It’s with a heavy heart that we report HBO has canceled Lovecraft Country. The series, created by Misha Green, was one of the most highly anticipated shows of 2020, and it won critical acclaim upon its release. Though the first season ended on a major cliffhanger, it seems we’ll never find out what happened next. We’re sorry to see this brilliant show go away.
Why did Lovecraft Country get canceled?
However, despite Lovecraft Country’s successful debut season, which was conceived, executive produced, and directed by Green and made by J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, a renewal was not a given.
This is because Season 1 was based on Matt Ruff’s novel, which served as the series’ route map. HBO sought a prospective second season of Lovecraft Country, much like it has done with other shows, most notably Big Little Lies, which produced an original second season following the first season based on Liane Moriarty’s novel.
Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer of HBO and HBO Max said in February that “Misha is working with a small team of writers and they’re coming up with a take. She had a book to go on in the first season. She and the writers wanted to go off and take some time to go out and figure out without a book with these characters, what’s the journey we want to go on. We all want to be sure she’s got a story to tell. That’s where she is right now, working on those ideas. I’m very hopeful, as is Misha, so we’re giving them the time to work.”
In the end, it was decided not to move on with a second season after serious deliberation.
Green provided a plan at the time of the Lovecraft Country season finale broadcast in October. Green, who co-created another renowned series, WGN America’s Underground, before creating Lovecraft Country, stated, “I envision a second season that carries on the spirit of Matt Ruff’s novel by continuing to reclaim the genre storytelling space that people of color have typically been left out of”
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