Why Netflix Canceled The Society After One Season

Netflix has a long, storied history of canceling shows early on in their runs. The winner of the streaming wars may spend billions of dollars on original movies and TV shows, but letting any of those shows live beyond a few seasons is a rarity. 2019’s young adult series “The Society” was one of those shows that was a one-and-done, with the series lasting just a single season. But that wasn’t the original plan. So, why was this popular series canceled after only one season?

For those who may not be familiar, “The Society” follows a group of teenagers who are mysteriously transported to an exact replica of their wealthy New England town, only with no trace of their parents to be found. The series hailed from Chris Keyser (“Tyrant,” “Party of Five”) and Marc Webb (“500 Days of Summer,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”) with a promising young cast led by then-up-and-comer Kathryn Newton (“Blockers,” “Detective Pikachu”).

Originally, Netflix had renewed “The Society” for a second season. Unfortunately for viewers, in August 2020, it became one of the many movies and TV shows canceled or delayed by the pandemic. The streamer also axed a planned second season of another YA series, “I Am Not Okay With This,” which was led by Sophia Lillis (“It”).

Things in Hollywood have recovered in large part since the pandemic rocked the business to its knees, but even at the time of writing, we’ve yet to fully establish a new normal. It’s easy to forget now, but in 2020 it felt like nothing would ever be the same and there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty surrounding the future. Everything from movie theaters to production facilities shut down all over the world for months on end. That informed a lot of decision making by studios and streamers. Netflix was not immune to that line of thinking.

Because it was unclear when production would be able to continue on just about anything, nor was it apparent how projects would be impacted by the future that lay ahead, Netflix canceled several planned shows and movies in 2020. “The Society” was merely one of the many impacted titles. Netflix, in a statement released at the time of the show’s cancellation, even declared matter of factly that the pandemic was to blame for “The Society” season 2 not moving forward:

“We’ve made the difficult decision not to move forward with second seasons of ‘The Society’ and ‘I Am Not Okay With This.’ We’re disappointed to have to make these decisions due to circumstances created by COVID, and we are grateful to these creators, including: Jonathan Entwistle, Christy Hall, Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen, and Josh Barry at 21 Laps Entertainment for ‘I Am Not Okay With This’; Chris Keyser, Marc Webb, and Pavlina Hatoupis for ‘The Society’; and all the writers, casts, and crews who worked tirelessly to make these shows for our members around the world.”

Aside from scheduling, cost became a huge consideration for any production moving forward in the aftermath of the 2020 lockdowns. Blumhouse head Jason Blum estimated that budgets would increase by as much as 20% due to new protocols and safety equipment that sets had to implement. So, a show that might have once made sense at a certain budget level might no longer make sense with the added expense. That was undoubtedly a factor here as well.

This wasn’t the typical, often frustrating example of a show not having time to find its audience. Rather, Netflix was just doing what it felt it needed to do at a time of great uncertainty. Had the pandemic not come about, this show and others would have gone on for at least one more season. Unfortunately, that’s not how things played out.

“The Society” is streaming on Netflix.