Prime Video’s Nordic originals chief says the service will move beyond the crime thrillers that built its audience in Scandinavia and aim more directly at women and younger viewers.
Emilia Widstrand, who leads originals for Amazon MGM Studios in the Nordics, laid out the plan in an interview with Deadline. “Moving forward, we’ll have a more feminine point of view,” she said. Men have formed the backbone of viewing on the service in the region, and the crime-heavy scripted slate has reinforced that pattern. Success with unscripted shows such as “LOL: Last One Laughing” and “Roast on the Coast” is widening the mix.
The scripted push started this year with “Snake Killer,” Prime Video’s first Danish drama. The four-part series stars Pilou Asbæk as a Copenhagen narcotics officer in the country’s most notorious police unit. It launched in January and Widstrand calls it a milestone. Amazon is building on the psychological thriller and crime formula with strong creators inside established Nordic genres, she said. “Murder in the Dark,” with A-list talent, follows soon.
The strategy relies on partnership. “Rinnan,” a World War II thriller about Norwegian collaborator Henry Rinnan, is a Miso Film co-production with Norway’s TV 2, an example of Amazon sharing rights and windows to stretch budgets. Widstrand told an industry audience in Copenhagen that the service funds some originals in full, teams with broadcasters on others, and sometimes invests locally before selling international distribution.
The stakes are high for a service that arrived late. Amazon relaunched Prime Video as a dedicated Nordic offering in spring 2021, and Broadcast reported it has struggled to gain traction against more established rivals, even with a deep catalog and competitive pricing. Widstrand added oversight of Prime Video’s regional operations to her originals role this year after Andreas Hjertø, the service’s Nordic chief for five years, departed. The Nordic commissioning team now reports to her.
She joined Amazon in 2022 as a development executive and worked on “Vaka” and “Blindspot.” Her northern Europe boss, Tara Erer, has said Nordic series draw an “appetite” beyond the region, which Amazon hopes will justify its investment.
The company has not announced specific female-led projects or a timetable for the shift.
