cancellations

Amazon Prime Cancels Utopia, Since You Probably Have All the Scary Pandemic Drama You Need

Photo: Amazon Prime Video

Between the dark conspiracy theories, violence, global pandemic, and impending apocalypse, it would seem Amazon Prime Video’s Utopia was the wrong show at the exact wrong moment. That, or everyone just had a lot going on this fall. Either way, according to Deadline, the streaming platform has canceled the series, adapted by Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn from the 2013 British series of the same name, after one season. The show premiered on the service on September 25.

The show, starring John Cusack, Rainn Wilson, and Jessica Rothe, among others, followed the plot of Dennis Kelly’s 2013 series, in which a group of comic-book fans discover that a graphic novel, and its unpublished sequel, have correctly predicted real-life catastrophes and epidemics, including a viral pandemic currently threatening the planet. As if that wasn’t scary enough, their realization makes them the target of the shadowy organization the Network and Mr. Rabbit. In her Vulture review, Kathryn VanArendonk calls Utopia “weirdly, upsettingly topical.” Maybe the show will find a new home in the future, when that isn’t quite so true.

Amazon’s Utopia Comes to an End After One Season