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Author Harlan Coben and Netflix proved to be a match made in mystery-thriller heaven with the impressive launch of “I Will Find You” earlier this month — and even more so with the limited series’ Week 2 numbers.
On Tuesday,
Netflix announced via its weekly Top 10 rankings that Coben’s “I Will Find You,” the latest of more than a dozen adaptations of Coben’s work released by the streamer, had the highest second week of viewers for an English-language scripted series launch in 2026, so far. Following a massive 24 million views (making it Netflix’s top TV show launch of the year) in the first week after its June 18 debut, “I Will Find You” garnered more than 34 million views from June 22 to June 28.
From showrunner Robert Hull and executive producer Coben (he’s an EP on every adaptation he’s done under his Netflix partnership), “I Will Find You” follows David Burroughs (Sam Worthington), a father imprisoned for his son’s murder, Matthew, who receives evidence from his ex-sister-in-law, Rachel (Britt Lower), five years later that suggests his child may still be alive, compelling him to escape and uncover the truth with her.
Netflix has confirmed to Variety that “many people” are watching the show in a single sitting. And many viewers are then taking to social media to rave (and some rant) about the ending.
“I think the obvious things that people are pulling out are the twists and turns, and keeping people on their toes and the binge-watch-ability — but of course a lot of shows are trying to do that, so we’re not the only one,” Coben tells Variety when asked to try to dissect the show’s popularity. “I think in the case of ‘I Will Find You,’ and hopefully other shows of mine, is the heart. You really feel for Sam Worthington, especially, and his character here, and you want to follow him anywhere. The shows stir your pulse and they stir your mind, but I think in the end, it’s stirring your heart.”
No specific spoilers here, but Coben adds: “I think the comment I’ve been getting most often is about, you know, the surprise at the end of Episode 7 — but almost as much on how it ends in Episode 8, when we see [some characters] in the future, eight months down the road.”
The success for “I Will Find You” is not without precedent: Between 2023 and 2025, Netflix’s Coben-based shows, including 2024 hit “Fool Me Once,” have topped 300 million global views and appeared on Netflix’s Global Top 10 list 33 times. Coben’s most recent adaptation, “Run Away,” drew 38 million views over its first four weeks.
While some popular shows are sleeper hits for Netflix, which leave the streamer scrambling to capitalize on the popularity post launch (look to the first season of “Squid Game” as a perfect example), the company knows well by now what it has in Coben and thus put a lot behind “I Will Find You” from the start. (They bought the pitch before he’d even finished writing the book and was just 90 pages into the story.) There was a national TV tour for Coben and stars Sam Worthington, Britt Lower and Milo Ventimiglia, and UV-ink stunt billboards in NYC and LA that revealed a secret message (“What happened to Matthew?”) visible only at night.
Since 2018, Netflix has adapted 13 of Coben’s books for the screen across its international divisions, including “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), “The Stranger” (UK), “Missing You” (UK), “Just One Look” (Poland), “Caught” (Argentina), and “I Will Find You” (Canada).
“I Will Find You” marks the first, but not the last, one handled by the U.S. team, including a previously announced adaptation of his 12-book Myron Bolitar series following the titular sports agent and mystery solver. Coben is also currently in development on an adaptation of “All We Ever Wanted” and a new UK adaptation of “The Woods.”
“I think that we have a really easy and collaborative partnership,” Netflix’s head of U.S. and Canadian scripted series, Jinny Howe, says. “I think we’re very like-minded in terms of the way that we put fans first. He is always thinking about what the fan and the audience experience is going to be, and it’s so deeply woven into the way that an audience will experience his stories. It’s very similar to the way that we are so about our audience and really just about giving them what they want.”
For the Bolitar adaptation, Coben knows the way he and the Netflix team have approached things so far will “definitely change,” as that will mark the first ongoing series based on one of his works.
“I think that by their nature, Myron, Win and Esperanza are harder to cast, and so you will probably want more unknown [actors],” Coben says. “It won’t be household names like some of the ones we’ve used before, probably. I don’t know for sure. Maybe it’ll be a good household name that we’ll find. But I think there’s a difference probably when you say to somebody we can have you committing to a TV series that’s going to be running possibly for several seasons, which is more the traditional approach versus what I usually do, which is on every other show I’ve done so far has been a limited series, which has had a great deal of appeal for someone like Britt Lower, who already has that commitment with ‘Severance.'”
Lower confirms that’s exactly what drew her to “I Will Find You” — and that fact that “when you tell people that you’re working on a Harlan Coben project, their eyes just light up.”
“I was excited to dive into something that is totally, really different than ‘Severance,” Lower says. “It takes place outside and I spend a lot of time indoors filming ‘Severance,’ so I didn’t have to take as many supplements for Vitamin D for this project.”
Lower adds: “Rachel is really boots on the ground. She’s on the run with David, and that was really a change of pace for me. I think whenever I think about what project I want to do next, it’s kind of like cross-training, like a basketball player will swim in their off season. So this was a chance for me to try something really different.”
The only author in history to have won each of the top crime fiction awards (the Edgar, Shamus and Anthony Awards), Coben is the writer of 35 novels and has seen his work published in 46 languages. And the sales on these titles spike with each new Netflix adaptation.
“Two partnerships this year with Netflix on Harlan Coben works is a gift,” Grand Central Publishing deputy publisher Beth de Guzman says. “The first was January’s ‘Run Away,’ and the book saw a gigantic 633% lift in sales after the series premiere. The second is ‘I Will Find You,’ sales of which have grown 150% since the teaser trailer. Now that the series has premiered, we know that number will soar as a new audience discovers Harlan’s masterful thriller.”
Penguin’s U.S. senior vice president of backlist, Ben Lee, noted the publisher sees “greater than a 200% lift in sales” on Coben’s adapted titles “in the period after the show/film release, regardless of which country the adaptation originated from.”
In general, Netflix has been going hard on the book-to-screen adaptation industry (“His & Hers,” “Bridgerton,” “The Queen’s Gambit”) and the time spent courting readers has been worth it. Per the streamer, these titles scored a combined 9 billion global views and represented nearly 20% of total view hours on Netflix last year. In fact, the Netflix Global Top 10 lists featured a book adaptation every single week.
“The key theme to take away from it isn’t something specific to the program, but really the mindset of honoring when there is an existing fandom,” Howe says. “To stay really true and honest with that, and to not let things feel like they’re blending into one another. Like we’re trying to turn something into something else. I think really understanding and respecting that people love this genre, and there is a high level of expectation in terms of how we deliver a satisfying adaptation of these books for them, that is something that we think about with every title that we’re programming.”
