The OA fans are dancing up some pretty wild conspiracy theories about the show's cancellation
[Note: This article contains spoilers for the second—and final?—season of The OA]
Earlier this week, Variety reported that The OA—one of the weirder shows, not just in the Netflix library, but, really, in all of current TV—wouldn’t be coming back for a third season. This was, to say the least, distressing for the show’s fans, many of whom were heavily invested in its story of interdimensional dancing powers and the waifish women who wield them. It doesn’t help that the series’ second season ended on a massive cliffhanger…One that’s now giving some of those fans hope (or, you know, whatever you want to call it) that this whole “cancellation” thing is actually some sort of viral marketing stunt by the streamer.
To wit: The show’s second season finale ended with a very meta twist, as the titular OA (Brit Marling, who also created the show, with Zal Batmanglij), whose aforementioned magic dancing drives much of the series plot, ends up teleporting to a world where she’s…Brit Marling, star and co-creator of a TV show called The OA. And while we feel duty-bound to point out that this is also the plot of one of the last episodes of Eerie, Indiana—get on it, clueseekers!—that reveal has led fans to wonder if the show has really been canceled after all, or if they’re all just trapped in some sort of meta-fictional web. As propagated on Reddit—and now, admittedly, in articles exactly like this one—the theory suggests that it’s time for fans to take their magical dancing out into the real world as an act of faith to revive the show. (It doesn’t help that Jason Isaacs, who plays the series antagonist—and also, of course, actor Jason Isaacs—recently posted a video of himself showing off every step of the mystical choreography.)
Members of the subreddit are now organizing a “virtual flashmob,” which will see numerous fans of the series perform the show’s “moves” for themselves as a show of solidarity on August 12. Meanwhile, even if this isn’t some sort of diabolical scheme to trick fans into thinking the show is dead when it really isn’t—and just to be clear: It’s not, because very large television creators typically don’t work like that—it’s still pretty great (if belated) marketing for the series, either way.