The sci-fi drama Moonhaven no longer has a haven on television: AMC+ has canceled the series, the decision coming four months after the streaming service ordered a second season.
Moonhaven’s cancellation is a result of cost-cutting measures at AMC Networks, according to Deadline, which first reported the renewal reversal.
Last week, AMC Networks announced write-downs of up to $475 million, including up to $400 million for “strategic programming assessments” and $75 million for organizational restructuring, Deadlinepreviously reported. As part of that restructuring, AMC Networks announced that it would cut its U.S. workforce by 20 percent, or about 200 people. Christina Spade has also stepped down as the company’s chief executive.
With its restructuring, AMC Networks seeks to “achieve significant cost reductions, in light of ‘cord cutting’ and the related impacts being felt across the media industry as well as the broader economic outlook,” while the programming assessments “pertain to a broad mix of owned and licensed content, including legacy television series and films that will no longer be in active rotation on the company’s linear or digital platforms,” an SEC filing from AMC Networks said.
Created by Peter Ocko, Moonhaven starred Emma McDonald as Bella Sway, a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100 years in the future. Bella is accused of a crime and marooned on Moonhaven, a utopian community created on the Moon to solve problems plaguing humanity on Earth.
As AMC+ added in a synopsis, Bella is soon “sucked into a conspiracy to gain control of the artificial intelligence responsible for Moonhaven’s miracles and teams with a local detective [Dominic Monaghan] to stop the forces that want to destroy Earth’s last hope before they are destroyed themselves.”
The Moonhaven cast also included Amara Karan, Ayelet Zurer, Joe Manganiello, Kadeem Hardison, and Yazzmin Newell.
AMC+ originally renewed the series for a second season in July, hailing it as the most-watched exclusive series and the second most-watched new series in the streamer’s history. “This is such an engaging and entertaining series, brilliantly conceived and run by Peter. The story is suspenseful, provocative, and prescient, and features a phenomenal cast that delivers mesmerizing performances,” Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, said at the time. “What Peter and the team are crafting for season two is next level, and the fans will be thrilled.”
Deadline notes that the decision to reverse that Season 2 order is especially surprising since AMC Networks was considering a two-season renewal this summer.
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