The number of Netflix series sold is growing rapidly, because the world’s largest streaming service is always happy to pull the plug on series that do not meet its expectations. Over the past year, numerous series have not been commissioned for another round. Fans said goodbye to teen drama First Kill, quirky horror series Archive 81, and more recently mystery sci-fi series 1899 (Opens in a new tab).
But that is not all. We’ve listed all the shows that made it to the screens here. The six animation projects Netflix canceled due to the massive churn in subscribers (Opens in a new tab), and dark comedy Bad Crimes, the sequel to Will Smith’s action blockbuster Bright, we didn’t include. For the same reason, we didn’t include the Grendel comic book adaptation either.
Of course there was Netflix (Opens in a new tab) numerous cancellations before 2022 – Cowboy Bebop, Grace and Frankie and Cursed were all not renewed, but we’ve kept the list relatively up to date and only included the last year to date.
Fate: The Winx Saga
Depending on your TV viewing habits, the fact that Netflix canceled Fate: The Winx Saga (Opens in a new tab), might not show up on your radar. But many people will be saddened by the end of the series because the second season was the most-watched show in 76 countries between September and October 2022.
The live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated series Winx Club ended on a major cliffhanger in Season 2, leaving fans furious at the untimely ending.
Resident Evil
The reboot of the hit and beloved video game series has proved short-lived, with Netflix officials canceling Resident Evil after just one season.
The eight-part reboot, set in 2036, focuses on Charlie’s Angels’ Ella Balinska. Balinska played Jade Wesker, who struggles to survive 14 years after a deadly virus triggered a global apocalypse and wiped out most of humanity, in a world overrun by rabid, bloodthirsty creatures.
Despite a strong start on Netflix with 72.7 million viewers in its opening weekend, the series failed to take off and only garnered 73.3 million viewers the following week. Soon after, she dropped out of the top 10.
The critics had already rated the series rather poorly: 54% up Rotten Tomatoes (Opens in a new tab)but viewership was even worse: just 26%.
First Kill
Teen drama First Kill is another Netflix series to be canceled after one season despite having a very good start with nearly 50 million viewers in its first week in June.
Based on the short story of the same name by author VE Schwab, First Kill is a reimagining of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and is about Juliette Fairmont, a female vampire from a vampire dynasty.
On her 16th birthday, Juliette, who has been living on blood pills, finds that the pills are now a substitute for the real thing and she must commit her first murder. She then meets Calliope Burns, a new girl Juliette quickly becomes infatuated with.
The trouble is, Calliope’s family history is just as complicated as Juliette’s. She is a monster hunter who grew up in a family of monster hunters. And off we went, albeit unfortunately only for one season.
Midnight revelations
The latest series to fall victim to the Netflix ax is Midnight Gospel Revelations, an adult animated series created by Adventure Time star Pendleton Ward and comedian Duncan Trussell.
The series followed a spaceman named Clancy Gilroy who lives in a malfunctioning multiverse simulator and decides to leave the comfort of his home to interview beings living in dying worlds.
After launching in 2020, there wasn’t much talk of a new season, although Trussell had expressed an interest in one.
But now the ending is confirmed: no more revelations at midnight.
Raising Dion
After two seasons, this family drama came to an end because Netflix removed Raising Dion from its program at the end of April.
Raising Dion, an adaptation of Dennis Liu’s comic book of the same name, debuted on Netflix in 2019. It tells the story of Nicole, a widow raising her son Dion. Besides all the normal drama that comes with raising a young son alone, things get even more complicated when Dion begins to develop various magical, superhero-like abilities.
Nicole quickly realizes that there are people who want to take advantage of her son’s abilities and she tries to keep them a secret, but as you can imagine, that proves very difficult.
Although Michael B. Jordan had a small role and served as executive producer, it wasn’t enough to save the film.
Archive 81
Based on the podcast of the same name, Archive 81 follows film restorer Dan Turner who is hired by a powerful businessman to digitize a series of burned tapes and reconstruct documentary filmmaker Melody Pendras’ work and her investigations into a dangerous cult.
During his work, Turner naturally becomes drawn into Melody’s story and is convinced that he can save her from the horrifying death that happened to her 25 years ago.
Die Critics liked the series (Opens in a new tab)the horror fans liked her, TechRadar’s Louise Blain liked her, but apparently not enough people were watching since Netflix canceled Archive 81 after just one season.
The Babysitters Club
It turned out that even one 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Opens in a new tab) can’t save you because Netflix shut down the Babysitters Club after two seasons earlier this year.
Based on the best-selling novels by Ann M. Martin, The Babysitters Club follows the lives and loves of seven close friends – Dawn, Jessi, Mallory, Kristy, Claudia, Stacey and Mary Anne – who live in their hometown of Stoneybrook , Connecticut to open her own babysitting business.
The fans the series had were devastated, but clearly there weren’t enough of them.
Another Life
Another Life, starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), was about Niko Breckinridge, an astronaut who leads a crew on a mission to research the creation of an alien artifact and contact the aliens who sent it .
Of course, the mission turns out to be quite complicated, and Breckinridge and her crew run into all sorts of dangers quickly and frequently.
Sci-fi fans enjoyed the series, but it didn’t gain enough crossover appeal to keep the series alive.
Pretty Smart
The sitcom Pretty Smart premiered in October 2021. It starred Emily Osment, who may be known to younger readers for her role as Miley Cyrus’ sidekick in the Disney Channel megafranchise Hannah Montana.
Osment played Chelsea, an aspiring Harvard-educated author with fairly high standards who, after an unexpected boyfriend dump, is forced to move in with her sister Claire and her three roommates. While Chelsea is sophisticated and enjoys the finer things in life, Claire and her friends tend to be carefree and eccentric.
The reason the series was canceled was that Osment was promoted to lead in Young Sheldon. Since Pretty Smart ends on a cliffhanger, a lack of viewership must also have been a factor.
Space Force
Netlifx also discontinued the Space Force series in early May 2022, whose great star power they probably couldn’t save either.
Starring Steve Carrell, John Malkovich and Ben Schwartz, the series revolved around the newest branch of the US military, the US Space Force of the same name, and their struggle to gain a foothold and be taken seriously by the government that founded them.
Although the series brought Carrell together with Greg Daniels, creator of the US version of “The Office,” the critics (Opens in a new tab) didn’t like it from the start and the second season obviously couldn’t match the viewership of the first season.
Gentefied
This warm-hearted comedy was canceled on Netflix earlier this year after two seasons.
The series, based on a popular web series of the same name, followed the Morales cousins, three young Mexican-Americans as they try to save their grandfather’s taco shop as their Los Angeles neighborhood becomes gentrified and the locals who keep it made what it is, repressed.
The critics liked the series that at Rotten Tomatoes 96 % (Opens in a new tab) received, but viewership was too low to sustain a third season.
diablero
It was the classic build for this Mexican horror drama that ran for two seasons before Netflix pulled the plug.
We followed a young priest who enlists the help of a demon hunter and a paranormal expert to search for a kidnapped girl in the underworld of Mexico City. As you can imagine, they encounter many unpleasant characters in their quest… but they failed to raise funds for a third season.
On The Verge
Julie Delpy, the star of the Before trilogy, starred in this soft comedy, which Netflix only allowed for a single season.
Following Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Elisabeth Shue and Sarah Jones, the series chronicled the lives of a chef, a single mother, an heiress and a job seeker as they struggle with love, work and the onset of a midlife crisis in Los Angeles.
Delpy created the series that not a big hit with the critics (Opens in a new tab) was and probably did not reach enough viewers.
Cooking With Paris
Not every cancellation is a bad thing, but Cooking With Paris looked bad from the start.
Despite a string of guest stars including Kim Kardashian West, Nikki Glaser, Demi Lovato and Saweetie all dropping in to help Paris Hilton cook, the show could not win viewers. (Opens in a new tab)
Metacritic named it the worst show of 2021 (Opens in a new tab)and it’s easy to see why she never returned.