arriving at once on Sundance Now.