Boy Swallows Universe is a new limited series streaming on Netflix, an adaptation of Trent Dalton’s semi-autobiographical coming of age novel.
The story follows Eli Bell, a traumatised 13-year-old working-class boy played by Felix Cameron, who is drawn into the criminal underworld in Brisbane, Australia in order to save his mother, played by Phoebe Tonkin, from danger. Eli’s father is absent, and his stepfather is a heroin dealer.
The novel of the same name was Dalton’s debut, first released in 2018, and is set in 1983.
The Netflix adaptation is written by John Collee, whose previous writing credits include 2003 film Master and Commander, 2006’s Happy Feet and 2018’s Hotel Mumbai. The show was produced by Andrew Mason and Troy Lum.
The show currently sits on a critics’ score of 89 per cent on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and an audience score of 90 per cent.
All seven episodes of Boy Swallows Universe were released onto Netflix on January 11.
Has Netflix renewed Boy Swallows Universe for a second season?
At the time of writing (January 2024), Netflix has not renewed the series. As the show is based on a single novel, and has been advertised as a limited series, it is unlikely that the show will be extended or renewed beyond the current seven episodes.
What has original novelist Trent Dalton said about the adaptation of his work?
In an interview with The AU Review at the show’s premiere in Brisbane, Dalton talked about his nerves ahead of the release of the show. “I should have t-shirts made that say ‘Don’t F it up!’ So many people have told me that, “Don’t F it up”, and, yeah, it’s a big deal.”
“I wrote this story and I never expected it to mean something. I underestimated how many people have been through [the same stuff]. How many young mums out there are going through it as we speak. They’re the ones that come up to me at book events and thank me for telling their story, or their dad’s story, or my step-dad’s story.”
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