Amazon may pride itself on its unwavering commitment to customer service, but it’s no pushover. America might have thought Amazon could be manipulated into filling a full-season order for one of its Prime Original pilots simply by voting for it to do so—which is reasonable, since that’s how Amazon’s democratic pilot season was designed—but instead the company is putting its foot down. Amazon announced Monday that it has scrapped The After, the sci-fi thriller from X-Files creator Chris Carter that was chosen by viewers as the best of Amazon’s second crop of originals, along with Transparent, Mozart In The Jungle, and Bosch.
According to Variety, Amazon never produced any episodes of The After following its pilot, which debuted last February and was ordered to series in March. The show featured an ensemble cast including Adrian Pasdar, Sharon Lawrence, and Jamie Kennedy as a disparate group trying to survive after an apocalyptic event, only to find they weren’t brought together by chance, and have a mysterious connection to one another that has something to do with aliens and tattoos. (It’s not as bad as it sounds.)
Amazon offered no details on why the show was canceled, merely issuing a terse statement thanking Carter along with the cast and crew. Given that no more of The After was produced following its pilot—while Transparent and Mozart In The Jungle went on to debut their first seasons, and Bosch appears to be on track to do the same—it appears the show ran aground rather early in the process. With its large, recognizable cast and higher production costs befitting a genre show, The After may have been singled out as the reddest line on the balance sheet. Though an equally plausible explanation is that one of the Amazon higher-ups finally got around to binge-watching FlashForward during the post-Christmas lull.