The dimension-hopping is over for Prairie Johnson, as Netflix has canceled ‘The OA’ after two seasons. The series was created and executive produced by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, and is somewhat unique in that Marling was also the show’s star. Batmanglij acted as director of most of the show’s 16 episodes (two seasons, eight each). Season One appeared in December 2016. Season Two just arrived in March.
Marling starred as Prairie Johnson, a blind woman who goes missing for seven years, only to return with the ability to see and calling herself “The OA” or Original Angel. She assembles a team of four teenagers and a high school teacher and reveals that she was held captivg in another dimension by a man named Hap, played by Jason Isaacs. The cast also included Emory Cohen, Phyllis Smith, Patrick Gibson, Brendan Meyer, Brandon Perea, Ian Alexander, Sharon Van Etten, Paz Vega, Will Brill, Chloe Levine, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.
RELATED: The First Trailer Is Out For ‘The OA’ Season 2
Netflix head of originals Cindy Holland stated:
“We are incredibly proud of the 16 mesmerizing chapters of ‘The OA’, and are grateful to Brit and Zal for sharing their audacious vision and for realizing it through their incredible artistry. We look forward to working with them again in the future, in this and perhaps many other dimensions.”
In a previous interview, Marling discussed ‘The OA’s potential beyond the second season:
“From the very beginning when we were on our own daydreaming a story, we definitely thought how can we construct something that, many seasons out, has a satisfying end? So there is an end and there is an answer to every riddle and nothing is done to just be sound and fury going nowhere. It all goes somewhere. And as to whether or not we get to tell that, I certainly hope that we do. There is a place that season two already begins in our minds and a place in which it ends.”
Netflix doesn’t disclose streaming numbers, but it’s possible that the delay of over a year between seasons may have resulted in dwindling fan interest. Netflix spends billions on original programming and orders much more than regular networks, but that also means that the streamer cancels a lot more than would be normal at a network. It is believed that Netflix is currently weighing the importance of attracting new subscribers– would the money be better spent making a new series, or making another series of an existing series. In the case of ‘The OA’, it was determined that a third season probably wouldn’t attract as many new subscribers as something new would. Unfortunately for fans of ‘The OA’ as well as ‘Lucifer’, ‘Chambers’, and other cancelled shows, this makes perfect sense.
Are you a fan of ‘The OA’? Are you upset to see it go?
