Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes to write Netflix show about football

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes will write a new TV series about football for Netflix, it was announced today.

According to Netflix executive Erik Barmack, the as-yet-untitled show will explore the early days of modern football, "and how those involved in its creation reached across the class divide... part Etonians, part factory workers, coming together to create the world's most popular sport."

Barmack told reporters about Fellowes's show, part of a slate of new projects,  at the company's See What's Next showcase in Italy. Other new TV shows for Netflix include a French supernatural drama called Mortal, a German thriller based on the 2008 film The Wave, and Luna Nera, an Italian show about women accused of witchcraft in the 17th century.

The streaming service has also commissioned its first Dutch-language series, a supernatural drama set in Amsterdam about Dutch students who "open a portal to the demonic era of the Dutch golden age".

Three existing Netflix shows have been recommissioned for a second series: German sci-fi thriller Dark, Italian crime drama Suburra and comedy travel programme Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father.

No release date has yet been announced for Fellowes's football drama, although another show by the Downton Abbey writer – 19th century New York drama The Gilded Age – is set to air in the US on NBC next year.