Utopia had an uphill battle on Amazon Prime Video when it started, and it had nothing to do with the quality of the show itself.
The sci-fi series was about an epidemic that was killing people and a company that planned to release a vaccine that had deadly consequences.
With the real-world pandemic, it was a hard sell, even though this series was based on an older BBC series and had been in development much longer than the current pandemic has been ravaging the world.
It didn’t matter and the series ended up as a one-and-done for Amazon Prime Video and there will not be a Utopia Season 2.
Amazon cancels Utopia
The Hollywood Reporter relayed the fact that Amazon has canceled Utopia after one season.
This follows a six-year journey to make it to American television screens.
Gillian Flynn produced the series for Amazon Prime Video, but it was originally supposed to air on HBO with director David Fincher attached as well. Fincher had previously adapted Flynn’s Gone Girl for the big screen.
The series was about a group of comic book fans who stumble on a deadly pandemic. They then have to find an elusive comic book that might be the key to a cure.
However, they find a villain in John Cusack, whose character is developing a vaccine that will sterilize anyone who takes it for three generations.
Cusack starred alongside Sasha Lane, Rainn Wilson, Ashleigh LaThrop, Desmin Borges, Farrah Mackenzie, and Christopher Denham. This was Flynn’s first time working as a showrunner.
Utopia got lukewarm reviews, sitting at a 51-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The biggest problem is that it is a series about a global pandemic in a timeframe where people are really dying from a global pandemic, so it was just bad timing.
Amazon renews The Expanse
While Amazon Prime Video axed Utopia, it did offer up a renewal for The Expanse to return for a final sixth season.
This is big news since it came before The Expanse Season 5 even premiered, so fans know a real end is coming and there will be at least one more season after this one to enjoy.
Unlike Utopia, which reminded too many people of real-world problems, The Expanse is a futuristic space opera, so that might be exactly what streaming services need to focus on right now to get people’s minds off the real-world problems.
Utopia Season 1 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
I hate this news. Utopia was very good.