After it’s third season run, Animals on HBO was cancelled after, low but steady ratings. Earlier today, a HBO representative confirmed that the network decided not to pick up a fourth season of the show.
Animals was unique in it’s animation approach and the plot’s focus on many familiar critters and their very real human-like struggles to survive in New York City. Many of the characters included cats, pigeons, and even creepy crawlies like bugs. While live-action sequences and story lines took place in-between each story arc.
Throughout the series, you could enjoy the voices of actors such as Wanda Sykes, Aziz Ansari, and Ellie Kemper and even hear the co-creators, Phil Matarese and Mark Luciano, voice many of it’s world’s inhabitants as well. While in contrast, many of the human residents have been reduced to wordless sentient beings who are mostly observed by the animals themselves in a somewhat objective manner.
Matarese and Luciano originally compiled a full first two episdoes of Animals and made headlines during 2015’s festival season, before being executively produced by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass for a full season. Both brothers known for Duplass Brothers Productions and their 4-picture deal with Netflix in January 2015. HBO later picked up it’s distribution rights and ordered two seasons.
Although eventually evolving into a passion project, Matarese and Luciano originally met while working together at a New York City advertising production company, where the core idea behind Animals was explored after they jokingly provided the dialogue between two pigeons. Matarese and Luciano wrote and directed all episodes as well throughout it’s run.
Despite Animals‘ mostly positive reception and falling well into the niche of the ever growing popular trend of adult animation, it’s run was most likely cut short due to airing mostly late at night and exclusively on HBO’s streaming service, HBO Go.
Deadline was the first to report the show’s cancellation.