Marco Polo (TV series)

Marco Polo
Promotional poster
Genre	Historical Drama
Created by	John Fusco
Directed by	Joachim Rønning Espen Sandberg Alik Sakharov Daniel Minahan David Petrarca John Maybury Jon Amiel James McTeigue
Starring	Lorenzo Richelmy Benedict Wong Joan Chen Rick Yune Amr Waked Remy Hii Zhu Zhu Tom Wu Mahesh Jadu Olivia Cheng Uli Latukefu Chin Han Pierfrancesco Favino Ron Yuan Claudia Kim Jacqueline Chan Leonard Wu Thomas Chaanhing Chris Pang Gabriel Byrne Michelle Yeoh
Theme music composer	Daniele Luppi
Ending theme	Altan Urag
Composer(s)	Peter Nashel Eric V. Hachikian
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20 + 1 special
Production
Executive producer(s)	Daniel Minahan Elizabeth Sarnoff John Fusco Harvey Weinstein Peter Friedlander Blair Fetter Bob Weinstein Patrick Macmanus Joachim Rønning Espen Sandberg Dave Erickson David C. Glasser Ben Silverman Chris Grant
Producer(s)	Richard Sharkey Brett Conrad Collin Creighton Michael Chernuchin Kate Barnow Bruce Marshall Romans
Location(s)	Malaysia Kazakhstan Hungary Italy Slovakia
Cinematography	Romain Lacourbas Vanja Černjul Xavier Grobet Gavin Struthers
Editor(s)	Malcolm Jamieson Michael Berenbaum Allyson C. Johnson Andrew Marcus Barbara Tulliver Elizabeth Kling Malik Johnson Martin Nicholson Erica Freed Marker Andy Keir William Henry
Running time	51–60 minutes
Production company(s)	The Weinstein Company TV Electus
Release
Original network	Netflix
Picture format	1080i (HDTV), 2160p (4K UHD)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release	December 12, 2014 (2014-12-12) – July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)

Marco Polo is an American drama web television series inspired by Marco Polo's early years in the court of Kublai Khan, the Khagan of the Mongol Empire and the founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). The show premiered on Netflix on December 12, 2014. The series was written and created by John Fusco and stars Lorenzo Richelmy in the title role with Benedict Wong as Kublai Khan. The series is produced by The Weinstein Company. On January 7, 2015, Marco Polo was renewed by Netflix for a 10-episode second season, which premiered on July 1, 2016.

On December 12, 2016, Netflix announced they had canceled Marco Polo after two seasons. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter, the series' two seasons resulted in a $200 million loss for Netflix, and the decision to cancel the series was jointly taken by Netflix and The Weinstein Company.

The series was originally developed at Starz, which had picked up the series in January 2012. After attempts to film in China failed, the project was released back to The Weinstein Company.Netflix then picked up the series for a 10-episode season, for approximately $90 million, making it one of the most expensive TV shows in the world, second to Game of Thrones. The project was officially announced at Netflix in January 2014. Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg serve as executive producers and directed the pilot and second episodes, "The Wayfarer" and "The Wolf and the Deer", respectively. The series was filmed in Italy, Kazakhstan, and at Pinewood Studios in Malaysia.