It’s a sad day for fans of Netflix’ Shadow and Bone. The series adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy novels—which was developed by Arrival’s Eric Heisserer and gobbled up by passionate viewers—will not return for a third season. This cancellation was just one of many announced by Netflix today.
Also getting the axe, as reported by Deadline: adult animated comedies Agent Elvis, Farzar, and Captain Fall, as well as live-action comedy-drama Glamorous. Aside from Shadow and Bone, which has had two seasons, these shows are all ending after just one installment.
The trade reports the cancellations, which come just as the SAG-AFTRA strike ended, are part of an industry-wide trend, as “networks and platforms continue to evaluate the impact from the strike-related seven-month production shutdown.” Production delays have meant previously mapped-out release timelines have required shifting, with streamers in particular reevaluating what their future programming will look like. (On the flip side of this, other Netflix shows including One Piece and Castlevania: Nocturne have recently announced second seasons are on the way.)
In the case of Shadow and Bone specifically, Deadline suggests the familiar “performance vs. cost” ratio was an obvious culprit—while also pointing to the fact that season two, which was released in March of this year, fell short of expectations set by season one: “[season two] spent five weeks in the weekly Top 10 for English-language series without getting to No.1. That, coupled with the potential delay of Season 3, likely factored into the decision not to move forward.”