A League Of Their Own and The Peripheral both just got their second seasons yanked away by Amazon
The League Of Their Own show and William Gibson adaptation The Peripheral have both had their previously granted second-season renewals taken away
Some grim, “Just when you thought it was safe to love a TV show” news out of Amazon today, as Variety reports that two series that the consumer mega-giant had previously renewed for second seasons—including the critically heralded A League Of Their Own adaptation—have now had those second seasons abruptly scrapped.
In addition to League, The Unrenewal Man also came for Amazon’s William Gibson adaptation The Peripheral, which starred Chloë Grace Moretz, was executive produced by Westworld team Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and which received a second-season renewal back in February of this year. But, of course, nothing is promised, ye know not the hour nor the day, etc.—especially if that hour and day turns out to be Friday evening, the traditional dumping spot for murdered shows.
As for A League Of Their Own, it was already facing a reduced lifespan: The show, created by Will Graham and star Abbi Jacobson, had already been told that its second season—issued back in March, after the show debuted in August 2022—would be both shortened, and its last. Now, though, it’s not even getting that four-episode grace note to wrap up its storylines, which adapt and expand massively on the story told in the 1992 film, and which have received significant praise for handling the myriad issues in the world of women’s baseball in the 1940s with both skill and humor.
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen any of the major studios resort to rescinding previously granted renewals; it was, at least in part, seen mostly as a symptom of the COVID-19 lockdowns, and had largely abated over the last year or two. Reports from the trades, unsurprisingly, see unnamed decision-makers blaming their choices on Hollywood’s ongoing double strike, since pushing production on both shows to 2024 would mean a “logjam” for their production pipelines, with new episodes not coming out until as late as 2025. Fans and creators, presumably, would be fine with the wait—the corporate decision-makers, not so much.