The OA is over.
Netflix has canceled the trippy drama after two seasons. The decision comes more than four months after season two of the Brit Marling starrer from Zal Batmanglij debuted on the streamer.
“We are incredibly proud of the 16 mesmerizing chapters of The OA, and are grateful to Brit and Zal for sharing their audacious vision and for realizing it through their incredible artistry,” Netflix head of originals Cindy Holland said Monday in a statement. “We look forward to working with them again in the future, in this and perhaps many other dimensions.”
The series currently has 84 and 83 percent ratings on RottenTomatoes.com among critics and viewers, respectively. Netflix, like other streamers, does not release viewership information. (Among individual seasons, season two has a 92 percent versus season one’s 77 percent critical consensus.) The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg called the mysterious drama a “failed, but not wholly worthless, experiment in TV auteurism.”
Created and executive produced by Marling and Batmanglij, who also directed, the show starred Marling as Prairie Johnson, a woman who resurfaces after going missing for seven years. Now called “The OA,” she can see despite being blind before she disappeared. Marling bemoaned the cancellation Monday on Instagram.
The cancellation arrives as Netflix continues to make decisions about whether subsequent seasons of originals or new projects are more appealing to bringing in new subscribers. The streamer has continued to take that approach when it comes to making renewal decisions as most of their originals rarely make it beyond four seasons. Other recent Netflix cancellations have included the animated series Tuca & Bertie, the ABC import Designated Survivor, She’s Gotta Have It and Chambers, among others.
