Fans of the fantasy series Shadow and Bone are mourning the cancellation of the show by Netflix, one of a handful of shows cut with Netflix blaming the strikes for the move.
But like with any fanbase who sees a series they love killed too soon, ending on a cliffhanger, there is now an effort to rally the troops to try to save the series, either by showing Netflix it’s worth reverting the decision, or petitioning another service to pick it up and transport the fanbase over there.
We have seen this happen a handful of times. Manifest fans got that series to land a finale on Netflix, saving it from network cancellation. More recently, fans of another fantasy series, Warrior Nun were relentless in attempting to save the series which Netflix cancelled after two seasons. While supposedly they were successful, in the wake of that, things have now gotten a bit muddy as to what’s happening with it, and how much the original showrunners and even the cast may be involved.
Saving Shadow and Bone is a tall order. It’s not a cheap series given an expansive cast and a lot of location and VFX work. It’s much easier for Netflix to auto-renew decently performing, very cheap shows like Ginny and Georgia or Sweet Magnolias that are just people talking at each other. High cost shows really, really have to overperform, and even with Shadow and Bone previously hitting #1 on the service, it appears it wasn’t enough, even if the strike is being scapegoated here.
The problem is that while saving shows used to be plausible, at times, the cost of Shadow and Bone combined with the fact that streaming services are really, really starting to cut back on spending means that this would be an extremely tough sell. WB Discovery’s Max is being lambasted for killing finished projects for tax breaks to chip into its massive debt. Disney Plus has done the same thing and has said they will cut back on things like expensive Marvel shows. Amazon Prime is mired in expensive creator deals going nowhere and throwing insane amounts of money at projects they are realizing are not panning out. Paramount Plus losing $500 million a year. NBC’s Peacock is losing $650 million a quarter.
This is not the landscape where you can really pitch a decently pricey show that Netflix decided to cut. I suppose nothing is impossible, and fans are already rallying to pitch it elsewhere and stream the series to try to elevate it up the Netflix charts. I do wish them luck. It’s a very good series and I certainly know the pain of Netflix killing off many, many shows I was interested in before they had a chance to conclude.
But yeah, it’s a brutal market right now. Don’t hold your breath.
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