Cinemax’s ‘Quarry’ Not Returning for Season 2

It’s the end of the road for Quarry.

The Cinemax drama will not be returning for a second season, series co-creator Michael D. Fuller confirmed in a lengthy blog post Wednesday.

“After a protracted and agonizing process, we have final confirmation that Quarry will not be returning to television,” he wrote. “There were several factors that contributed to the show’s ultimate fate, but a regime change at HBO and a re-(re?)-branding at Cinemax were of particular significance; we attempted to find another home for the show but were unable to do so. By virtually every metric (ratings, critical response) the show succeeded in all the ways a show needs to for a second season, but, as the erstwhile Head Ball Coach of my beloved Gamecocks was fond of saying, ‘It is what it is’. TV’s tough and life is tougher, and like the titular character of the show, the series itself was ultimately the victim of a system that is relentlessly unforgiving.”

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The rebranding at Cinemax was also the reason cited for the cancelation of the period medical drama The Knick. When the pay cabler confirmed The Knick would not be returning for a third season in March, Cinemax programming president Kary Antholis cited the channel’s return to “high-octane action dramas” such as the upcoming female-centered Strike Back revival.

News of Quarry‘s end also also comes weeks after star Logan Marshall-Green’s USA Network drama pilot Damnation received a series order.

Based on the novels by Max Allan Collins, Quarry centered on a Marine (Marshall-Green) who returns home to Memphis from Vietnam in 1972 and finds himself shunned by those he loves and demonized by the public. As he struggles to cope with his experiences on the battlefield, he is drawn into a network of killing and corruption.

In his post, Fuller also revealed some of what had been planned for season two, saying it would have taken place in 1973 with Marshall-Green’s Mac fully immersed in The Broker’s network. Season two also would have welcomed a new face in Mac’s war buddy Hall Prewitt.

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Fuller said that the writing team had already penned six episodes for Quarry‘s second season before learning about Cinemax’s change in creative direction.

“I’m gripped w/ a tremendous sense of sadness,” he wrote. “It’s a sadness I will carry w/ me for the rest of my life, but there’s a tremendous measure of solace in the fact that I had the opportunity to work w/ some of the most immeasurably talented people in the world on something we all believed in and deeply, abidingly cared about.”

Fuller co-created the series with Graham Gordy, and the two exec produced with Greg Yaitanes, Steve Golin, Matt DeRoss, David Kanter, Ken F. Levin and Collins.

In addition to the upcoming fifth season of Strike Back, Cinemax’s original series slate also includes Robert Kirkman’s Outcast.