Netflix cancel animated ‘Scott Pilgrim’ series after one season
The animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off has confirmed will not return for a second series on Netflix. A year after the programme was released on the streaming platform, Bryan Lee O’Malley, the creator of the graphic novels that the show was based on, has revealed that the first season will remain the only season of this recent adaptation.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was an animated version of the Scott Pilgrim novels written by Malley, which was then adapted into the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by Edgar Wright, in 2010. It follows a boy called Scott Pilgrim, a laid-back Canadian musician who falls in love with a girl called Ramona Flowers, only to find he has to fight off each of her exes in a video game-esque battle. In the animated version of the Netflix series, Scott is defeated during the first battle and mysteriously vanishes, with his friends trying to find him.
The show debuted in November 2023, and many fans of the original film returned to watch the beloved characters in a new format. Despite its cancellation, the show proved to be a success.
Now, the show’s creator posted on social media, “We were recently informed that the show will NOT return. As you know, we only intended one season, and called in a lot of favors to make it happen, so making more would have been nearly impossible. Still, I know some of you have been holding out hope.”
O’Malley, along with the series developer and executive producer Ben David Grabinski, have warned fans of the show that this might be the outcome since the final episode last November.
When asked about the first season last year, O’Malley had said, “It’s self-contained for now. We loved what we did. We put it all in there. We don’t have any ideas lying on the floor… people are always complaining about how shows get canceled after one season. So we hedged our bets immediately, and tried to make a self-contained one season.”
In the animated version of the series, the cast from the original movie reprised their roles, with Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Chris Evans voicing their characters. Netflix has been under fire for cancelling many shows after just one season, with the cast and crew not given a substantial opportunity to build a fan base and expand on their work.
Many of the most iconic television shows over the years found their fanbase after making a couple of seasons. Therefore, it has been highlighted that it isn’t reasonable to expect huge success after only eight episodes and then cut it without being given a proper chance.
Netflix is perhaps on the lookout for another global success like Stranger Things and doesn’t want to invest in projects that won’t immediately break the charts.