In a statement released on Monday, the Syfy network has announced that they have officially cancelled the series ’Sanctuary.’

It’s been several months since the finale of the series had aired and with no mention about a 5th season, many fans were beginning to worry. It didn’t look too promising when it was revealed that producers of the show had released the show’s studio space in Vancouver because of the delay in the news. Then when the show was not mentioned in the studio’s recent upfront slate for 2012-2013, the possibility of a nonrenewal turned into a probability.

‘Sanctuary’ began in 2007 as a web series but was soon picked up by Syfy as a regular series in 2008. Since then, the series has produced 59 episodes in its four year run with season 4 garnering an average of 1 million viewers an episode. The series pioneered some innovated camera effects using green screen technique and RED camera technology, a method where filming would be saved on a hard drive allowing the show’s visual effects team to start on post-production immediately. The RED camera was capable of recording resolutions of up to 4x of that of current HD standards.

The show centered on a team led by a semi-immortal Dr. Helen Magnus (played by Amanda Tapping) who captures/protects various “abnormals,” legendary creatures/people with certain extraordinary powers and abilities who are being hunted by humans. The Sanctuary was a place where these Abnormals would be safe to live.

Mark Stern, President of Syfy’s Original Content said in the statement, “We’re honored to have been part of this incredible series. In addition to garnering unmatched devotion by fans worldwide, Sanctuary was a bona fide trailblazer, setting new standards with its highly innovative production techniques — including pioneering green screen and RED camera technology — and Emmy-nominated visual effects. It’s been an amazing ride and we look forward to our next project with Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood and Damian Kindler.”

The cast of ‘Sanctuary’ quickly took to Twitter with their reactions with Amanda Tapping first thanking the fans then agreeing with the disappointment of the news by replying ‘Bloody hell!”

Although many of the cast have already gone on to other projects (writer and producer Gillian Horvath is currently working on ‘Primeval: New World,’ Martin Wood and Amanda Tapping have gone on to direct ‘Primeval’ while Ryan Robbins will be co-starring in TNT’s ‘Falling Skies’ and Chris Heyerdahl will be appearing in HBO’s ‘True Blood’), they have nothing but warm wishes to the network and to their fans that supported the show all these years:

Executive Producers Damian Kindler, Tapping and Wood added “We couldn’t be prouder of the four seasons we made on Sanctuary. We are very grateful for the opportunity and must acknowledge the wonderful work from our cast and crew, the support from our studio, the Beedie Group — who have been with us right from the start, the networks who worked so hard with us each week, and most of all the fans … we owe so much to the fans.”

It looks like whenever Syfy makes a positive step forward, it takes 2 steps back. Although it has renewed the shows ‘Warehouse 13,’ ‘Alphas’, and is introducing the innovative new series ‘Defiance,’ the news of ‘Sanctuary’s’ cancellation has left fans deflated. Unlike ‘Eureka,’ ‘Sanctuary won’t get the sendoff it deserves.

Were you surprised about the news? How upset are you that ‘Sanctuary’ was not renewed?

Source: TV Line