Netflix has had good instincts with adaptations. The Witcher and The Umbrella Academy are two of the largest successes on the platform. However, one sci-fi series, Grendel, has been unceremoniously cancelled, despite a full season of the superhero show being filmed and in the can.
Deadline reported that Netflix has decided not to move forward with the drama series. The show was produced under a first-look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment, and as the platform has passed, producers can shop it around for a new home. Dark Horse and Netflix have collaborated on several popular productions thus far, like the aforementioned Umbrella Academy, thriller movie Polar, and animated series Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles.
Dark Horse does have options here, as projects made in collaboration with the studio have landed on AMC and SyFy, like Resident Alien. Still, the entire eight episodes now being in limbo is a precarious position for everyone involved. There are echoes of the Batgirl cancellation earlier this year by Warner Bros as well, where a near-completed superhero movie was removed because of a tax write-off.
Mind, circumstances are different, since Grendel could appear somewhere else. Abubakr Ali plays the titular hero, an assassin who becomes head of New York City’s criminal underbelly. Deadline states he’s the first Arab Muslim man to lead a show like this. The comic was created by Matt Wagner and has a large cult following.
“‘This might be the one’, I’d catch myself thinking, as I and hundreds of talented, tireless, wonderful people shot not just a pilot, not just a few episodes, but an entire season that now might go unseen,” Ali said on Instagram about the news. “I’m used to shows closing or getting cancelled, but only after they at least get to meet the world, their fate decided (mostly) by their audience. What’s happened here is a new one for me and a shock, and I won’t pretend it doesn’t really sting.”
Still, he says he remains “optimistic” Grendel could end up somewhere else. We’ll keep you informed. In the meantime, have a look at our list of the best anime series.