Joss Whedon’s (Marvel’s The Avengers) series The Nevers, about superpowered humans in Victorian England, has been canceled at HBO, according to Variety. The sci-fi drama will also be removed from the HBO Max platform as another casualty in Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) cost-cutting campaign to cap a budget by $3 billion dollars.
The series starred Laura Donnelly (Werewolf by Night) and Ann Skelly (Rose Plays Julie) as two women leading an orphanage for people with special abilities. As propaganda against mutated individuals rises, the two uncover a conspiracy that stretches beyond time and space, prophesizing a reckoning amongst the battling factions. The series also starred Olivia Williams (Manhattan), Amy Manson (Doom: Annihilation), Ben Chaplin (Apple Tree Yard), James Norton (Happy Valley), Denis O’Hare (This Is Us), Nick Frost (Truth Seekers), and Zackary Momoh (Seven Seconds).
According to Variety, the series’ first six episodes launched as Part One in the Spring of 2021. Following Whedon’s departure prior to the series premiere, showrunner Philippa Goslett (Mary Magdalene) took the helm, with the remaining episodes for Part Two completed and set to premiere sometime next year. With the show leaving HBO Max, all episodes of season one will be available to stream on another platform in the future.
ComicBook details The Nevers joins other recently canceled series, such as Jonathon Nolan and Lisa Joy’s (The Peripheral) Westworld and Ridley Scott’s (Prometheus) Raised By Wolves, that may find new homes on Free, Ad-Supported Television (FAST) platforms. WBD is currently exploring third-party streamers like Tubi, or the Amazon-owned Freevee, to carry these expensive titles. The goal of removing them from HBO Max would limit costs in residuals paid as well as congregating additional profits post-mortem.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, WBD had initially offered to continue Westworld for a final fifth season at one of these FAST streamers. In doing so, the budget would have been severely cut, a tactic WBD CEO David Zaslav has utilized since the merger of the two companies. Westworld producers walked away from the negotiations, which resulted in the surprising end of the sci-fi series.
Via ComicBook, The Nevers, Westworld, and Raised by Wolves join mixed bag of canceled HBO Max series that will exist on FAST platforms including ballroom competition series, Legendary, dating reality series FBoy Island, and the one-and-done runs of The Time Traveler’s Wife and the Head of the Class reboot. WBD will ideally launch its own FAST platform in the future.