Ansel Faraj has been pursuing the idea of making an Edgar Allan Poe film for 10 years. During the filming of DOCTOR MABUSE: ETIOPOMAR, he pitched the idea of either doing The House of Usher, A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Tell Tale Heart, or The Bells to Christopher Pennock.
THE MADNESS OF RODERICK USHER, the pilot episode, was originally planned as just a one off short film and filmed in November 2014. After positive feedback, it was decided this would be redesigned as the pilot episode in a series of Edgar Allan Poe shorts for a web-series, with a rough working title of "Edgar Allan Poe Theater". This was quickly re-branded "Theatre Fantastique", so it would not limit the creative team from doing original or non Poe stories, and the subsequent episodes were lined up.
A DESCENT INTO A MAELSTROM was green-lit November 18 2013, the first day of production on USHER. Initial concept was that of a captain who had gone mad, and murdered all his crew with the exception of his first mate, whom the captain holds prisoner on his ship as they venture through a maelstrom; but was eventually re-worked into a Poe meets CALIGARI type tale. A Steampunk laced story where the captain runs a submarine through a maelstrom was also considered but dropped in favor of a classical 'ghost story'.
A version of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather" were considered for Season One.
Nathan Wilson was slated to play the knight eldred in Madness of Roderick usher, but the subplot was scrapped from the shooting script.