Author Harlan Coben and Netflix proved a match made in mystery thriller heaven with the impressive release of “I Will Find You” earlier this month, and the limited series’ second week number proves it even more so.
On Tuesday, Netflix announced through its weekly Top 10 rankings that Corben’s “I Will Find You,” the latest of more than a dozen adaptations of Corben’s works released by the streamer, had the highest second-week viewership so far for an English-language scripted series starting in 2026. Following a massive 24 million views in the first week after its release on June 18th (Netflix’s top TV launch of the year), “I Will Find You” received over 34 million views from June 22nd to June 28th.
From showrunner Robert Hull and executive producer Corben (who has made all of his film adaptations into EPs under his partnership with Netflix), I Will Find You tells the story of a father, David Burrows (Sam Worthington), who is imprisoned for the murder of his son Matthew, but five years later, when he receives evidence from his ex-sister-in-law Rachel (Britt Lower) that his child may still be alive, he is forced to escape and uncover the truth. with her.
Netflix confirmed to Variety that “many people” are binge-watching the show. And many viewers have taken to social media to praise (and even rant about) the ending.
“I think what people are looking for is the twists and turns and keeping people in suspense and the ability to binge-watch. But of course, a lot of shows are trying to do that, so we’re not alone,” Corben told Variety when asked to analyze the show’s popularity. “I think in the case of ‘I Will Find You,’ and hopefully other shows, the heart is the heart. You really relate to Sam Worthington, especially his character here, and you want to follow him everywhere. The show tugs at your pulse, it tugs at your heart, but I think ultimately that’s what’s tugging at your heart.”
There are no specific spoilers here, but Corben adds: “I think the most frequent comment I get is about the surprise at the end of episode 7, but almost as much about the ending in episode 8, which takes place eight months into the future (for some characters).”
The success of “I Will Find You” is not without precedent. From 2023 to 2025, Netflix’s Coben-based shows, including the 2024 hit “Fool Me Once,” surpassed 300 million views worldwide and appeared on Netflix’s Global Top 10 list 33 times. Corben’s latest film, Run Away, garnered 38 million views in its first four weeks.
While some popular shows have been sleeper hits for Netflix, and the streamer has been eager to capitalize on their popularity since they went live (see the first season of “Squid Game” for a perfect example), the company now knows a lot about what’s in store for Coven, so it’s been far behind “I Will Find You” to begin with. (They bought the pitch before Corben had finished writing the book, and the story was only 90 pages long.) There was a national television tour for Corben and stars Sam Worthington, Britt Lauer, and Milo Ventimiglia, and UV-ink stunt signs were installed in New York and Los Angeles that revealed secret messages (“What happened to Matthew?”) that were visible only at night.
Since 2018, Netflix has adapted 13 of Corben’s books into films through its international division. These include ‘Run Away’ (UK), ‘Fool Me Once’ (UK), ‘Safe’ (UK), ‘The Woods’ (Poland), ‘The Innocent’ (Spain), ‘Gone for Good’ (France), ‘Stay Close’ (UK), ‘Hold Tight’ (Poland) and ‘The Stranger’. (UK), “Missing You” (UK), “Just One Look” (Poland), “Caught” (Argentina), “I Will Find You” (Canada).
“I Will Find You” is the first, but not the last, work from the American team, which includes previously announced adaptations of the sports agent and mystery solver’s 12-book Myron Bolitar series. Corben is also currently developing an adaptation of “All We Ever Wanted” and a new UK adaptation of “The Woods.”
“I think we have a very easy and collaborative partnership,” says Ginny Howe, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada. “I think we’re very much on the same page in terms of putting the fans first. He’s always thinking about what the fan and audience experience is going to be, and that’s deeply woven into the way the audience experiences his stories. It’s very similar to how we care about the audience and just give them what they want.”
When it comes to adapting Bolitar, Koben knows it will “definitely change” the way he and the Netflix team have worked in the past, as it will be the first ongoing series based on one of his works.
“I think Myron, Wynn, and Esperanza are difficult to cast because of their nature, so you probably want more unknown actors,” Corben says. “It’s probably not going to be a famous name like we’ve used in the past. We don’t know for sure. It’s probably going to be a good famous name that we find. But when you say to someone that we can get you to commit to a TV series that will probably run for several seasons, I think there’s probably a difference. It’s a more traditional approach and what I usually do. All the other shows I’ve done so far have been limited series, and they’ve had great results. “You’d want someone like Britt Lower, who already has that commitment on Severance. ”
Lower acknowledges that that’s exactly what drew her to “I Will Find You,” and the fact that “when I tell people I’m working on a Harlan Coben project, their eyes just light up.”
“I was excited to jump into something really different from ‘Severance,'” Lower says. “Because filming takes place outdoors and we spend a lot of time indoors filming ‘Severance,’ we didn’t need to take as many vitamin D supplements on this project.”
“Rachel is just a down-to-earth woman. She runs with David. That was a real change of pace for me. Every time I think about the next project I want to do, I think of it like cross-training. It’s like a basketball player swimming in the offseason. So this was a chance for me to try something really different.”
The only author in history to win each of the major crime fiction awards (Edgar, Sheamus, and Anthony), Corben has written 35 novels, and his work has been published in 46 languages. And sales for these titles skyrocket with each new anime adaptation on Netflix.
“It’s been a gift to partner with Netflix twice this year on Harlan Coben films,” said Beth de Guzman, associate publisher at Grand Central Publishing. “The first was ‘Run Away’ in January, which saw book sales increase by a whopping 633% since the series debut. The second was ‘I Will Find You’, which saw sales increase by 150% since the teaser trailer. Now that the series has premiered, we know those numbers will skyrocket as new audiences discover Harlan’s masterful thriller.”
Ben Lee, Penguin’s senior vice president of U.S. backlist, said the publisher expects Coben adaptations to “increase sales by more than 200% in the post-release period of the show or movie, regardless of the country of origin.”
In general, Netflix has been hard at work in the book-to-movie adaptation industry (His & Hers, Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit), and the time spent courting readers has been worth it. These titles combined for 9 billion views worldwide and accounted for nearly 20% of total viewing time on Netflix last year, according to the streamer. In fact, Netflix’s Global Top 10 list featured a book adaptation every week.
“The key theme that comes out of that is not something specific to the program, but actually the idea of honoring existing fandom when it exists,” Howe says. “Staying really authentic and honest with it, and not making it feel like things blend into each other, like we’re trying to turn one thing into another. I think it’s about really understanding and respecting that people love this genre and that there’s a high level of expectation in terms of how we give them a satisfying adaptation of these books. That’s what we’re thinking about with every title that we’re programming.”
